Black Lives Matter: Books and Resources For Children

Book recommendations for early childhood and elementary school readers that tackle race, racism and why Black Lives Matter.

There is nothing like a three year old’s simple questions about why the color of your skin should matter to really highlight the absurdity and insanity of racism.

In the midst of so much grief, one thing I have searched for is a list of books for younger kids to help explain how America got to where it is now, and how we might get out of it.

Below are some of the best resources I found (or you suggested!) with book recommendations for early childhood and elementary school readers that tackle race, racism and why Black Lives Matter. May our children be the generation that leads us to a world better than what we’ve given them.

Black Lives Matter At School

This national organization encourages and helps educators, students, parents and communities set up and hold Black Lives Matter week at schools from February 5th to 9th.

They have an amazingly extensive 2020 curriculum resource guide, which you can find here. The “Booklists” folder within that guide contains several tons of recommended books for children to read during the week. I highly encourage you to peruse for yourself, but here were a few excerpts that stood out to me, from the Philly Educators Black Lives Matter group:

Books Focusing On Restorative Justice

  • The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson and E.B. Lewis (Illustrator)
  • Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney (Illustrator)
  • Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco: “After being initiated into a neighbor’s family by a solemn backyard ceremony, a young Russian American girl and her African American brothers’ determine to buy their gramma Eula a beautiful Easter hat.”
  • The Skin You Live In by Michael Tyler: “With the ease and simplicity of a nursery rhyme, this lively story delivers an important message of social acceptance to young readers.”

Books Focusing On Activism

  • Daddy there’s a Noise Outside by Kenneth Bramwell: “This engaging story begins when two children are awakened by noises in the middle of the night outside the window of their inner-city neighborhood. Both their Dad and Mom spend the next morning explaining to them about the protest taking place in their community.”
  • We March by Shane W. Evans: “On August 28, 1963, a remarkable event took place–more than 250,000 people gathered in our nation’s capital …where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech, advocating racial harmony. Many words have been written about that day, but few so delicate and powerful as those presented here by award-winning author and illustrator Shane W. Evans.”
  • We Shall Overcome: The Story of a Song by Debbie Levy: “From the song’s roots in America’s era of slavery through to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and today, “We Shall Overcome” has come to represent the fight for equality and freedom around the world. This important book, lyrically written by Debbie Levy and paired with elegant, collage-style art by Vanessa Brantley-Newton, pays tribute to the heroic spirit of the famous song that encompasses American history.”

Other Resources

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