February is Black History Month and a great way to teach your children more about African American history is by using picture books as a teaching tool. Picture books break history into bite-sized pieces that are perfect for young children.
There are picture book biographies, books about Africa, books about the Civil Rights Movement, about slavery and the Underground Railroad, and more. This is not a definitive list, rather it’s a starting point. If you have a picture book that fits on this list we would love to hear about it and share it with our readers on the Scholastic Parents Facebook page.
Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions by Margaret Musgrove
Why Do Mosquitoes Buzz In People’s Ears by Verna Aardema
Anansi The Spider by Gerald McDermott
Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson
Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine
My Name Is Truth: The Life Of Sojourner Truth by Ann Turner
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford
Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter
Let Them Play by Margot Theis Raven
Testing the Ice: A True Story About Jackie Robinson by Sharon Robinson
Rosa by Nikki Giovanni
Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Doreen Rappaport
The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles
Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Linda Brown, You Are Not Alone: The Brown vs. Board of Education Decision by Joyce Carol Thomas
Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became The World’s Fastest Woman by Kathleen Krull
What Color Is My World?: The Lost History of African-American Inventors by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar & Raymond Obstfeld
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