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Anti-Racist Books for Teens

This collection of fiction and non-fiction titles for teens explores the fight for racial justice and equity through activism, education, and resistance.

Palo Alto City Library

25 items

  • Inspired by the #SayHerName campaign launched by the African American Policy Forum, these poems pay tribute to victims of police brutality as well as the activists insisting that Black Lives Matter.
    Book, 2020Los Angeles : Disney/Jump at the Sun, 2020. — TEEN 811.6 ELLIOTT
  • How I Resist

    Activism and Hope for a New Generation

    In this collection of essays, readers will find hope and support through voices that are at turns personal, funny, irreverent, and instructive. Not just for a young adult audience, this incredibly impactful collection will appeal to readers of all…
    Book, 2018New York : Wednesday Books, [2018] — TEEN 320.083 HOW
  • Told from multiple viewpoints, Shae Tatum, an unarmed, thirteen-year-old black girl, is shot by a white police officer, throwing their community into upheaval and making it a target of demonstrators.
    Book, 2019New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2019. — TEEN FICTION MAGOON
  • Historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz offers a history of the United States told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the US empire.
    Book, 2019Boston : Beacon Press, [2019] — TEEN 970.0049 MENDOZA
  • Stamped

    Racism, Antiracism, and You

    Reynolds, Jason,
    A history of racist and antiracist ideas in America, from their roots in Europe until today, adapted from the National Book Award winner: Stamped from the Beginning.
    Book, 2020New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2020. — TEEN 305.8009 REYNOLDS
  • eAudiobook and eBook available. Told from two viewpoints, Atlanta high school seniors Lena and Campbell, one black, one white, must rely on each other to survive after a football rivalry escalates into a riot.
    Book, 2019Naperville, IL : Sourcebooks Fire, [2019] — TEEN FICTION JONES
  • The award-winning author of American Street and the prison reform activist of the Exonerated Five trace the story of a young artist and poet whose prospects at a diverse art school are threatened by a racially biased system and a tragic altercation…
    Book, 2020New York, NY : Balzer & Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2020] — TEEN FICTION ZOBOI
  • Black Enough

    Stories of Being Young & Black in America

    A collection of short stories explore what it is like to be young and black, centering on the experiences of black teenagers and emphasizing that one person's experiences, reality, and personal identity are different than someone else.
    Book, 2019New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2019] — TEEN FICTION BLACK
  • Resist

    35 Profiles of Ordinary People Who Rose Up Against Tyranny and Injustice

    Chambers, Veronica,
    Before they were activists, they were just like you and me. From Frederick Douglass to Malala Yousafzai, Joan of Arc to John Lewis, Susan B. Anthony to Janet Mock--these thirty-five profiles of remarkable figures show us what it means to take a…
    Book, 2018New York, NY : HarperCollins, [2018] — J 303.484 CHAMBERS
  • eBook and eAudiobook available. Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses…
    Book, 2018New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2018. — TEEN FICTION THOMAS
  • eBook available. Frustrated by the way women are treated--even at their progressive New York City high school--two best friends start a Women's Rights Club, post their essays and poems online, and watch it go viral, attracting positive support as…
    Book, 2019New York : Bloomsbury, [2019] — TEEN FICTION WATSON
  • Take the Mic

    Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance

    You might be the kind of person who stands up to online trolls. Or who marches to protest injustice. Perhaps you are #DisabledAndCute and dancing around your living room, alive and proud ... Maybe you speak your truth and drop the mic, or maybe you…
    Book, 2019Watertown, MA : Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., 2019. — TEEN FICTION TAKE
  • Writing letters to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., seventeen-year-old college-bound Justyce McAllister struggles to face the reality of race relations today and how they are shaping him.
    Book, 2017New York : Crown, [2017] — TEEN FICTION STONE
  • A Few Red Drops

    the Chicago Race Riot of 1919

    Hartfield, Claire,
    Examines the events and forces leading up to 1919 race riots in Chicago. Hartfield draws on contemporary accounts to trace the roots of the explosion that had been building for decades in race relations, politics, business, and clashes of culture.
    Book, 2018Boston : Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2018] — TEEN 305.896 HARTFIEL
  • Discusses social identities, describes the history of racism and the resistance against it, and offers guidance on becoming an anti-racist voice to move the world toward equality.
    Book, 2020Minnneapolis, MN : Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2020. — J 305.8 JEWELL
  • Struggling with panic attacks and grief over his father's death, high school junior Moss, in the face of a racist school administration, decides to organize a protest that escalates into violence.
    Book, 2018New York : Tor Teen, 2018. — TEEN FICTION OSHIRO
  • eBook and eAudiobook available. One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century, and out of print for almost thirty years due largely to initial audiences' rejection of its strong black female protagonist. Hurston's classic…
    Book, 2000New York : HarperCollins, 2000. — Fiction Hurston
  • 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 as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.
    Book, 1999New York, N.Y. : HarperCollins Publishers, [1999] — TEEN FICTION MYERS
  • Girls Resist!

    a Guide to Activism, Leadership, and Starting a Revolution

    Rich, KaeLyn,
    An activism handbook for teen girls ready to fight for change, social justice, and equality. With in-depth guides to everything from picking a cause, planning a protest, and raising money to running dispute-free meetings, promoting awareness on…
    Book, 2018Philadelphia : Quirk Books, [2018] — TEEN 305.4201 RICH
  • eBook and eAudiobook available. Combines ethics, history, law, and science with a personal narrative to describe how to move beyond the awareness of racism and contribute to making society just and equitable.
    Book, 2019New York : One World, [2019] — 305.8009 KENDI