BOOKS
The Liberation Libraries Selection Committee would like to recommend the following six titles for the first iteration of the Liberation Library Project. Each title individually and collectively together, celebrates and revels in Black joy while highlighting a few powerful stories of the Black experience.
Within these six titles, there is something that will resonate with readers and listeners of every age and much to talk about and share.
Preschool
Hey Black Child
Useni Eugene Perkins
A powerful celebration of Black children that is ideal for reading and sharing again and again.
YA
All Boys Aren't Blue
George Matthew Johnson
An important and empowering young-adult memoir about growing up Black and queer in America.
Elementary
Going Down Home With Daddy
Kelly Starling Lyons
The story of this multi-generational Black family shows the importance of story and togetherness in self-discovery.
Nonfiction
Breathe
Imani Perry
A thought-provoking, unflinching, and yet inspiring consideration of raising Black children today in America.
Middle
The Jumbies
Tracey Baptiste
Brave 11-year-old Corinne La Mer takes readers through a nerve-jangling, fast-paced fantasy based in Haitian folklore.
Fiction
Another Brooklyn
Jacqueline Woodson
A Black woman looks back on her girlhood and adolescence in 1970s Brooklyn and the relationships and experiences that shaped her.