Selected recent titles for Black History Month:
Black-Owned:The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore by Char Adams (Tiny Reparations Books, $32, 9780593474235, November 4).
Longtime NBC News reporter Char Adams offers a history of Black political movements through the lens of Black-owned bookstores, which have been centers for organizing from abolition to the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter. The book is packed with stories of activism, espionage, violence, community, and perseverance, starting with the first Black-owned bookstore, which an abolitionist opened in New York in 1834. In the 20th century, civil rights and Black Power activists started a Black bookstore boom nationwide. Malcolm X gave speeches in front of the National Memorial African Book Store in Harlem—a place dubbed "Speakers' Corner"—and later, Black bookstores became targets of FBI agents, police, and racist vigilantes. Still, stores continued to fuel Black political movements.
Bookshops were also places of celebration: Eartha Kitt and Langston Hughes held autograph parties at their local Black-owned bookstores. Maya Angelou became the face of National Black Bookstore Week. And today a new generation of Black activists is joining the radical bookstore tradition, with rapper Noname opening her Radical Hood Library in Los Angeles and several stores making national headlines when they were overwhelmed with demand in the Black Lives Matter era. As Adams makes clear, in a time of increasing repression, Black bookstores are needed now more than ever.
The Look by Michelle Obama with Meredith Koop (Crown, $50, 9780593800706, November 4).
With more than 200 photographs, The Look is a journey through former First Lady Michelle Obama's style evolution, in her own words for the first time, as she shares how she uses the beauty and intrigue of fashion to draw attention to her message.
Featuring the voices of Meredith Koop, Obama's stylist, as well as her makeup artist Carl Ray, hairstylists Yene Damtew, Johnny Wright, and Njeri Radway, and many of the designers who have dressed Obama for notable events, The Look takes readers behind the scenes not only to reveal how her most memorable looks came together but also to tell a powerful story about how we present ourselves.
Obama's intimate and candid stories illuminate how her approach to dressing has evolved throughout her life—from the colorful sheath dresses, cardigans, and brooches she wore during her time as First Lady to the bold suits, denim, and braids of her post-White House life and all the active looks and beautiful gowns in between. Confidence, she concludes, cannot be put on. But when you're wearing something that's intentional or beloved, clothing can make you feel like the best version of yourself.
My Heart Speaks Kriolu by Stefanie Foster Brown, illus. by Keisha Morris (Denene Millner Books/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $19.99, 9781665927833, November 4).
On Saturday walks with her grandfather, a young girl connects with her Cabo Verdean heritage while learning about the true meaning of home in this debut picture book.
Papa always speaks of someday taking his granddaughter to Cabo Verde. But the young girl has never set foot on their ancestral island's faraway shores. And each time Papa urges her to speak Kriolu, the Portuguese creole native to the West African country, the girl's tongue betrays her, and she stumbles over her own words. If she can't get the language right, can her grandfather's home ever truly be hers, too?
But each Saturday afternoon when she helps guide her sight-impaired grandfather through their close-knit Massachusetts community, the girl swears she can smell, hear, feel Kriolu. And each Saturday she comes closer to discovering where home truly lies.
Stella and Roger Are on the Move by Clothilde Ewing, illus. by Lynn Gaines (Denene Millner Books/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $19.99, 9781665933346, November 11).
In this fourth and final book in the Stella picture book series, Stella and Roger reflect on their favorite things about living in Chicago and try to devise a plan to stop an impending move.
Stella and Roger face their scariest challenge yet when Stella's parents announce they're moving not just out of Chicago, but to a new state. Stella doesn't want to move away from her favorite park or any of the other things she loves about the only home she’s ever known. Stella and Roger begin a campaign to convince Stella's parents that leaving Chicago is a big mistake. But is this change really as scary as they think?
The Little Girl Who Loved Christmas by Betty K. Bynum ($29.95, DreamTitle Publishing/IPG, 9798218328870, November 10).
The Little Girl Who Loved Christmas is a colorful, fun, and adventurous Christmas fantasy story about Mia, who gets locked in a world of Christmas magic and learns that the best place for Christmas is always home. The book includes an illustrated glossary full of Mia's favorite Christmas recipes, do-it-yourself Christmas ornaments and holiday decorations made with very simple instructions. This book launches a new series starring the lead character Mia from I'm a Pretty Little Black Girl!, also by Betty K. Bynum. Each book in the series is created for young readers and continues the journey from the first well-loved, bestselling picture book that launched Mia's world of wonder and cultural celebration.
I Can Make a Movie! by Morgan Stevenson Cooper, illus. by Geneva Bowers (Kokila, $18.99, 9780593858301, November 11).
From director Morgan Stevenson Cooper, this picture book is about a girl on a mission to make her first movie—and lift her grandpa's spirits along the way.
Norah Rose loves movies—action, comedy, drama—and dreams of becoming a director, but Hollywood feels a long way from home. When her grandpa falls ill, Norah decides to make a movie just for him, because no one loves a good story more than Grandpa. Equipped with her mom's phone, a head full of ideas, and the wide-open backdrop of Kansas City, Norah sets out to write, cast, shoot, and edit her very first film. There's a lot of work ahead, but Norah's sure of one thing: her movie is going to shine.
Simply More: A Book for Anyone Who Has Been Told They're Too Much by Cynthia Erivo (Flatiron Books, $28.99, 9781250428325, November 18).
The actor, singer, and performer Cynthia Erivo offers a vulnerable and enlightening book of life lessons, showing how to embrace being "too much" and to live up to the fullest iteration of ourselves. Her biggest lesson: It is never too late to build the life you're seeking.
In a series of powerful, personal vignettes, Erivo reflects on the ways she has grown as an actor and human and the practices she's learned over years of performing and reminds us all we are capable of so much more than we think. She draws from her experiences running marathons, both real and metaphorical, onstage and onscreen, to show how each challenge can help us. She urges readers to lean into the wisdom of their bodies, to understand and strive for physical and mental balance—because when we chase our deepest desires, each small step leads us closer to where we want to go.
Black, White, Colored: The Hidden Story of an Insurrection, a Family, a Southern Town, and Identity in America by Lauretta Malloy Noble and LeeAnet Noble (Amistad, $29.99, 9780063352223, November 18).
This is an investigation into a little-known historical tragedy--an insurrection that upended a resilient and wealthy Black community in Laurinburg, N.C., in 1898.
The town had been a beacon of racial calm, a place where Blacks and whites lived and worked together. Black families like the Malloys became landlords, business owners, and doctors, thriving together and changing the economic landscape. But that progress was shattered on the eve of Election Day, 1898, when supremacist groups launched a bloody attack, forcing Laurinburg's Black citizens to flee and stripping middle-class Blacks of their seats on every electoral board.
With meticulous research drawn from sources including The New York Age and census records, Lauretta Malloy Noble and LeeAnét Noble, descendants of the town's early Black leaders, uncover the trailblazing achievements of their ancestors. They piece together proof of Black resilience in a region shaped by profound adversity whose contributions extended beyond Laurinburg to institutions including Howard University and Meharry Medical College.
Daring to Be Free: Rebellion and Resistance of the Enslaved in the Atlantic World by Sudhir Hazareesingh (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $33, 9780374611071, December 2).
In this history of enslaved people's resistance and self-emancipation across the Atlantic world and beyond, the author portrays the struggle for liberation from the perspective of the enslaved and, wherever possible, in their own words. It highlights the power of collective action, stressing the role of maroon communities, conspiracies, insurrections, and spiritual movements, from Haiti and Brazil to Cuba, Mauritius, and the American South. These acts of resistance involved entire communities, with women often at the heart of the story as warriors, organizers, and agents of radical change.
Examples include West African chief Tomba who in the 1720s was abducted for organizing the local resistance against slave raiders and imprisoned on a British ship, where he promptly led a revolt using a smuggled hammer. In the early 19th century, a pregnant woman named Solitude rallied laborers and soldiers to resist Napoleon's efforts to reimpose slavery on Guadeloupe.
Bloom How You Must: A Black Woman's Guide to Self-Care and Generational Healing by Tara Pringle Jefferson (Amistad, $28, 9780063377875, December 2).
A blend of guidebook and journal, Bloom How You Must is a self-empowering wellness guide that celebrates the roots of self-care and community care as a sustaining force for generations of Black women. Bloom How You Must is a love letter to the millions of Black women who want a less stressful life but don’t know where to begin.
Tara Pringle Jefferson researches the roots of self-care and community care as a sustaining force for generations of Black women and transforms her findings into a blueprint women can follow in their daily lives. The book includes interviews with a range of women, their stories, overviews and explanations of the components of self care, exercises to put wellness into practice, explanatory graphics and sidebars, and more.
The Dream Builder's Blueprint: Dr. King's Message to Young People by Alice Faye Duncan, illus. by E.B. Lewis (Calkins Creek/Astra Publishing House, $19.99, 9781662680311, January 6).
In a speech delivered in 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. provided his young audience with life lessons: You count. Black is beautiful. Achieve excellence. Make a better world. Believe in nonviolence. Keep going!
In this book, Alice Faye Duncan reinterprets King's speech as a motivational erasure poem, accompanied by art from E.B. Lewis. Highlighting principles of excellence, activism, and compassion that remain relevant and necessary today, The Dream Builder's Blueprint has a universal message that's ideal for parents, librarians, and teachers looking for a book that distills Dr. King's principles to a level that kids can understand.