Books to Help You Talk About Racism

Books are some of the best ways to have conversations about difficult topics with our children. These are books to help you talk with your kids about racism.

Also check out this list of our favorite books featuring diverse characters doing everyday life.

Print This Booklist
Learn 3 conversation starters you can use to talk with your kids about any book
See All Booklists
A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin
Bud, Not Buddy
A Poem for Peter
The Red Pencil
Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down (Jane Addams Honor Book (Awards))
Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra
Rhythm Ride: A Road Trip Through the Motown Sound
Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America (Coretta Scott King Award – Author Winner Title(s))
Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters
Pink and Say
Elijah of Buxton
The The Madman of Piney Woods
Stella by Starlight
Show Way
The Watcher
Unspoken: A Story From the Underground Railroad
Step Right Up: How Doc and Jim Key Taught the World about Kindness
Piecing Me Together
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
The Story Of Ruby Bridges: Special Anniversary Edition
Emma’s Poem
Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa
Sixteen Years In Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story
Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race
Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt (Reading Rainbow Books)
Carter Reads the Newspaper
The Underground Abductor (Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales #5): An Abolitionist Tale about Harriet Tubman
One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance
Martin Rising: Requiem For a King
Martin’s Big Words
Martin & Mahalia: His Words, Her Song
My Daddy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
I Have a Dream
Pies from Nowhere: How Georgia Gilmore Sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad
Dancing Hands: How Teresa Carreño Played the Piano for President Lincoln
The Book Rescuer: How a Mensch from Massachusetts Saved Yiddish Literature for Generations to Come
Fearless Mary: Mary Fields, American Stagecoach Driver
So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth’s Long Walk Toward Freedom
It Began with a Page
Free As A Bird: The Story of Malala
Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré
Thirty Minutes Over Oregon: A Japanese Pilot’s World War II Story
The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963
Brown Girl Dreaming
Print This Booklist
See All Booklists

Do you ever wish you knew how to talk with your kids about books?

Download this guide for conversation starters you can use with any book.

Would you like to print this booklist?

We'll email you a link to the PDF for easy printing!

Talking to your kids about books is easier than you think.

Download a conversation guide with 3 open-ended questions you can use with any book.

Would you like to print this booklist?

We'll email you a link to the PDF for easy printing!