RESOURCES

(prepared by Bernard Demczuk, PhD)

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Selected Readings of African American Children’s Books

 

• Anatol, Giselle Lisa. “Children’s and Young Adult Literature.” In The Cambridge History of African American Literature. Edited by Maryemma Graham, 611–654. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

• Baker, Augusta Braxton. The Black Experience in Children’s Books. New York: New York Public Library, 1971.

• [Bishop], Rudine Sims. Shadow and Substance: The Afro-American Experience in Contemporary Children’s Fiction. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1982.

• Bishop, Rudine Sims. “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors.”Perspectives: Choosing and Using Books for the Classroom 6, no. 3, Summer 1990.

• Bishop, Rudine Sims. Free within Ourselves: The Development of African American Children’s Literature. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007.

• Bishop, Rudine Sims. “Contemporary African American Children’s Literature: Continuity and Change.” Wasafiri 24, no. 4 (2009): 3–8.

• Capshaw, Katharine. Civil Rights Childhood: Picturing Liberation in African American Photobooks. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014.

• Capshaw, Katharine, and Anna Mae Duane, eds. Who Writes for Black Children: African American Children’s Literature before 1900. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017.

• Capshaw Smith, Katharine. Children’s Literature of the Harlem Renaissance. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2004.

• Chandler, Karen. “Uncertain Directions in Black Children’s Literature.” The Lion and the Unicorn 43, no. 2 (April 2019): 172–181.

• Harris, Violet J. “African American Children’s Literature: The First One Hundred Years.” The Journal of Negro Education 59, no. 4 (Autumn 1990): 540–555.

• Horning, Katherine T., “Milestones for Diversity in Children’s Literature” Children and Libraries, 8, Fall 2015.

• Johnson-Feelings, Dianne. Telling Tales: The Pedagogy and Promise of African American Literature for Youth. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.

• MacCann, Donnarae, and Gloria Woodard. The Black American in Books for Children: Readings in Racism. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1972.

• Martin, Michelle H. Brown Gold: Milestones of African-American Children’s Picture Books, 1845–2002. New York: Routledge, 2004.

• McNair, Jonda C. “Classic African American Children’s Literature.” The Reading Teacher 64, no. 2 (2010): 96–105.

• McNair, Jonda, and Wanda Brooks, eds. Embracing, Evaluating and Examining African American Children’s and Young Adult Literature. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2008.

• Murphy, Barbara Thrash, and Deborah Murphy, eds. Black Authors and Illustrators of Books for Children and Young Adults. New York: Routledge, 2007.

• Rollock, Barbara. Black Authors and Illustrators of Children’s Books: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Garland, 1988.

• Smith, Karen Patricia, ed. African-American Voices in Young Adult Literature: Tradition, Transition, Transformation. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1994.

• Thomas, Ebony Elizabeth. “African American Children’s Literature: Liminal Terrains and Strategies for Selfhood.” In Diversity in Youth Literature: Opening Doors through Reading. Edited by Jamie Campbell Naidoo and Sarah Park Dahlen, 33–43. Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 2013.

• Tolson, Nancy. Black Children’s Literature Got de Blues: The Creativity of Black Writers and Illustrators. New York: Peter Lang, 2008.

 

 

 

 

Selected Essays on American American Children’s Literature:

 

• Anna Gifty Opogu-Ageyman, “The Heavy Cost of Banning Books About Black Children,” June 2, 2023.

• Augusta Baker, “The Changing Image of Black Children’s Literature,” The Horn Book, Feb. 1, 1975.

• Bridgett Fielder, “African American Children’s Literature,” Oxford Research Encyclopedia, LITERATURE, March 23, 2022.

• Virginia Hamilton, “Portrait of the Author as a Working Writer,” Elementary English, April 1971.

• June Jordan, "Black English: The Politics of Translation,” School Library Journal, May 1973.

• Nancy Larrick,"The All-White World of Children's Books.” Saturday Review, September 11, 1965.

• Christopher Meyers, “The Apartheid of Children’s Literature.” NY Times, March 15, 2014.

• Walter Dean Myers, “Where Are the People of Color in Children’s Books?” NY Times, March 15, 2014.

• S. Mia Obiwo and Fancheska Starks, “The Immeasurable Value of Children’s Books,” The Black Agenda, by Anna Gifty Opoigu-Ageyman, 2023.