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African American Music & Musicians Whether you want to read facts about famous people or fiction about kids making their own music, we have great new books for you! Winter Reading Challenge 2026 |
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Board Book, Picture Books, Beginning Reader
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A is for Aretha
by Leslie Kwan
An exciting ABC board book featuring Black women musicians whose artistry and activism globally changed the way we hear and interact with music, one song at a time.
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My Dad Is a DJ
by Kathryn Erskine
Trevor's dad is a DJ, and he always picks the best music--But after his parents split up and Dad moves out, Trevor feels like the pitch doesn't fit between them. Trevor has his own music now--hip-hop--and Dad can't seem to let go of his old soul favorites. As the end-of-year dance approaches, Trevor and his father will have to find their new groove to get the party started.
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On Our Way! What a Day!
by Janay Brown-Wood
In rhyming text, siblings search for the perfect birthday gift for their grandmother.
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Our Joyful Noise
by Gabriele Davis
Follows a Black family through a week of shared moments and simple pleasures, woven through with lyrics from beloved spirituals and songs.
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Eli and the Beat by Shannon M. GriffinSome people are born to move, they live with a rhythm inside their bones that causes them to break out in dance or tap a long to a beat- whenever and wherever it finds them. That's Eli. Eli's beat has been with him since birth. Swaying before crawling, dancing before walking, the rhythm flows through E like a beat to its own melody. ELI AND THE BEAT celebrates the world of music and movement through the heart of Eli and the inspiration of the Black men in entertainment that have paved the way. Whether tapping along with Savion, or top-rocking to "Don't Sweat the Technique," readers are taken on a lyrical journey that inspires them to find their own inner beat.
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Soulful Struttin'
by Julia Pierre Hammond
A father and daughter's afternoon of cleaning becomes a celebration of the music, food, and culture of New Orleans.
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When I Hear Spirituals
by Cheryl Willis Hudson
A girl connects with heritage, history, and a higher power through the lyrics of twelve beloved spirituals and four seminal events in African American history.
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Lucy Sings on Lucy Street
by Lawrence Roberts
Life is filled with ups and downs. No matter what, keep a song in your heart. Keep singing. For Lucimarian 'Lucy' Tolliver, life on Lucy Street was nothing but a joyful dream. She spent her days happily playing in the neighborhood with her best friend, Wanda, and her grandpa's wise words and warm embrace were only a few blocks away. However, when financial misfortune strikes Lucy and her family during the Depression, she struggles to hold on to the optimism that's always kept her spirit lifted. But can one night--and one song--remind her that the light can continue to shine even in the darkest of times? From Sally-Ann Roberts and Lawrence Roberts comes a heartwarming and moving tale based on their mother's childhood, about the uplifting power that music has in keeping hope alive in times of extreme strife, featuring an epilogue from Good Morning America's Robin Roberts.
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Rap It Up!
by Carole Boston Weatherford
From scribbling words on the page to spitting rhymes on the mic, a joyful narrator guides readers through the emotions, literary techniques, structures and motifs that help make rap so amazing.
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Danté Plays His Blues by Allen R. WellsMoving in with his uncles in a different town after he and his mom lose their housing, Danté misses his friends and neighborhood until his Uncle Ron teaches him to play the saxophone, showing him how to turn his blues into his muse.
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Ty's Travels: Showtime!
by Kelly Starling Lyons
Ty loves playing the instruments, but something's missing--his friends! With the help of his vivid imagination, Ty and his friends are onstage in a band making great music together.
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Mary's Idea
by Chris Raschka
A picture book biography of Mary Lou Williams, an American jazz pianist and composer who wrote hundreds of compositions, recorded hundreds of songs, and wrote arrangements for Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and is an artist often overlooked in the canon of American music because of her gender and skin color.
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Ordinary Days: The Seeds, Sound, and City That Grew Prince Rogers Nelson
by Angela Joy
Before he became a legend, he was just a boy... On an ordinary day, you could see him. A young boy named Prince Rogers Nelson, who had parents who fought, nowhere to call home, and a collection of memories turned into sound: the shouts of anger, the purr of pigeons, the roar of cars down a busy Minneapolis street, and the whisper of cold wind on budding lilac bushes. Other sounds joined in as he taught himself to play the guitar, piano, drums, and much more, leading to the day this ordinary boy began to make music and became extraordinary.
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Harry Belafonte: A Little Golden Book Biography
by Lavaille Lavette
Created in partnership with Ebony Jr., this Little Golden Book biography celebrates the life and legacy of singer, performer, and activist Harry Belafonte. When Harry Belafonte was a little boy, he moved from Harlem, New York, to live with his grandmother in Jamaica. There, Harry fell in love with Calypso music. It was the seed that blossomed into a life dedicated to inspiring people through music. This moving biography chronicles his life and career--as an actor, a singer, and a civil rights activist who has always sought to make a difference while encouraging people to treat each other with respect and kindness.
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Beyonce: A Little Golden Book Biography
by Lavaille Lavette
This Golden Book biography celebrates Beyoncé's rise from a shy little girl to a world-famous superstar. Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Beyoncé performed in various singing and dancing competitions as a child. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of Destiny's Child, one of the bestselling girl groups of all time. Beyoncé continues to inspire and demonstrate that dreams--no matter how big--can be achieved through hard work and determination.
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A Voice of Hope: The Myrlie Evers-Williams Story
by Nadia Salomon
Myrlie Evers-Williams's voice is gentle yet strong, soft yet powerful. It is a soaring song of hope. Myrlie's voice didn't start out that way. She was born into the segregated South and the beautiful brown color of her skin made her a target for hate. It meant she didn't have the same opportunities as white children, and that meant her dream of playing music onstage one day would be harder to achieve. But this didn't stop Myrlie. As she grew, she marched for equal rights alongside her husband and activist Medgar Evers. She fought against Jim Crow laws and for voting rights. She became the chair of the NAACP, and finally she realized her dream of performing at Carnegie Hall.
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Make a Pretty Sound: A Story of Ella Jenkins--The First Lady of Children's Music
by Traci N. Todd
Ella Jenkins is considered the first lady of children's music. At a time when children's music was mostly novelty songs and movie soundtracks, she believed that music could be a powerful tool to teach. From the very beginning, she believed that a child's natural curiosity and good nature could be fed by introducing them to the folk rhythms, music, and dance of cultures from all over the world. This book tells Ella's story from the time she was a young child, first learning about music through her Uncle Flood playing harmonica, to her encounters with racial discrimination, and finally her involvement with the folk music movement and her discovery that music could be a powerful tool to teach children and bridge cultures, leading her to perform and work with children on all seven continents (including Antarctica!).
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Outspoken: Paul Robeson, Ahead of His Time: A One-Man Show
by Carole Boston Weatherford
In this moving birth-to-death biography, Carole Boston Weatherford's poetic first-person narrative, interlaced with excerpts from African American spirituals, pairs with illustrations by Eric Velasquez capturing Paul Robeson's commanding presence.
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Nina: A Story of Nina Simone
by Traci N. Todd
A biography of Nina Simone, an acclaimed singer whose music gave voice to the struggle for racial equality during the Civil Rights Movement.
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Rock, Rosetta, Rock! Roll, Rosetta, Roll!: Presenting Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock & Roll
by Tonya Bolden
Award-winning author Tonya Bolden and acclaimed illustrator R. Gregory Christie deliver an inspiring true story about the life, career, and impact of 20th-century blues and gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who was a trailblazer for rock-and-roll. Includes a timeline of Sister Rosetta Tharpe's life, author's note, and a list of sources. Before there was Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Johnny Cash, there was Sister Rosetta Tharpe. The godmother of rock & roll started as a little girl from Arkansas with music in her air, in her hair, in her bones, wiggling her toes. With a big guitar in hand and a big voice in her soul, she grew into a rock & roll trailblazer in a time when women were rarely seen rocking out. Her guitar picking was like nobody else's!
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Stompin' at the Savoy: How Chick Webb Became the King of Drums
by Moira Rose Donohue
Though a disability stunted his growth, William Henry Chick Webb did not let that get in the way of his musical pursuits. This picture-book biography details the life of black American jazz drummer Chick Webb, who in the 1930s led one of the big bands of the swing era, earning him the nickname the King of the Savoy.
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Operation Sisterhood: Stealing the Show!
by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
The Operation Sisterhood series continues as the four sisters decide to put on a community musical! The creative sister Sunday is the director and writer, but she has lost her spark. Can she find her shine again before everyone calls it quits? This ode to Black girlhood and the communities that serve them offers humor, tenderness, and charm. -Renée Watson, New York Times bestselling author Sisters Sunday, Bo, Lee, and Lil are four sisters from a patchwork family. Bonded by their love of music, these sisters formed a musical babysitting band business Operation Sisterhood that just planned the best garden wedding party their Harlem community has seen. Imaginative Sunday impulsively announces her next big community project--staging an original musical--everybody's counting on her, especially her sisters, Bo and the Twins, Lil and Lee. Then, disaster: Sunday has lost her creative mojo just when she most want to impress her new neighbor, TV star Talitha Thomas. Soon there will be more drama offstage than on! Can Bo and the Twins use what they learn about New York City communities past and present and their band babysitting business to help Sunday find her shine and her love of storytelling again? It's Operation Sisterhood to the rescue! Award-winning author Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich delivers a heartwarming sequel to Operation Sisterhood. Includes a New York City map to follow along on the sisters' journey!
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