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Celebrate Black History Month with these books
Staff at the Bracebridge Library have chosen 10 books for you to borrow during Black History Month.
There are plenty of books available to borrow from the Bracebridge Library that tell the story of significant moments in Black history and outline the lives of Black people who have helped shape the world we live in today.
The books were selected by Cindy Buhne, Adult and Information Services Librarian, and Hannah Strand, Child and Youth Services Programmer.
The ABCs of Black History
Author: Rio Cortez
B is for Beautiful, Brave, and Bright! And for a Book that takes a Bold journey through the alphabet of Black history and culture. Letter by letter, The ABCs of Black History celebrates a story that spans continents and centuries, triumph and heartbreak, creativity and joy. It’s a story of big ideas – P is for Power, S is for Science and Soul. Of significant moments – G is for Great Migration. Of iconic figures – H is for Zora Neale Hurston, X is for Malcolm X. In addition to rhyming text, the book includes back matter with information on the events, places, and people mentioned in the poem, from Mae Jemison to W. E. B. Du Bois, Fannie Lou Hamer to Sam Cooke, and the Little Rock Nine to DJ Kool Herc.
Black Girl Power: 15 Stories Celebrating Black Girlhood
Author: Leah Johnson
From fifteen legendary Black female authors comes a collection of stories and poems about the power we find in the everyday and the beauty of Black girlhood.
Black girl power is… Bringing your favourite stuffed animal to your first real sleepover… Escaping an eerie dollhouse that’s got you trapped inside… Making new friends one magical baked good at a time… Finding the courage to dance to the beat of your own drum… And more!
From 15 legendary Black women authors comes a dazzling collection of stories and poems about the power we find in the every day and the beauty of Black girlhood.
Timid
Author: Jonathan Todd
Cecil Hall and his family have just moved from Florida to Massachusetts, near Boston. Cecil is anxious about making friends because he doesn’t know where he’ll fit in. His sister, Leah, thinks he should find and befriend the other Black kids at his new school, but Cecil isn’t sure how he’d go about doing that. He wants to be known for his comics-making talent, anyway. But the few kids who are impressed by Cecil’s art aren’t always nice to him. When one of his drawings is misused and gets him into serious trouble, can Cecil stand up for himself and figure out who his real friends are?
The Kids’ Book of Black History in Canada
Author: Rosemary Sadlier
This updated edition of Rosemary Sadlier’s bestselling and award-winning The Kids Book of Black Canadian History has been reimagined for a new generation of young readers. It includes topics from Canada’s legacy of slavery to the global impacts of the Black Lives Matter movement. A celebration of the incredible history, achievements and contributions of Black people and communities in Canada, this essential book is necessary reading for all Canadians.
It Waits in the Forest
Author: Sarah Dass
Unlike the other residents of the small Caribbean Island of St. Virgil, Selina DaSilva does not believe in magic. With a logical mind and a knack for botany, Selina used to dream of leaving the island to study Pharmacology—until a vicious, unsolved attack left her father dead and her mother in a coma.
Now her guilt over her mother’s condition keeps her tethered to the island, relegated to conning gullible tourists with useless talismans and phony protection rituals. But when one of those tourists ends up at the center of a string of strange murders, the truth that Selina has been denying can no longer be avoided: there is evil lurking in the forests that surround St. Virgil. Another thing that can’t be avoided? Selina’s ex-boyfriend Gabriel, newly employed at the local newspaper and eager to put his investigative skills to use.
The Skin We’re In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power
Author: Desmond Cole
Chronicling just one year in the struggle against racism in this country, The Skin We’re In reveals in stark detail the injustices faced by Black Canadians daily: the devastating effects of racist policing, the hopelessness produced by an education system that fails Black children, the heartbreak of those separated from their families by discriminatory immigration laws, and more. Cole draws on his own experiences as a Black man in Canada and locates the deep cultural, historical, and political roots of each event. What emerges is a personal, painful, and comprehensive picture of entrenched, systemic inequality.
The Kneeling Man: My Father’s Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Author: Leta McCollough Seletzky
In the famous photograph of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on the balcony of Memphis’s Lorraine Motel, one man kneeled beside King, trying to staunch the blood from his fatal head wound with a borrowed towel. This kneeling man was a member of the Invaders, an activist group that was in talks with King in the days leading up to the murder. But he also had another identity: an undercover Memphis police officer reporting on the activities of this group, which was thought to be possibly dangerous and potentially violent. This kneeling man is Leta McCollough Seletzky’s father.
Sporting Justice: The Chatham Coloured All-Stars and Black Baseball in Southwestern Ontario
Author: Miriam Carol Wright
Although many know about Jackie Robinson’s experiences breaking major league baseball’s colour barrier in 1947, few are familiar with the Chatham Coloured All-Stars, a Black Canadian team from 1930s Ontario who broke racial barriers in baseball even earlier. In 1933, the All-Stars began playing in the primarily white world of organized amateur baseball. The following year, the All-Stars became the first Black team to win a provincial championship. Sporting Justice begins with a look at a vibrant Black baseball network in southwestern Ontario and Michigan in the 1920s, which fostered the emergence of the Chatham Coloured All-Stars in the 1930s.
“Go to School, You’re a Little Black Boy:” The Honourable Lincoln M. Alexander: A Memoir
Author: Lincoln M. Alexander with Herb Shoveller
Among the important stories that need to be told about noteworthy Canadians, Lincoln Alexander’s sits at the top of the list. Born in Toronto in 1922, the son of a maid and a railway porter, Alexander embarked on an exemplary life path that has involved military service for his country, a successful political career, a thriving law career, and vocal advocacy on subjects ranging from antiracism to the importance of education.
His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice
Author: Robert Samuels
A landmark biography by two prizewinning Washington Post reporters that reveals how systemic racism shaped George Floyd’s life and legacy-from his family’s roots in the tobacco fields of North Carolina, to ongoing inequality in housing, education, health care, criminal justice, and policing-telling the singular story of how one man’s tragic experience brought about a global movement for change. The video recording of his death set off a series of protests in the United States and around the world, awakening millions to the dire need for reimagining this country’s broken systems of policing. But behind a face that would be graffitied onto countless murals, and a name that has become synonymous with civil rights, there is the reality of one man’s stolen life: a life beset by suffocating systemic pressures that ultimately proved inescapable.
All the books on this list are available to borrow from the Bracebridge Library. You can also browse our online catalogue to see what else is available.