Nonfiction

The Black Caucus of the American Library Association released its 2023 Best of the Best Books list, featuring more than 75 titles divided into three categories: PreK–4, Grades 5–8, and Grades 9–12.

The theme for Black History Month 2024 is "African Americans and the Arts." In these titles, young readers can learn about people who loved to express themselves through visual art, dance, song, and other forms of artistic creation.

Here are the overall Top 10 books chosen from six curated lists, spanning early readers to YA.

“Because Black history isn’t centered, you have to search harder for those stories,” says Gill, who has researched figures including Spottswood Rice, who escaped enslavement and joined the Union Army, and motorcyclist Bessie Stringfield. 

In this guest post, artist Sammy Savos details her creative process and discusses her collaboration with Holocaust survivor Estelle Nadel to create the graphic memoir The Girl Who Sang. "I’m very grateful that she was able to see the finished book, hold it in her hands, and tell me how happy she was with it."

Learners of all ages can grasp facts at a glance in Britannica’s new Encyclopedia Infographica. Readers can explore thousands of facts about space, earth, animals, humans, and technology through two hundred original infographic illustrations, including maps, charts, timelines, and more.

The winner of the award, which honors the best YA nonfiction title, will be announced during the Youth Media Awards ceremony on January 22.

These two titles, both young reader adaptations of adult nonfiction books, put readers in the shoes (or, more accurately, the feathers and families) of their animal counterparts.

In his SLJ Summit keynote address, the best-selling "Wimpy Kid" author shared the memorable titles from his youth, as well as those that have opened his eyes to his privilege and the lives of those not like him.