As February approaches, I am scouring our classroom library to find the picture books that I will read aloud every day in honor of Black History month. I try to stay away from the most known stories, after all, if we are to truly celebrate Black excellence then it is important that my students can name more people than just Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks or Harriet Tubman. And yet, they also need to know these stories. And so for the 21 teaching days of February, I pulled 21 picture books, each featuring, perhaps, a story of someone that my students may not have heard of it. Each featuring something they should know more about. Something that may inspire them to ask more questions, to understand more about the world they live in.
I have pulled many more than this and every surface in here is filled with stories of those who have made our country what it is. I hope that our students will take a moment to reach out, read something, and learn something. It is only a small component of the ways Black History will be explored in our school.
In no special order, here are the picture books I plan on sharing with students. I have a few more purchases coming in, so these may change, but they are a start. Which picture books do you plan on sharing?
Other great resources that help me plan and think of what I can explore with students.
Poetry for Black History Month
Resources from Teaching Tolerance
PBS resources – including videos – to celebrate
Black History is Happening Now Spotify curation by Pharrell Williams
Finally, Black History month shouldn’t be the first time that students see collections of text that feature African American. I know it seems silly to say, but representation matters and it matters all of the time. As I pulled books for this read aloud collection, I had to skip great books because we had already shared those stories. This is how it should be every year in my classroom. So while I continue on my journey to do more and learn more, reading these stories aloud is one further step in my journey.
Pernille Ripp 
Bad News for Outlaws is an all-time fave of ours. Another is Josephine: the Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell. What I especially love is the intricate layering of the social/cultural contexts of the time. There is a great contrast with how blacks were viewed in other parts of the world; and who would have thought any woman would risk leave her husband in the 1920s. Here’s my review if you are interested: https://thereadingtub.org/sf/reviews/show/JOSEPHINE-BAKER-by-Patricia-Hruby-Powell
Who is the author of the Frederick Douglas book?
Here you are https://amzn.to/2TggXqt
Thank you SOOOO much for this list!!