Coretta Scott King Book Awards

Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.

When the sixteen-year-old boy whom she tutors in reading is accused of attempting to murder a white man, Francie gets herself in serious trouble for her efforts at friendship.

A history of African-American whalers between 1730 and 1880, describing their contribution to the whaling industry and their role in the abolition movement.

While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script.

Twelve-year-old Lafayette's close relationship with his older brother Charlie changes after Charlie is released from a detention home and blames Lafayette for the death of their mother.

Recounts the stories of ten freedom fighters, including Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks.

Paul-Edward, son of a white plantation owner and a slave mother of African-Indian heritage, follows his dream of owning his own land through hard work and determination.

All thirteen-year-old Raspberry can think of is making money so that she and her mother never have to worry about living on the streets again.

George Washington Carver was born a slave in Missouri about 1864 and was raised by the childless white couple who had owned his mother. In 1877 he left home in search of an education, eventually earning a master's degree. In 1896, Booker T. Washington invited Carver to start the agricultural department at the all-black-staffed Tuskegee Institute, where he spent the rest of his life seeking solutions to the poverty among landless black farmers by developing new uses for soil-replenishing crops such as peanuts, cowpeas, and sweet potatoes. Carver's achievements as a botanist and inventor were balanced by his gifts as a painter, musician, and teacher. This Newbery Honor Book and Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book by Marilyn Nelson provides a compelling and revealing portrait of Carver's complex, richly interior, profoundly devout life.

While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they've written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.

In 1953, Leah Hopper dreams of leaving the poverty and segregation of her home in Sulphur, Louisiana, and when Aunt Olivia sends train tickets to Los Angeles as part of her tenth birthday present, Leah gets a first taste of freedom.

A biography of the woman who became the first licensed Afro-American female pilot.

Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.

Uses narratives, diaries, military orders, and other documents to chronicle the emancipation of slaves in the United States.

A high school junior and his cousin suffer the ramifications of joining what seems to be a "reputable" school club.

Archival photographs and storytelling bring the history of school desegregation to life.

In 1947, twelve-year-old Pattie Mae is sustained by her dreams of escaping Rich Square, North Carolina, and moving to Harlem.

A collection of short stories span the scope of adolescent love.

There is a skeleton in the Mattatuck Museum in Connecticut. It has been in the town for over 200 years. In 1996, community members decided to find out what they could about it. Historians discovered that the bones were those of a slave name Fortune, who was owned by a local doctor. After Fortune's death, the doctor rendered the bones. Further research revealed that Fortune had married, had fathered four children, and had been baptized later in life. His bones suggest that after a life of arduous labor, he died in 1798 at about the age of 60. Merilyn Nelson wrote The Manumission Requiem to commemorate Fortune's life. Detailed notes and archival photographs enhance the reader's appreciation of the poem.

A fictionalized account of the largest slave auction in American history and its aftermath.

A look at how free northern black families lived in mid-nineteenth century America.

Alternating sections of poems reveal the conflicted feelings of Ishmael, son of the biblical patriarch Abraham, and Sam, a teenager in New York City.

A sequence of fifteen interlinked sonnets, known as a heroic crown of sonnets, about the boy whose lynching helped spark the civil rights movement.

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.

Inconsolable at being separated from her older brother, eight-year-old Paris is apprehensive about her new foster family but just as she learns to trust them, she faces a life-changing decision.

In 1860, eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, a haven for slaves fleeing the American south, tries to bring to justice a preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family's freedom.

A teenaged boy's death in a hazing accident has lasting effects on his pregnant girlfriend and his guilt-ridden cousin, who gives up a promising music career to play football during his senior year in high school.

Follow the three-time heavyweight champ through his remarkable life.

Kadir Nelson tells the story of Negro League baseball from its beginnings to its end.

A thirteen-year-old African American boy chronicles what happens to his family when his father, who temporarily left, returns home and they all must deal with their feelings.

A collection of poems, including "Golden Goodness," "Cranberry Red," and "Biscuit Brown," celebrating individuality and Afro-American identity.

Jazz vocalist Billie Holiday looks back on her early years in this fictional memoir written in verse.

A black cat wanders through the streets of a city.

A tour of the sights of Harlem, including the Metro-North Train, brownstones, shopping on 125th Street, a barber shop, summer basketball, the Boy's Choir, and sunset over the Harlem River.

In a story of the Ila people, the colorful birds of Africa ask Blackbird, whom they think is the most beautiful of birds, to decorate them with some of his "blackening brew.".

In illustrations and rhyme describes the dancing of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, one of the most famous tap dancers of all time.

In this retelling of a folktale, a group of slaves, unable to bear their sadness and starvation any longer, call upon the African magic that allows them to fly away.

Illustrated versions of three well-known hymns.

Text and illustations celebrate the power and joy of jazz music.

Kadir Nelson tells the story of Negro League baseball from its beginnings to its end.