The mission of the Boyle County Public Library is to engage the community by promoting life-long literacy and learning, to connect people to information and technologies, and to contribute to local cultural life. The Library's vision is to serve as a hub for the exchange of information and the provision of programs and services that enhance the quality of life in our community.
At this time when our country is advocating for social justice, the Library can fulfill those vision and mission statements by providing resources and information to help our community. We offer this reading list to provide such resources to highlight Black authors and the Black experience.
Books in the following list are referenced by one or more of the following: We Need Diverse Books’ Resources for Race Equity and Inclusion, the National Book Foundation’s National Book Award or the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards or book list (specifically the Coretta Scott King Awards, Morris Award, and The Amelia Bloomer Book List).
All of these books are available to check out from our print or media collections, or from our digital collections using the Libby app. Search our Online Catalog for availability.
FICTION
Adult Fiction:
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. (Available in print, CD book, and Libby app.)
- Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston. (Available in print, CD book, Playaway, and Libby app.)
Young Adult Fiction:
- Dear Martin by Nic Stone. (Available in print, CD book, and on Libby app.)
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. (Available in print, CD book, and on Libby app.)
- Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. (Available in print, discussion kit, and Libby app.)
- Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson. (Available in print and Libby app.)
- Monster by Walter Dean Myers. (Available in print and Libby app.)
Juvenile Fiction:
- Genesis Begins Again by Alicia Williams. (Available in print.)
- A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée. (Available in print.)
- The Journey of Little Charlie by Christopher Paul Curtis. (Available in print and Libby app.)
- New Kid by Jerry Craft. (Available in print and Libby app.)
- The Stars beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore. (Available in print.)
Children’s Fiction:
- The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson. (Available in print.)
- Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford. (Available in print.)
NONFICTION
Adult Nonfiction:
- Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X. (Available in print and Libby app.)
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. (Available in print and Libby app.)
- Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century by Dorothy E. Roberts. (Available in print.)
- How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. (Available in print and on Libby app.)
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. (Available in print, CD book, and on Libby app.)
- Just Mercy: a Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson. (Available in print and Libby app.)
- March series by John Lewis. (Available in print and Libby app.)
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. (Available in print and Libby app.)
- The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. (Available in print and Libby app.)
Young Adult Nonfiction:
- An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People by Jean Mendoza. (Available in print and Libby app.)
- Stamped--Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi. (Available on Libby app.)
- This Book is Antiracist by Tiffany Jewell. (Available in print.)
Juvenile Nonfiction:
- Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison. (Available in print and Libby app.)
- Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney. (Available in print.)
- The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander. (Available in print and Libby app.)
