Independent Reading Suggested Books for Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans
See our Independent Reading for Elementary Students Teacher Tool for guidance on how to use the suggested texts below.
Fiction Texts with Connecting Topics and Themes
- A Sky Full of Stars by Linda Williams Jackson (780L)
- A Wreath for Emmett Till by Marilyn Nelson
- Betty Before X by Ilyasah Shabazz (810L)
- Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (990L) **
- Crow by Barbara Wright (800L)
- Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (980L)
- Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule by Harriette Gillem Robinet (610L)
- Many Thousand Gone: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom by Virginia Hamilton (990L) **
Informational Texts to Build Content Knowledge
- 28 Days: Moments in Black History that Changed the World by Charles R. Smith Jr.
- Claudette Colvin by Phillip Hoose (1000L)
- Freedom's Children by Ellen S. Levine (760L)
- Selma, Lord, Selma by Frank Sikora (830L)
- Turning 15 by Lynda Blackmon Lowery (780L)
- We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson (900L)
- What Color is My World?: The Lost History of African-American Inventors by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (880L)
- Witnesses to Freedom by Belinda Rochelle (1040L)
* lower Lexile or qualitative measures than core text.
** higher Lexile or qualitative measures than core text.
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