The #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign launched last week and got rousing support on Twitter and Facebook, and the conversation continues. All the talk is good, but it’s important to actually go out and support diverse books with your hard-earned cash.
If you’re interested in buying from indie booksellers. This link will help you find the ones near you. However, wherever you buy these books it’s going to be a good thing.
And so you know what to buy, here’s a list of books by or about African/Afro-Caribbean/African-Americans that were published in 2013. Some books are reissues. I think it’s all correct. If you notice any issues, please let me know and I’ll update the list.
Enjoy.
| Title | Author | Illustrator |
| Sasquatch in the Paint | Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem | |
| Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad | Adler, David | |
| He Said, She Said | Alexander, Kwame | |
| The Laura Line | Allen, Crystal | |
| Splash, Anna Hibiscus! | Atinuke | Lauren Tobias |
| The Market Bowl | Averbeck, Jim | |
| Hold Fast | Balliett, Blue | |
| Jump Shot | Barber, Tiki and Ronde | |
| Knock Knock: My Dad’s Dream for Me | Beaty, Daniel | Bryan Collier |
| Revenge of a Not-So-Pretty Girl | Blythe, Carolita | |
| 12 Days of New York | Bolden, Tonya | Gilbert Ford |
| Emancipation Proclamation | Bolden, Tonya | |
| Echo | Brewster, Alicia Wright | |
| My Cold Plum Lemon Pie Bluesy Mood | Brown, Tameka Fryer | Shane W. Evans |
| Can’t Scare Me | Bryan, Ashley | |
| A Splash of Red: the life of Horace Pippin | Bryant, Jen | Melissa Sweet |
| The Cart that Carried Martin | Bunting, Eve | Don Tate |
| Serafina’s Promise | Burg, Ann | |
| What Was Your Dream, Dr. King? | Carson, Mary Kay | |
| Ignite: All About Myths: African Myths and Legends | Chambers, Catherine | |
| Etched in Clay | Cheng, Andrea | |
| Max and the Tag-along Moon | Cooper, Floyd | |
| Parched | Crowder, Melanie | |
| Off to Market | Dale, Elizabeth | Erika Pal |
| Don’t Spill the Milk! | Davies, Stephen | Christopher Corr |
| A Marked Man | Doeden, Matt | |
| Panic | Draper, Sharon | |
| Go, Jade, Go | Dungy, Tony and Lauren | Vanessa Brantley-Newton |
| The Missing Cupcake Mystery | Dungy, Tony and Lauren | Vanessa Brantley-Newton |
| Africa is My Home: A child of the Amistad | Edinger, Monica | Robert Byrd |
| Dog Days. | English, Karen | Laura Freeman |
| Nikki & Deja: Substitute Trouble | English, Karen | Laura Freeman |
| Life is Beautiful! | Eulate, Ana | Nivola Uya |
| A Song for Bijou | Farrar, Josh | |
| I See the Promised Land | Flowers, Arthur | Manu Chitrakar |
| The Price of Freedom | Fradin, Judith Bloom and Dennis Brindell Fradin | Eric Velasquez |
| Community Soup | Fullerton, Alma | |
| A Good Trade | Fullerton, Alma | Karen Patkau |
| Words with Wings | Grimes, Nikki | |
| Schuman, Michael A. | Halle Berry | |
| The Girl Who Heard Colors. | Harris, Marie | Vanessa Brantley-Newton |
| When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop | Hill, Laban Carrick | Theodore Taylor III |
| The Magic Bojabi Tree | Hofmeyr, Dianne | Piet Grobler |
| Lullaby (For a Black Mother). | Hughes, Langston | Sean Qualls |
| Vengeance Bound | Ireland, Justina | |
| The Summer Prince | Johnson, Alaya Dawn | |
| Lottie Paris and the Best Place | Johnson, Angela | Scott Fischer |
| Flowers in the Sky | Joseph, Lynn | |
| The Campaign | Karre, Elizabeth | |
| Trouper | Kearney, Meg | E. B. Lewis |
| Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest for Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who would cure the world | Kidder, Tracy | |
| My Daddy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. | King III, Martin Luther | AG Ford |
| Louisa May’s Battle | Krull, Kathleen | Carlyn Beccia |
| Charm and Strange | Kuehn, Stephanie | |
| You Choose: The Harlem Renaissance | Lassieur, Allison | |
| We Shall Overcome: The Story of a Song | Levy, Debbie | Vannessa Brantley-Newton |
| March: Book One | Lewis, John and Andrew Aydin | Nate Powell |
| Cline-Ransome, Lesa | Light in the Darkness: A Story About How Slaves Learned in Secret | James E. Ransome |
| Hope’s Gift | Lyons, Kelly Starling | Don Tate |
| The Pirate’s Coin: A Sixty-Eight Rooms Adventure | Malone, Marianne | |
| Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table | Martin, Jacqueline Briggs | Eric-Shabazz |
| The Mystery of Meerkat Hill | McCall Smith, Alexander | Iain McIntosh |
| Lulu and the Cat in the Bag | McKay, Hilary | |
| Lulu and the Dog from the Sea | McKay, Hilary | |
| Jesse Owens | McKissack, Patricia and Fredrick | |
| Ol’ Clip-Clop. | McKissack, Patricia C | Eric Velasquez |
| Double Victory: How African American Women Broke Race and Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II | Mullenbach, Cheryl | |
| Kuku and Mwewe: A Swahili Folktale | Munte Vidal, Marta | |
| The Cruisers: Oh, Snap! | Myers, Walter Dean | |
| Darius & Twig | Myers, Walter Dean | |
| Invasion | Myers, Walter Dean | |
| A Great Idea Engineering: The Pyramids of Giza | Nardo, Don | |
| Mythology and Culture Worldwide: Egyptian Mythology | Nardo, Don | |
| Nelson Mandela | Nelson, Kadir | |
| I am Harriet Tubman | Norwich, Grace | Ute Simon |
| Mister and Lady Day: Billie Holiday and the Dog Who Loved Her | Novesky, Amy | Vanessa Brantley Newton |
| Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas | Ottaviani, Jim and Maris Wicks | |
| Spy Boy, Cheyenne, and 96 Crayons | Owen, Rob | |
| Out of Nowhere | Padian, Maria | |
| Martin & Mahalia: His Words, Her Song | Pinkney, Andrea Davis | Brian Pinkney |
| Peace Warriors | Pinkney, Andrea Davis | |
| The Tortoise & the Hare | Pinkney, Jerry | |
| A Girl Called Problem | Quirk, Katie | |
| Sugar | Rhodes, Jewell Parker | |
| The Cucuy Stole My Cascarones | Rivas, Spelile | Valeria Cervantes |
| Jackie Robinson: American Hero. | Robinson, Sharon | |
| Hey, Charleston! | Rockwell, Anne | Colin Bootman |
| The Other Side of Free | Russell, Krista | |
| Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-so-Happy Heartbreaker | Russell, Rachel Renee | |
| Dork Diaries: OMG! All About Me Diary! | Russell, Rachel Renee | |
| Prince Fielder | Savage, Jeff | |
| Anna Carries Water | Senior, Olive | Laura James |
| Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew up to Become Malcolm X | Shabazz, Ilyasah | A.G. Ford |
| Anubis Speaks! | Shecter, Vicky Alvear | |
| Something to Prove | Skead, Robert | Floyd Cooper |
| I am the World | Smith, Charles R | |
| Brick by Brick | Smith, Charles R | Floyd Cooper |
| Daddy, My Favorite Guy: Papá Mi Compañero Favorito | Smith, Icy and Crystal Smith | Octavio Oliva |
| Nobody Asked the Pea | Stewig, John Warren | Cornelius Van Wright |
| Courage Has No Color | Stone, Tanya Lee | |
| Father Groppi | Stotts, Stuart | |
| Golden Boy | Sullivan, Tara | |
| Kenya’s Song | Trice, Linda | Pamela Johnson |
| As Fast as Words Could Fly | Tuck, Pamela N | Eric Velasquez |
| Desmond and the Very mean Word | Tutu, Archbishop Desmond and Douglas Carlton Abrams | A.G. Ford |
| Next | Waltman, Kevin | |
| The Milk of Birds | Whitman, Sylvia | |
| P.S. Be Eleven | Williams-Garcia, Rita | |
| JFK | Winter, Jonah | AG Ford |
| You Never Heard of Willie Mays?! | Winter, Jonah | Terry Widener |
| This is the Rope: A Story From the Great Migration | Woodson, Jacqueline | James Ransome |
| The Granddaughter Necklace | Wyeth, Sharon Dennis | Bagram Ibatoulline |
| Between U and Me | Zendaya |
Tracey Baptiste 
Reblogged this on Why I Write Picture Books? (#YIWritePB) and commented:
#ReadSameReadDifferent
Meg Medina’s THE GIRL WHO COULD SILENCE THE WIND came out in paperback in 2013 (Candlewick). Meg is the daughter of Cuban immigrants and this just one of her beautiful stories.
Good one, Kathy, thanks! I actually need to do a list for Latino authors/subjects (and Asian, and Native American). This one only covers writers and subjects of African descent.
Oh, sorry — I wasn’t reading carefully and focused on “Caribbean!” This is a fabulous list. Now I have even more books to add to my shelves!!
I know! There are a LOT on this list that I will be buying.
Gonna tweet this out! And don’t forget to email it to WeNeedDiverseBooks at yahoo so that it will get posted on out tumblr home page! Great list, Tracey.
I didn’t even know about the yahoo account. I’ll do that now.