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.
Frederick’s journey
Traces Frederick Douglass's journey from slavery to international renown as writer and lecturer
The great expedition of Lewis and Clark
An account, told in the words of one participant, of the difficulties and wonders that were part of the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the land obtained as part of the Louisiana Purchase
Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull (c. 1831-1890) was one of the greatest Lakota /Sioux warriors and chiefs who ever lived. From Sitting Bull's childhood -- killing his first buffalo at age 10 -- to being named war chief to leading his people against the U.S. Army, this book brings the story of the great chief to light. Sitting Bull was instrumental in the war against the invasive wasichus (white men) and was at the forefront of the combat, including the Battles of Killdeer Mountain and the Little Bighorn. He and Crazy Horse were the last Lakota/Sioux to surrender their people to the U.S. government and resort to living on a reservation
Beacon to freedom
Tells the story of nineteenth century abolitionist Reverend John Rankin and his brave early efforts working as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, risking his safety and the safety of his family to help nearly two thousand slaves escape from Kentucky to Ohio
A change of heart
A young African American and the son of sharecroppers, Lanier Phillips escapes the violence, racism and segregation of his Georgia home by joining the navy during the Second World War. But tragedy strikes the USS Truxtun one February night off the southeastern coast of Newfoundland, and Lanier is the lone black survivor of the terrible shipwreck. When he arrives onshore, the community's kindness and humanity bring him back to health and change his outlook on life. He went on to march for black rights with Martin Luther King and remained forever grateful to the small town of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland
Home to Medicine Mountain
Two young Maidu Indian brothers sent to live at a government-run Indian residential school in California in the 1930s find a way to escape and return home for the summer
The little piano girl
A child prodigy at the piano sprinkles her music with a little jazz. Includes an afterword about the life of the twentieth-century jazz musician, Mary Lou Williams
The amazing age of John Roy Lynch
"A picture book biography of John Roy Lynch, one of the first African-Americans elected into the United States Congress"--Provided by publisher
Testing the ice
Jackie Robinson's daughter shares memories of her father as a testament to his courage. From his baseball career and his legendary breaking of the color barrier in Major League Baseball, to afterwards, during his retirement from baseball, when he once tested the ice for her on pond at their Connecticut residence, even though he couldn't swim and was afraid of the water, she shows how he carried that same quality of quiet courage all through his life