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Our collection of picture books featuring Black and Indigenous Peoples and People of Color (BIPOC) is available to the public.

*Inclusion of a title in the collection DOES NOT EQUAL a recommendation.*

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Pedro’s Yo-Yos: How a Filipino Immigrant Came to America and Changed the World of Toys

2024

by Carl Angel

“Pedro Flores was born in the Philippines in 1896, when Spain still ruled his country. After the US took over, Pedro traveled to California, received an education, and looked for ways to go into business for himself. Then he remembered a toy from his childhood called the yo-yo, which means “come back” in Tagalog. With a couple of blocks of wood and a little string, Pedro created his first model yo-yo and practiced tricks to show it off. It was an instant hit! When children saw the yo-yo in action, they clamored to get one themselves. So Pedro always performed his tricks near movie theaters, outside candy shops–anywhere he knew children would see the toy. Soon he was hiring fellow Filipinos to advertise it for him, while he ran factories that manufactured more than a million yo-yos a week!” — publisher

Biography/Autobiography

Jerry Changed the Game!: How Engineer Jerry Lawson Revolutionized Video Games Forever

2023

by Don Tate and Cherise Harris

“Before Xbox, PlayStation, or Nintendo Switch, there was a tinkerer named Jerry Lawson. As a boy, Jerry loved playing with springs, sprockets, and gadget-y things. When he grew up, Jerry became an engineer—a professional tinkerer—and in the 1970s, he turned his technical know-how to video games. Back then, if players wanted a new video game, they had to buy an entire new console, making gaming very expensive. Jerry was determined to fix this problem, and despite roadblocks along the way and having to repeat a level or two, it was never game over for his mission. Eventually, he leveled up and built a brand-new kind of video game console: one that allowed players to switch out cartridges! He also founded Video Soft, Inc., the first African American–owned video game company in the country. Jerry’s tinkering and inventions changed the video gaming world forever. Today, gamers have access to hundreds of video games at the push of a button, all thanks to him. Game on!” — publisher

Biography/Autobiography

Abuela, Don’t Forget Me

2024

” In this companion-in-verse, Rex captures and celebrates the powerful presence a woman he could always count on—to give him warm hugs and ear kisses, to teach him precious words in Spanish, to bring him to the library where he could take out as many books as he wanted, and to offer safety when darkness closed in. Throughout a coming of age marked by violence and dysfunction, Abuela’s red-brick house in Abilene, Texas, offered Rex the possibility of home, and Abuela herself the possibility for a better life.” — publisher

Biography/Autobiography Centering Culture & Identity

Swinging Into History: Toni Stone: Big-League Baseball’s First Woman Player

2024

by Laura Freeman

“Nothing could stop Toni “Tomboy” Stone from playing baseball—not even her parents. The only girl on a church team, she persevered as insults were hurled her way from the boy players. She caught the attention of former major leaguer Gabby Street, who gave her a chance at his summer baseball school. With Coach Street’s training—and the cleats he gifted her—Toni managed to earn a spot in the minor leagues. Though teams were hesitant to sign a woman, she pitched the idea that fans would pay to see a woman play—and it worked! But Toni’s persistence and optimism were not enough to win over the Jim Crow South crowds nor her male teammates. Coaches put her in the starting lineup and then benched her early, every game, no matter her results. But her talent got noticed and she was signed by the Indianapolis Clowns, becoming the first woman to break into the pros. “Toni arrives,” shouted newspaper headlines, and she delivered! In her first professional game she ripped a single and drove in two runs, and left the crowd chanting “TONI! TONI! TONI!”” — publisher

Biography/Autobiography Cross Group Oppression & Resilience

Rising Above: The Wataru “Wat” Misaka Story

2023

“Wataru “Wat” Misaka, a Japanese American boy born to immigrant parents, liked to play basketball under the glow of stars and a small street lamp in Ogden, Utah. America was home to Wat, but with the onset of World War II, many people thought he didn’t belong. “Go home!” they would shout as he dribbled the ball down the hardwood court, but Wat continued on his chosen path, winning state tournaments in high school, becoming a national champion with the University of Utah, and even serving in the U.S. Army. The New York Knicks took notice, and in 1947, Wat became the first person of color to play in the NBA.” — publisher

Biography/Autobiography

Ketanji: Justice Jackson’s Journey to the U.S. Supreme Court

2023

by Kekla Magoon and Laura Freeman

“Ketanji Brown Jackson is no stranger to people trying to stand in her way. When a guidance counselor told her she should set her sights lower than Harvard, she decided to go to Harvard for her undergraduate degree and her law degree. When she became a public defender and was confronted with systemic inequalities in the justice system, she used her legal skills to advocate for people who needed her help, but couldn’t afford an attorney. Ketanji’s path to the Supreme Court may have been unique—she’s the only current Justice to have been a public defender and one of just a few who went to public school—but it is distinctively powerful and heartening, and will present a generation of readers with a new inspirational figure.” — publisher

Biography/Autobiography

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