Search Our Database of Nearly 2,000 Diverse Picture Books

Our intention is to acquire and make available ALL picture books featuring indigenous people and people of color published in the U.S. since 2002, including reprints. Inclusion of a title in the collection DOES NOT EQUAL recommendation. See our related readings page for suggested links for evaluating books.

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2017

by Rhonda Rucker, Brock Nicol and Sparky Rucker

"During the civil rights movement, little Marvin doesn't want to be left out of a protest being held at a store that only allows whites at its lunch counter. When a young white man approaches the scene, the child is unsure what to expect"--|cProvided by publisher

Tiny stitches

2016

by Gwendolyn Hooks and Colin Bootman

"Biography of Vivien Thomas, an African-American surgical technician who pioneered the procedure used to treat babies with a heart defect known as 'blue baby syndrome.' Includes author's note and author's sources"--Provided by publisher

Step right up

2016

by Donna Janell Bowman and Daniel Minter

"A picture book biography of Dr. William Key, a former slave and self-trained veterinarian who taught his horse, Jim, to read and write and who together with Jim became one of the most famous traveling performance acts around the turn of the twentieth century. Includes afterword and author's sources"--|cProvided by publisher

Sequoyah

2004

by James Rumford and Anna Sixkiller Huckaby

While walking through a forest of sequoias, a father tells his family the story of the tree's namesake. Sequoyah was a Cherokee man who invented a system of writing for his people. His neighbors feared the symbols he wrote and burned down his home. All of his work was lost, but, still determined, he tried another approach. The Cherokee people finally accepted the written language after Sequoyah taught his six-year-old daughter to read

Hey, Charleston!

2013

by Anne F. Rockwell and Colin Bootman

"What happened when a former slave took beat-up old instruments and gave them to a bunch of orphans? Thousands of futures got a little brighter and a great American art form was born. In 1891, Reverend Daniel Joseph Jenkins opened his orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina. He soon had hundreds of children and needed a way to support them. Jenkins asked townspeople to donate old band instruments - some of which had last played in the hands of Confederate soldiers in the Civil War. He found teachers to show the kids how to play. Soon the orphanage had a band. And what a band it was. The Jenkins Orphanage Band caused a sensation on the streets of Charleston. People called the band's style of music "rag" - a rhythm inspired by the African-American people who lived on the South Carolina and Georgia coast. The children performed as far away as Paris and London, and they earned enough money to support the orphanage that still exists today. They also helped launch the music we now know as jazz. Hey, Charleston! is the story of the kind man who gave America "some rag" and so much more"--Jacket flap

Goin’ someplace special

2008

by Pat McKissack and Jerry Pinkney

In segregated Nashville during the 1950s, a young African American girls endures a series of indignities and obstacles to get to the public library, one of the few integrated places in the city

When Grandmama sings

2012

by Margaree King Mitchell and James Ransome

An eight-year-old girl accompanies her grandmother on a singing tour of the segregated South, both of them knowing that Grandmama's songs have the power to bring people together

Ruth and the Green Book

2010

by Calvin A. Ramsey, Floyd Cooper and Gwen Strauss

When Ruth and her parents take a motor trip from Chicago to Alabama to visit her grandma, they rely on a pamphlet called "The Negro Motorist Green Book" to find places that will serve them. Includes facts about "The Green Book."

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