Author: FINDER, SYDNEY

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
(FIC GAI)
(Historical)
Tells the story of a young African-American man sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit, and a teacher who tries to impart to him his learning and pride before the execution.
Black Boy by Richard Wright
(B WRI)
The autobiography of an African-American writer, recounting his early years and the harrowing experiences he encountered drifting from Natchez to Chicago to Brooklyn.
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
(FIC ELL)
(Realistic)
In the course of his wanderings from a Southern Negro college to New York's Harlem, an African-American man becomes involved in a series of adventures.
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
(FIC JON)
(Historical)
Henry Townsend, a African farmer and former slave, is befriended by the most powerful man in antebellum Virginia's Manchester County and becomes proprietor of his own plantation, as well as of his own slaves.
The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream by Samson Davis
(920 DAV)
(Nonfiction)
A true story of three African-American kids from the inner city of Newark, New Jersey, who made a pact to support each other as they rose from an environment of poverty, crime, and drugs and went on to become successful doctors.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X
(B X)
The personal story of the man who rose from hoodlum, thief, dope peddler, and pimp to become a leader of the Black Revolution of the 1960s.
Caucasia by Danzy Senna
(FIC SEN)
(Historical)
Two sisters, one light-skinned like their mother, the other dark like their father, are separated after their parents divorce and go on to lead very different lives while hoping for a reunion with each other.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Paul Curtis
(FIC CUR)
(Historical)
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.
Betsey Brown: a novel by Ntozake Shange
(FIC SHA)
(Historical)
The portrait of an extended African-American family in which the thirteen-year-old daughter strives to be grown-up while facing prejudice and school busing pressures outside of the family.
Witness by Karen Hesse
(FIC HES)
(Historical)
A history-inspired novel, told in the voices of eleven characters, about two young girls, one Jewish and the other African-American, who come to the attention of the newly formed Ku Klux Klan in a small Vermont town in 1924.
Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones
(FIC JON)
(Historical)
Three African-American children living in Atlanta during the summer of 1981 find their lives forever changed when a series of murders leaves the city paralyzed with fear.

Multicultural Literature:
The African American Voice

PRHS
Library

Media Center Information
Hours: Monday– Friday: 6:45-2:10 pm
End Zone: Mon-Thurs 2:10-4:30
Printing Info: $0.10 a page for B&W .....$1.00 a page for color
Checking out Books:
Books are checked out for 2 weeks and can be renewed. Overdue books fees are $0.10 a day.
Students may have 3 books checked out at a time.
Students may not check out books until overdue books are returned and fines over $4 are payed off.
If you don’t find that book on the shelf, use our catalog kiosk to see if it is available. . If the book is checked out, we can notify you when it is returned– just put it on hold with us at the circulation desk.

“We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams” (Jimmy Carter).

Good Fortune by Noni Carter
(FIC CAR) (Historical)
Brutally kidnapped from her African village and shipped to America, a young girl struggles to come to terms with her new life as a slave, gradually rising from working in the fields to the master's house, secretly learning to read and write, until, risking everything, she escapes to seek freedom in the North.
Stella Stands Alone by A. LaFaye
(FIC LAF) (Historical)
Fourteen-year-old Stella, orphaned just after the Civil War, fights to keep her family's plantation and fulfill her father's desire to turn land over to the people who have worked on it for generations, but first she must find her father's hidden deed and will.
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose
(B COL)
Presents an account of fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin, an African-American girl who refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months before Rosa Parks, and covers her role in a crucial civil rights case.
Traveling the Freedom Road: From Slavery and the Civil War Through Reconstruction by L. Osborne
(973.7 OSB) (Nonfiction)
Collects accounts from slave narratives, journals, diaries, and other sources to provide a first-person perspective on the antebellum South, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
(FIC AND) (Historical)
After being sold to a cruel couple in New York City, a slave named Isabel spies for the rebels during the Revolutionary War.
Guardian by Julius Lester
(FIC LES) (Historical)
In a rural southern town in 1946, a white man and his son witness the lynching of an innocent black man. Includes historical notes on lynching.
Come Juneteenth by Ann Rinaldi
(FIC RIN) (Historical)
Fourteen-year-old Luli and her family face tragedy after failing to tell their slaves that President Lincoln's Emanicipation Proclamation made them free.

Mudbound: a Novel by Hillary Jordan
(FIC JOR) (Historical)
The shaky marriage between Henry McAllan and his city-bred wife Laura becomes even more unstable when his brother Jamie returns from World War II in 1946 to help work the family's miserable cotton farm in the Mississippi Delta, along with his comrade-in-arms Ronsel Jackson, the oldest son of local sharecroppers, who soon learns that his heroics in battle mean nothing in the Jim Crow south.
The Murder of Emmett Till by David Aretha
(364.1 ARE) (Nonfiction)
Chronicles the 1955 murder in Money, Mississippi, of Chicago teenager, Emmett Till, by local store owner Roy Bryant and his brother-in-law, J.W. Milam, the trial and acquittal that followed, and how the incident impacted the civil rights movement. *Also check the series: Civil Right Movement
When the Black Girl Sings by Bil Wright
(FIC WRI) (Realistic)
Adopted by white parents and sent to an exclusive Connecticut girls' school where she is the only African-American student, fourteen-year-old Lahni Schuler feels like an outcast, particularly when her parents separate, but after attending a local church where she hears gospel music for the first time, she finds her voice.
Fire From the Rock by Sharon M. Draper
(FIC DRA) (Historical)
Sylvia Patterson's life suddenly changes with the integration of Little Rock's Central High in 1957 when she is selected to be one of the first black students to attend the previously all white school.
No Laughter Here by Rita Williams-Garcia
(FIC WIL) (Realistic)
In Queens, New York, ten-year-old Akilah is determined to find out why her closest friend, Victoria, is silent and withdrawn after returning from a trip to her homeland, Nigeria.
A Summer of Kings by Han Nolan
(FIC NOL) (Historical)
Tally Over the course of the summer of 1963, fourteen-year-old Esther Young discovers the passion within her when eighteen-year-old King-Roy Johnson, accused of murdering a white man in Alabama, comes to live with her family.
On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
(796.323 ABD) (Nonfiction)
Legendary basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar traces his childhood in Harlem, his professional career, and the influence of the Harlem Renaissance on his life and the African-American culture.
Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow by James Sturm
(GN STU)
A graphic novel account of the career of Negro League pitcher Satchel Paige, discussing the show he put on as a popular player, as well as the respect he demanded as an African-American.
Copper Sun by Sharon M. Draper
(FIC DRA) (Historical)
Two fifteen-year-old girls--one a slave and the other an indentured servant--escape their Carolina plantation and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves.
The Legend of Bass Reeves: Being the True Account of the Most Valient Marshal in the West by Gary Paulsen
(FIC PAU) (Historical)
The story of Bass Reeves who was born a slave and later became one of the most respected federal marshals in Oklahoma and Texas.
The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson
(FIC AND) (Historical)
Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age sixteen, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War.