Children's Books Catalog
Looking For A Jumbie
Author: Tracey Baptiste
I’m looking for a jumbie, I’m going to find a scary one.
But Mama says jumbies exist only in stories. So Naya sets out on a nighttime adventure to find out for herself.
No such thing, say the friends she makes along the way.
But Naya is sure that jumbies are real. Some have big mouths. Or thick fur. Or glowing skin. Or sharp teeth. Kind of like her new friends.…
Looking for a Jumbie is a gentle, bouncy, and creepily fun read-aloud inspired by traditional Caribbean tales.
Little Troublemaker Defends Her Name
Author: Luvvie Ajayi Jones
Little Luvvie is ready for her first day at a new school!
But immediately things do not go well. First, a kid in class makes fun of her name. How dare he! But Luvvie’s instant response gets her scolded. Then she forgets her lunch. And worst of all, her teacher sees a private note Luvvie had written to herself where she talked about how much she doesn’t like her new school. What a day! But this little troublemaker figures out how to turn things around.
In this remarkably relatable picture book, Little Luvvie, the star of Little Troublemaker Makes a Mess, learns that she can be kind even as she stands up for herself, and that learning from mistakes can open her up to making new friends who respect and appreciate her.
Written by the New York Times bestselling author Luvvie Ajayi Jones, with bright, bold art by Joey Spiotto, this funny, sweet story is dedicated to all the kids whose names might feel too different. It reminds us that our names are worth getting right and celebrating.
Little Legends: Exceptional Men in Black History
Author: Vashti Harrison
An important book for readers of all ages, this beautifully illustrated and engagingly written volume brings to life true stories of black men in history. Among these biographies, readers will find aviators and artists, politicians and pop stars, athletes and activists. The exceptional men featured include writer James Baldwin, artist Aaron Douglas, filmmaker Oscar Devereaux Micheaux, lawman Bass Reeves, civil rights leader John Lewis, dancer Alvin Ailey, and musician Prince.
The legends in Little Legends: Exceptional Men in Black History span centuries and continents, but each one has blazed a trail for generations to come.
Little Daymond Learns to Earn
Author: Daymond John
Entrepreneur, FUBU founder, and Shark Tank fan fave Daymond John introduces kids to basic ideas about money and starting their own business in this accessible picture book!
Meet Little Daymond and his enterprising friends! When Daymond hatches an idea for a small business to make money to buy a music poster he wants, the whole crew comes together and figures out their unique strengths so they can each get exactly what they want—and even have some change to spare.
Bestselling author and Shark Tank star Daymond John uses this fun story to ignite kids' early interest in how money works--including the concepts of saving, spending, budgeting, and borrowing--to develop a basic foundation of financial literacy that sets children up for success in the future.
Little Black Girl: Oh, the Things You Will Do!
Author: Kirby Howell-Baptiste
An empowering and joyous picture book by actress Kirby Howell-Baptiste (The Sandman) that instills confidence and encourages little Black girls to reach for their wildest dreams.
Illustrated by the talented Paul Davey, this inspiring picture book celebrates all little Black girls, the power of community, and the joy and hope of being a child.
In beautiful, lyrical text actress Kirby Howell-Baptiste tells the story of one Black girl and her limitless potential as she pursues her dream of robotics. Determined to have her robot ready for the school fair, getting everything done in time won’t be easy, but this little Black girl knows she is destined to shine and is not going to let anything hold her back from achieving her dream. With bright, bold plans in mind she begins to sketch and build her robot. The joy she has pursuing her passion is infectious and she has a community of strong women around her, encouraging and supporting her as she lives out her dream.
You have sparks in your brain and fire in your heart.
You can decide where to stop and where to start.
You were born unique. None of us are the same.
Your only job: Make them remember your name.
Little Black Boy: Oh, the Things You Will Do!
Author: Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Larry C. Fields III
A little Black boy finds the courage to go after his dreams in this empowering and inspirational picture book by actress Kirby Howell-Baptiste (The Sandman) with actor Larry Fields.
With vivid, dimensional illustrations by Paul Davey, this encouraging and hopeful picture book celebrates the joy of being a little Black boy and their bright futures.
Fascinated by marine wildlife, a little Black boy dreams of one day swimming in the ocean alongside all the creatures that make it their home. It will take courage to move from the safety of the swimming pool to the vastness of the ocean, but as he begins his journey of discovery, he soon finds there’s nothing he can’t do. He realizes if he cares about the animals in the ocean, he must also care about their home and sets out to preserve the beaches he loves by picking up trash. This little boy is determined not only to reach his dream of becoming a marine biologist, but to make a difference in the world and to share his passion of environmental conservation with everyone.
Little Big Man
Author: Varian Johnson
Elijah can't wait to take his brand-new kite for its first flight! But with a new baby in the family, Daddy has to work this weekend. Elijah finds a clever way to help out and pitch in with his family while also reminding his dad how to still have a little fun.
Beloved children's book author, Varian Johnson’s debut picture book highlights the fun journey of a young child building his confidence as he steps up into the big kid role, specifically as the little big man of the house.
Like So
Author: Ruth Forman
Told from Nana’s point of view, this simple, affirming, and comforting read-aloud shows how every family’s love is natural and connected to the world around us. Just as the sun loves the day, the moon loves the waves, and the night sky loves the star glow…so is our love for each other: innate, wondrous, and infinite.
Light
Author: Ruth Forman
A young boy’s eyes reflect the light of the universe in this luminous board book from bestselling author Ruth Forman!
My eyes
carry stars
my eyes
see you
and smile
A boy visits a planetarium with his father and brother for a night of stargazing that opens him to the infinitely bright universe.
Lift-and-Trace: Colors: With Flaps and Grooves
Author: Karina Dupuis, et.al
Follow the die-cut grooves with your finger and lift the flaps of this interactive board book that helps develop hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. Each page encourages hands-on learning and teaches toddlers about colors.
- Flaps and die-cut grooves add fun visual and tactile elements;
- Simple text and bold graphics captivate young readers' attention;
- Other titles in this board book series: Colors, Numbers, and Opposites.
Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina (Young Readers Edition)
Author: Misty Copeland
When she first placed her hands on the barre at an after-school community center, no one expected thirteen-year-old Misty Copeland to become one of America’s most groundbreaking dancers. A true prodigy, she was attempting in months roles that take most dancers years to master. But when Misty became caught between the control and comfort she found in the world of ballet and the harsh realities of her own life, she had to choose to embrace both her identity and her dreams, and find the courage to be one of a kind.
With an insider’s passion, Misty opens a window into the life of an artist who lives life center stage, from behind the scenes at her first classes to her triumphant roles in some of the world’s most iconic ballets. A sensational memoir as “sensitive” and “clear-eyed” (The Washington Post) as her dancing, Life in Motion is a story of passion, identity, and grace for anyone who has dared to dream of a different life.
Libby Loves Science: Mix and Measure
Author: Kimberly Derting and Shelli R. Johannes
Libby loves science! In this STEM-themed Level 3 I Can Read! title, Libby and her friend Rosa learn about mixing and measuring to bake a delicious treat for a puppy party. A great choice for aspiring scientists, emerging readers, and fans of Andrea Beaty’s Ada Twist, Scientist. Includes activities, a glossary, and a cupcake recipe.
Libby loves science—and experimenting! In this Level 3 I Can Read! title, Libby hosts a puppy party for her friends and their dogs. With the help of her friend Rosa and little brother, Libby decorates, stuffs goody bags and bakes delicious cupcakes. But when they realize they’ve forgotten an important ingredient, they use science to solve the problem—just in the nick of time.
The Loves Science books introduce readers to girls who love science, as well as basic concepts of science, technology, engineering, and math. This Level 3 I Can Read! focuses on basic chemistry and friendship. A great pick for newly independent readers and an ideal companion to Cece Loves Science: Push and Pull.
Let's Be Friends (L.O.L. Surprise!) (Step into Reading)
Author: Random House
Meet Queen Bee, Miss Punk, Sugar Queen, and all of your favorite L.O.L. Surprise!TM fierce friends! This Step 3 Step into Reading leveled reader has over 30 outrageous L.O.L. Surprise!TM stickers--perfect for boys and girls ages 5 to 8! Step 3 readers feature engaging characters in easy-to-follow plots about popular topics. For children who are ready to read on their own.
In a world where babies run everything, little Rockers rebel against nap time and Teacher's Pets become class presidents with "Free Pizza Fridays!" In the L.O.L. Surprise! TM world, all work is play and nothing is dull cuz it's all a lil' surprising and outrageous!
Little Troublemaker Makes A Mess
Author: Luvvie Ajayi Jones
Whoops!
Little Luvvie loves her mom. She loves her sister. And she loves doing nice things for other people.
But what happens when doing something nice means breaking some rules? Little Luvvie is about to find out.
Written by the New York Times bestselling author Luvvie Ajayi Jones with bright, bold art by Joey Spiotto, this funny, sweet story about a bighearted girl with the best of intentions is sure to become a family favorite.
Little Superstars: Beyoncé: A Push, Pull, Slide Book
Author: Campbell Books
Little Superstars: Beyoncé is an interactive introduction to the influential singer, performer and businesswoman, and empowers young children to dream big.
Push, pull and slide the scenes to discover Beyoncé’s incredible life story, and even dance and sing along with her!
With bright, colorful illustrations by Jayri Gomez, fun rhyming text and lots of detail to spot, young children will want to revisit this book again and again.
Little Groot, Big Feeling
Author: Kiara Valdez
I am Groot can mean many things. I AM GROOOOOOT means that Groot is angry that he has to clean his room. I AM GROOT!! means that he’s happy to be hanging out with the other guardians. I am Grooooot means that Groot is scared. Where did his friends go? It’s up to Groot to save the day in this original story! Featuring adorable illustrations, this storybook will explore Groot's emotions and the best ways to cope when things get a little out of hand.
Little Black Lives Matter
Author: Khodi Dill
An inspiring, life-affirming debut activist board book in rhyming couplets and triplets about Black heroes for little ones, their families, and anyone who loves A is for Activist and Antiracist Baby.Little Black Lives Matter empowers all children, but Black children especially, by affirming that their lives, however little they may yet be, matter. Featuring fifteen great Black heroes of the past and the powerful words they spoke and actions they took, Little Black Lives Matter is a rhyming board book that incorporates memorable quotations and a reminder to little ones that each of these great people once lived a little Black life themselves. From Harriet Tubman and Malcolm X to other inspiring freedom fighters like Marsha P. Johnson, Fred Hampton, and Frederick Douglass, writers James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and Maya Angelou, musical artists Billie Holiday and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, athletes Wilma Rudolph, Jesse Owens, and Muhammad Ali, and Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., this little book encourages young readers to find their inner heroes and see their own self-worth and agency through the acts of great Black heroes who came before them. “let us look upon them and let us say their names,And let us hear the mighty words they spoke to bring us change.…Audre Lorde lived a little Black life before she wrote to inspire—“I am deliberate and afraid of nothing”—to remind us of our inner power, and to share her poetic fire.…“So many who’ve lived these little black lives have mattered, so, you see,But you needn’t change the world, my child, to mean the world to me.
Little Black Girl
Author: Brittany Green
Little Black Girl is a love letter to little black girls all around the globe to remind them who they are, where they come from, and what they can become.
Little Black Boy
Author: Brittany Green
Little Black Boy celebrates the contributions black men have made to the world past and present and encourages little black boys to leave their mark in the future!
Listen to the Girls
Author: Chrystal D. Giles
What if the truth really is as powerful as it feels?
Calla has always had smart-girl energy. She’s Josiah the track star’s practical younger sister. Charlee and Jacoby’s problem-solving best friend. Attorney Dionne Howard’s model daughter. So it’s nice when someone seems to see her for her, outside of all that. But what if that person is a grown-up who maybe isn’t as trustworthy as Calla thought? Calla’s mom likes to say “Always do what you know is right.” But what if you don’t know what the right thing is?
These are the questions Calla faces on the last day of seventh grade, when she finds out that her favorite teacher has been accused of inappropriate conduct at his old school. Calla doesn’t know what really happened. She does know that people are saying mean things about the girls who have spoken out—and that can’t be right . . . can it? Inspired by her favorite newsblogger, EboniNews (whose motto is Amplify. Connect. Truth. ACT.), Calla has an idea. Can she find a way to ACT?
Like Lava in My Veins
Author: Derrick Barnes
All it takes is a loving teacher to help a boy get control of his sizzling superpowers, in this vibrant picture book by bestselling author Derrick Barnes.Bobby Beacon’s got fire flowing through his veins. And now he’s psyched to attend a new school that’ll help him get a better grip on his powers. But right off the bat, his new teacher is not too welcoming. That causes Bobby’s hot temper to land him in the principal’s office. It ain’t easy to stay calm when people don’t seem to understand you and are always pushing you to the edge. Good thing Bobby gets moved to a class with an understanding teacher who clues him in on ways to calm himself and shows him that caring for others is its own kind of superpower. With her help—and some cool new friends—he just might be on his way to becoming the best version of himself possible.
Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box
Author: Evette Dionne
This Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book and National Book Award longlisted work tells the important, overlooked story of black women as a force in the suffrage movement—when fellow suffragists did not accept them as equal partners in the struggle.
Susan B. Anthony. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Alice Paul. The Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls. The 1913 Women's March in D.C. When the epic story of the suffrage movement in the United States is told, the most familiar leaders, speakers at meetings, and participants in marches written about or pictured are generally white.
That's not the real story.
Women of color, especially African American women, were fighting for their right to vote and to be treated as full, equal citizens of the United States. Their battlefront wasn't just about gender. African American women had to deal with white abolitionist-suffragists who drew the line at sharing power with their black sisters. They had to overcome deep, exclusionary racial prejudices that were rife in the American suffrage movement. And they had to maintain their dignity--and safety--in a society that tried to keep them in its bottom ranks.
Lifting as We Climb is the empowering story of African American women who refused to accept all this. Women in black church groups, black female sororities, black women's improvement societies and social clubs. Women who formed their own black suffrage associations when white-dominated national suffrage groups rejected them. Women like Mary Church Terrell, a founder of the National Association of Colored Women and of the NAACP; or educator-activist Anna Julia Cooper who championed women getting the vote and a college education; or the crusading journalist Ida B. Wells, a leader in both the suffrage and anti-lynching movements.
Author Evette Dionne, a feminist culture writer and the editor-in-chief of Bitch Media, has uncovered an extraordinary and underrepresented history of black women. In her powerful book, she draws an important historical line from abolition to suffrage to civil rights to contemporary young activists—filling in the blanks of the American suffrage story.
Life Is Beautiful
Author: Winsome Bingham
Every week, Granny Dee takes three trains and one bus to have a weekend full of TV-watching, bubble-bathing, nail-painting, day-tripping, and living LIFE with her granddaughter. Granny Dee always says, “Everybody should enjoy life. Life is beautiful.”
Until one weekend Granny Dee doesn’t come, and Momma says she’s getting too old for trains and buses. So week after week, the little girl and her momma go to her instead. Then, one Sunday morning, Granny Dee dies. Can Momma and the little girl still find beauty in life while missing someone they loved?
Lies and Other Tall Tales
Author: Zora Neale Hurston
These tales are so tall they touch the sky! From Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor artist Christopher Myers and Zora Neale Hurston.
While traveling in the Gulf States in the 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston, author of the classic Their Eyes Were Watching God, collected and recorded some real whoppers told by folks from all walks of life. Not "dog ate my homework" kind of lies, but tales so wild you didn't ever want to hear the truth. And now today's picture book readers can enjoy these far-fetched fibs with Christopher Myers's spirited adaption and bold, expressive collages.
Letters to Misty : How to Move Through Life with Confidence and Grace
Author: Misty Copeland with Nikki Shannon Smith
New York Times bestselling author and first black female American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Misty Copeland offers advice for on and off the dance floor to young readers based on letters she’s received over the years from fans.
As the first African American principal female dancer at American Ballet Theatre, Misty Copeland has spent most of her career navigating a white-dominated industry that puts many barriers in her path. Through it all, Misty has credited the many mentors who have helped her become the dancer and person she is today.
With Misty’s profile now at peak heights, she has now found herself in a mentor role herself, often asked for advice on everything from dance-specific questions to life lessons about being the “other” in certain spaces by her fans. As Misty herself has said, “I think it’s really important to have a community around you, a support system, mentors, people that are going to be there for you on those days when you just aren’t strong enough to do it yourself.”
Given that philosophy, Misty is thrilled to bring this book of advice to life, covering everything from body confidence to balancing various commitments and how to break out of your comfort zone. Each section includes personal anecdotes from Misty about the topic that bring her perspective to life.