Here is a selection of titles aimed at 3rd-6th grade readers (all but one by BIPOC authors) that address systemic racism and white privilege as they specifically affect the lived experiences of Black Americans.
A good kind of trouble
Lisa Moore Ramée
eBOOK
Kids
After attending a powerful protest, Shayla starts wearing an armband to school to support the Black Lives Matter movement, but when the school gives her an ultimatum, she is forced to choose between her education and her identity.
Roll of thunder, hear my cry
Mildred D. Taylor
eBOOK
Kids
A black family living in Mississippi during the Depression of the 1930s is faced with prejudice and discrimination which its children do not understand.
Ghost boys
Jewell Parker Rhodes
eBOOK
Kids
"After seventh-grader Jerome is shot by a white police officer, he observes the aftermath of his death and meets the ghosts of other fallen black boys including historical figure Emmett Till"--
Black brother, black brother
Jewell Parker Rhodes
eAUDIO
Kids
Suspended unjustly from elite Middlefield Prep, Donte Ellison studies fencing with a former champion, hoping to put the racist fencing team captain in his place.
New kid
Jerry Craft
eBOOK
Kids, Graphic Novels
After his parents send him to a prestigious private school known for its academics, Jordan Banks finds himself torn between two worlds.
One crazy summer
Rita Williams-Garcia
eBOOK
Kids
In the summer of 1968, after travelling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.
The Watsons go to Birmingham-- 1963
Christopher Paul Curtis
eBOOK
Kids
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
Not my idea : a book about whiteness
Anastasia Higginbotham
j305.8 Higginbotham
Kids
"A necessary children's book about whiteness, white supremacy, and resistance. Important, accessible, needed."--
You don't know everything, Jilly P!
Alex Gino
eAUDIO
Kids
"When her new baby sister is born deaf, Jilly makes an online connection with a fellow fantasy fan, who happens to be black and deaf, and begins to learn about the many obstacles that exist in the world for people who are different from her." --
This book is anti-racist
Tiffany Jewell
j305.8/Jewell
Kids
This book is written for the young person who doesn't know how to speak up to the racist adults in their life. For the 14 year old who sees injustice at school and isn't able to understand the role racism plays in separating them from their friends. For the kid who spends years trying to fit into the dominant culture and loses themselves for a little while. It's for all of the Black and Brown children who have been harmed (physically and emotionally) because no one stood up for them or they couldn't stand up for themselves; because the colour of their skin, the texture of their hair, their names made white folx feel scared and threatened. It is written so children and young adults will feel empowered to stand up to the adults who continue to close doors in their faces. This book will give them the language and ability to understand racism and a drive to undo it. In short, it is for everyone.
We rise, we resist, we raise our voices
j305.8 We
Kids
What do we tell our children when the world seems bleak, and prejudice and racism run rampant? With 96 lavishly designed pages of original art, poetry, and prose, fifty diverse creators lend voice and comfort to young activists.
Brown girl dreaming
Jacqueline Woodson
eAUDIO
Kids
In vivid poems that reflect the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, an award-winning author shares what it was like to grow up in the 1960s and 1970s in both the North and the South.
Genesis begins again
Alicia Williams
eBOOK
Kids
Thirteen-year-old Genesis tries again and again to lighten her black skin, thinking it is the root of her family's troubles, before discovering reasons to love herself as is.
The only black girls in town
Brandy Colbert
jFICTION Colbert Brandy
Kids
In a predominately white California beach town, the only two black seventh-graders, Alberta and Edie, find hidden journals that uncover family secrets and speak to race relations in the past.
For black girls like me
Mariama Lockington
jFICTION Lockingt Mariama
Kids
Eleven-year-old Makeda dreams of meeting her African American mother, while coping with serious problems in her white adopted family, a cross-country move, and being homeschooled.
The Parker inheritance
Varian Johnson
eBOOK
Kids
Twelve-year-old Candice Miller is spending the summer in Lambert, South Carolina, in the old house that belonged to her grandmother, who died after being dismissed as city manager for having the city tennis courts dug up looking for buried treasure--but when she finds the letter that sent her grandmother on the treasure hunt, she finds herself caught up in the mystery and, with the help of her new friend and fellow book-worm, Brandon, she sets out to find the inheritance, exonerate her grandmother, and expose an injustice once committed against an African American family in Lambert.
Midnight without a moon
Linda Williams Jackson
eBOOK
Kids
Rose Lee Carter, a thirteen-year-old African-American girl, dreams of life beyond the Mississippi cotton fields during the summer of 1955, but when Emmett Till is murdered and his killers are unjustly acquitted, Rose is torn between seeking her destiny outside of Mississippi or staying and being a part of an important movement.