african americans

"This . . . picture book biography explores how Jerry Lawson, a Black engineer, revolutionized the video game industry. Before Xbox and Playstation and Nintendo Switch, there was a tinkerer named Jerry Lawson. As a boy, Jerry loved playing with springs, sprockets, and gadgety things. When he grew up, Jerry became an engineer--a professional tinkerer! In the 1970s, Jerry decided to tinker with video games. Back then, if players wanted a new video game, they had to buy an entire new console. This made gaming very expensive. Jerry was determined to fix this problem. He hit some roadblocks along the way and had to repeat a level or two, but it was never game over for Jerry. After working hard to find a solution, he finally leveled up and built a brand new kind of video game console--one that allowed players to switch out video game cartridges! Jerry's tinkering and inventions changed the video gaming world forever"--Provided by publisher.

A multi-generational family history told in the voices of the author's ancestors, spanning enslavement alongside Frederick Douglass at Maryland's Wye House plantation, service in the U.S. Colored Troops, and the founding of all-Black Reconstruction-era communities.

A twelve-year-old African American girl deals with fear, grief, pain, and suffering caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and America's history of enslavement and racist violence.

"Renowned American astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi's (born James Plummer) coming-of-age memoir, from young boy to graduate-school student, charts the remarkable resilience of a boy who was offered few chances to succeed, but fought hard to achieve his dream"--Provided by publisher.

"A groundbreaking figure in every sense of the word, Susie King Taylor (1848-1912) was one of the first Black nurses during the Civil War, tending to the wounded soldiers of the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Afterward, she was a key figure in establishing a postbellum educational system for formerly bonded Black people, opening several dedicated schools in Georgia. Taylor was also one of the first Black women to publish her memoirs. Even as her country was at war with itself, Taylor valiantly fought for the rights of her people and demonstrated true heroism"--OCLC.

"[The author] narrates Henry Brown's story of how he came to ship himself in a box from slavery to freedom. Told in stanzas of six lines each, each line representing one side of a box, and augmented with historical records and excerpts from Henry Brown's own writing"--Provided by publisher.

"When Miles teams up with his friends to enter a citywide science competition, his cousin Cam, who made it to regionals the year before, offers to help, but while everyone else is rocking the project, Miles feels like the weak link"--OCLC.

In the wake of being sexually assaulted by her pastor, sixteen-year-old Amina struggles to regain her footing until she finds the strength within herself to confront her abuser in court.

"Eighteen-year-old Adina Walker, a scholarship student at a prestigious academy, faces the consequences of a single mistake and competes in a high-stakes contest hosted by the wealthy Remington family, where she uncovers unsettling truths about the sponsors and the contest's high stakes"--Provided by publisher.

Told from multiple points of view, Ardith and Hollis Blackwood's lives are upended when their great-grandmother, legendary actress Blossom Blackwood, passes away, and family secrets emerge.