Young Adult Literature Featuring African-Americans

I highly recommend the following young adult authors: Christopher Paul Curtis, Virginia Hamilton, and Mildred Taylor. Mr. Curtis' Watsons Go to Birmingham is both humorous and serious, looking at regular family problems and at the 1963 bombings in Birmingham. Mildred Taylor shows us the inequalities between blacks and whites in the south after the Civil War but before the Civil Rights Movement. Taylor's books may be challenging for some readers, but they shouldn't be missed. I love to read Virginia Hamilton's Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush out loud. The words are musical.

For a list of additional young adult books, try this website:

African American Fiction and Literature for Young Adults (Evanston Public Library)
http://www.epl.org/library/bibliographies/ya-afam-fiction.html