8 Must-Reads for Black History Month and Beyond

The Boy In the Black Suit, by Jason Reynolds
The grief 17-year-old Matt is grappling with is palpable on the page—real and insidious and painful. He’s dealing with life after his mom’s death, and his dad’s mentally MIA, and it all hurts. So he keeps his head down, focusing on school and his gig at the funeral parlor, which will help him pay some bills. Then he meets Lovey, dealing with a loss of her own in her own peculiar way. Finding her may just help Matt see the light in himself again.

The Crossover, by Kwame Alexander
Basketball and rhymes? Alexander’s Newbery winner The Crossover elevates the game to whole new levels in this novel in verse about star player Josh Bell, 12, aka Filthy McNasty, who has plenty to deal with when he’s not playing ball, too—like some girl trouble with his twin brother, Jordan, and his former pro ball player dad’s failing health. Lots of swagger here, but substance beneath it, too, making this middle grade a timely snapshot of modern youth.

X: A Novel, by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon
The winner of a NAACP Image award and a Coretta Scott honor, this biography of Malcolm X was coauthored by his daughter, Ilyasah, and YA writer Kekla Magoon (author of the must-read How It Went Down), and creates a fictionalized account of Malcolm’s formative years, from a childhood falling from his family’s embrace to the casual, eviscerating racism that marked his youth in the 1930s and ’40s, and his own destructive choices, culminating with the turning point that helped him become the man we celebrate today. Dark, even-handed, illuminating, and uplifting.

This Side of Home, by Renée Watson
At the heart of Watson’s YA debut are twins Maya and Nikki, who have long been identical in every way—they share a face, their friends, boys, even their college plans. But as their historically black Portland neighborhood begins to gentrify, they find themselves split on either side of the equation, especially when first love and shifting ambitions come to play. Watson deftly explores a raft of issues—from gentrification to forging personal identity—with a deceptively light touch, making for a quick, entertaining, and enriching read.

Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson
Okay, so technically, National Book Award winner Woodson’s melodic memoir (a 336-page poem, really) is middle grade. But trust that you’ll gulp it down in a single sitting—it’s that riveting. Following a young, naïve, and curious Woodson through her Jim Crow America childhood in the 1960s and ’70s, we meet a girl who is confounded by the things she can’t change, but determined to succeed nonetheless, turning herself into a reader, and, eventually, the writer we’ve come to know and love for works like If You Come Softly, Hush, Miracle’s Boys, and Beneath a Meth Moon.

Shadowshaper, by Daniel José Older
Honoring Brooklyn in all it’s real, rich diversity—as opposed to the white-washed, gentrified version we see on TV—Older’s YA debut follows Sierra Santiago over the course of a summer of discovery: of herself, of her deep roots, of the intersections of art and life and death. As the murals on the walls of her neighborhood begin revealing their secrets, Sierra learns of her role in the bigger picture—a role that just might prove as dangerous as it is thrilling.

Monster, by Walter Dean Myers
It would be easy enough to put every title by Myers on this list, but 1999’s Monster—winner of the Printz, a Coretta Scott honor, and a National Book Award nomination—is perhaps the most critical introduction to his more than 100 works. It centers on Steve Harmon, a 16-year-old New York City kid standing trial for murder. Told in a mixture of screenplay, diary, and narrative, the book puts readers on shaky footing with an unreliable narrator, exploring questions of race, class, gangs, violence, crime, and the way the legal system looks at young black males.

All American Boys, by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
The winner of the inaugural Walter Dean Myers Award from We Need Diverse Books, this collaboration between Reynolds (The Boy In the Black Suit) and Kiely (The Gospel of Winter) should be required high school reading. Centering on a police shooting that leaves one teen shattered, and another trying to put together the pieces of what happened as a bystander, it’s an incredibly timely meditation on race, violence, and the value of Black lives, especially in an age where a 12-year-old can be shot on a playground for possessing a toy gun.