Black History Month is a great opportunity to introduce yourself to some new literature, and these books are good as read-alouds or for silent reading.

The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales by Virginia Hamilton, illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon.

From our local library, this is a collection of clever, funny, expressive, and suspenseful stories. I won’t lie: sometimes I struggle with the cadence. Other times they just flow out of you like you’re just a mouthpiece carrying the story out of the book. There is an introduction and notes with each story that give some background into their origins; adults will appreciate this. For my younger kids, I skip the extra words and just read them the stories. There are black and white illustrations every few pages.

A few of the stories are a little weird or violent, so you may want to read ahead if you plan on reading them aloud to a child. I have not edited them for my kids, but we did talk about the parts of the story that were disturbing (in one, a young man kills a girl’s father in order to marry her and become king). These stories were borne out of extreme adversity, and I felt it was important to share them as is, but be willing to explain or discuss as needed. One of the great features of the book are that the stories are organized by subject, and they are short. While some of the characters overlap, they aren’t chronological, and a story can be easily skipped. Fun fact: one of the stories has a plot twist that is straight out of the Arabian Nights book we just finished.

Sure As Sunrise: Stories of Bruh Rabbit & His Walkin’ Talkin’ Friends, by Alice McGill, illustrated by Don Tate. This book is great for kids of all ages, no editing needed. It has color illustrations, and the author does a great job of using language, grammar, and even caps to help you tell the stories well. It also includes some background for each tale. Some of the plot lines and characters overlap with The People Could Fly stories above, but none are exactly the same, so it’s fun to compare the stories and watch the kids recognize similarities. We own this book, and it is one of my favorites to read.

Life Doesn’t Frighten Me, by Maya Angelou, ill. by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

I found this one at a library book sale years ago and it is such a fun read-aloud. The word pictures are easy to relate to for kids. They can chime in on the refrain, “Life doesn’t frighten me at all.” The poem has great rhythm, with colorful illustrations. You find yourself wanting to shout the last few lines as the poem builds in intensity.

Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue, by Julius Lester

A library find, this is definitely a book for older elementary school kids. I’ll be reading it with my 4th and 6th graders. There will probably be crying. But it is part of our history, and we can’t shy away from this just because it makes us uncomfortable. The book uses powerful imagery and dialogue to let the reader into each character’s thoughts. It does use the N word.

I struggle with our country’s history of slavery and the continued struggle for equal rights in the face of institutional racism and even algorithms that perpetuate bias. I am sending brown skinned kids out into that world! Giving them cultural and historical context is so important. These books are just one part of an ongoing dialogue, a good stepping stone along the way.

Update: We didn’t end up getting to Day of Tears, and I returned it to the library. Truthfully, the sections I read were so painful, I didn’t even want to read more and I knew reading it to my kids would be a sob fest with them watching me with concerned looks, not quite understanding my depth of feeling. Since I want to be writing about books I’ve actually read, I’d like to offer a substitute that I’ve read to the kids twice as part of our learning about U.S. History: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor. Since it’s a classic, I had heard about it years before I read it, and I’m so glad I’ve been able to read it with my kids. It has opened up worlds to both them and me, and has been the genesis of many tears and hard conversations.