Anti-Racist Reads
Audiobooks addressing anti-racism, social justice, and the black experience. Roughly listed in order of age-appropriateness (youth to adult).
Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History
Vashti Harrison
By Vashti Harrison
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 1 hours 38 minutes
This beautifully illustrated board book edition of instant bestseller Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History showcases women who changed the world and is the perfect goodnight book to inspire big dreams.
Featuring 18 trailblazing black women in American history, Dream Big, Little One is the irresistible board book adaptation of Little... Read more »
Something Happened in Our Town
A Child's Story About Racial Injustice
By Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins & Ann Hazzard
Narrated by: Leslie Green
Length: 42 minutes
Following a police shooting, two families - one White and one Black - discuss the event, its aftermath, and what they can do to help. Read more »
New Kid
By Jerry Craft
Narrated by: Jesus Del Orden, Nile Bullock, Robin Miles, Guy Lockard, Peyton Lusk, Rebecca Soler, Dan Bittner, Phoebe Strole, Marc Thompson, Miles Harvey & Ron Butler
Length: 1 hours 58 minutes
2020 Audie Awards® Finalist—Middle Grade
Winner of the Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King Author Award, and Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature, and an Audie Award finalist!
An original full-cast audio adaptation of the graphic novel from award-winning author-illustrator Jerry Craft, performed by the author with Jesus Del Orden, Nile... Read more »
A Good Kind of Trouble
By Lisa Moore Ramée
Narrated by: Imani Parks
Length: 6 hours 45 minutes
From debut author Lisa Moore Ramée comes this funny and big-hearted debut middle grade novel about friendship, family, and standing up for what’s right, perfect for fans of Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give and the novels of Renée Watson and Jason Reynolds.
Twelve-year-old Shayla is allergic to trouble. All she wants to do is to follow the rules.... Read more »
Ghost Boys
By Jewell Parker Rhodes
Narrated by: Miles Harvey
Length: 2 hours 51 minutes
A heartbreaking and powerful story about a black boy killed by a police officer, drawing connections through history, from award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes.
Only the living can make the world better. Live and make it better.
Twelve-year-old Jerome is shot by a police officer who mistakes his toy gun for a real threat. As a ghost, he... Read more »
Black Brother, Black Brother
By Jewell Parker Rhodes
Narrated by: Barrie Buckner
Length: 4 hours 36 minutes
From award-winning and bestselling author, Jewell Parker Rhodes comes a powerful coming-of-age story about two brothers, one who presents as white, the other as black, and the complex ways in which they are forced to navigate the world, all while training for a fencing competition.
Framed. Bullied. Disliked. But I know I can still be the best.
... Read more »
Blended
By Sharon M. Draper
Narrated by: Sharon M. Draper
Length: 5 hours 41 minutes
Blended
“It's always a treat when an author reads her own work. Sharon Draper is marvelous! Isabella, Blended's protagonist, shines through Draper's voice in this thought-provoking and heart-warming tale about a young girl torn between worlds.”
Michael Leali, Anderson's Bookshop
Piecing Me Together
By Renee Watson
Narrated by: Renee Watson
Length: 5 hours 37 minutes
A timely and powerful story about a teen girl from a poor neighborhood striving for success, from acclaimed author Renee Watson. Jade believes she must get out of her neighborhood if she's ever going to succeed. Her mother says she has to take every opportunity. She has. She accepted a scholarship to a mostly-white private school and even... Read more »
Dear Martin
By Nic Stone
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Length: 4 hours 32 minutes
"Powerful, wrenching.” –JOHN GREEN, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Turtles All the Way Down
"Raw and gripping." –JASON REYNOLDS, New York Times bestselling coauthor of All American Boys
"A must-read!” –ANGIE THOMAS, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Hate U Give
Raw, captivating, and undeniably real, Nic Stone joins industry... Read more »
The Hate U Give
By Angie Thomas
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
Length: 11 hours 40 minutes
The Hate U Give
“This bestselling, powerful young adult novel about social justice and one teen girl's effort to fight for what is right, will leave you breathless. The narration by Bahni Turpin is hands down the best I've ever heard. This is such an important book it should be required reading for life in general. Or listening. Definitely listening.”
Kristen, Tattered Cover
On the Come Up
By Angie Thomas
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
Length: 11 hours 42 minutes
2020 Audie Awards® Finalist - Young Adult
#1 New York Times bestseller · Seven starred reviews · Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book
Don't miss this audiobook, Audible's Young Adult Audiobook of the Year and an Audie Award finalist!
“For all the struggle in this book, Thomas rarely misses a step as a writer. Thomas continues to hold up that... Read more »
How It Went Down
By Kekla Magoon
Narrated by: Cherise Boothe, Shari Peele, Kevin R. Free, Avery Glymph, Patricia R. Floyd, Brian Hutchison, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Ezra Knight, Peter Jay Fernandez, Hubert Point-Du-Jour & Korey Jackson
Length: 7 hours 10 minutes
When sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson dies from two gunshot wounds, his community is thrown into an uproar. Tariq was black. The shooter, Jack Franklin, is white. In the aftermath of Tariq's death, everyone has something to say, but no two accounts of the events line up. Day by day, new twists further obscure the truth. Tariq's friends, family,... Read more »
All American Boys
By Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely
Narrated by: Guy Lockard & Keith Nobbs
Length: 6 hours 35 minutes
A 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor book, and recipient of the Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature.
In this New York Times bestselling novel, two teens—one black, one white—grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country bitterly divided... Read more »
Black Enough
By Ibi Zoboi, Tracey Baptiste, Coleen Booth, Dhonielle Clayton, Brandy Colbert, Jay Coles, Lamar Giles, Leah Henderson, Justina Ireland, Varian Johnson, Kekla Magoon, Tochi Onyebuchi, Jason Reynolds, Nic Stone, Liara Tamani, Renée Watson & Rita Williams-Garcia
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin & Ron Butler
Length: 11 hours 14 minutes
Edited by National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi, and featuring some of the most acclaimed bestselling Black authors writing for teens today—Black Enough is an essential collection of captivating stories about what it’s like to be young and Black in America. A selection of the Schomburg Center's Black Liberation Reading List.
Black is...sisters... Read more »
We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices
By Wade Hudson & Cheryl Willis Hudson
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Guy Lockard, Various, January LaVoy, Dominic Hoffman, Adenrele Ojo, Kyla Garcia, N'Jameh Camara, Soneela Nankani, Darrell Dennis, Jennifer Lim, Sullivan Jones & Paul Robeson
Length: 1 hours 41 minutes
The foremost diverse children's authors--including Jason Reynolds, Jacqueline Woodson, and Kwame Alexander--share answers to the question, "In this divisive world, what shall we tell our children?" in this powerful collection, published in partnership with Just Us Books.
Featuring poems, letters, personal essays, songs, and other works from such... Read more »
Say Her Name
By Zetta Elliott
Narrated by: Channie Waites
Length: 1 hours 25 minutes
Inspired by the #SayHerName campaign launched by the African American Policy Forum, these poems pay tribute to victims of police brutality as well as the activists insisting that Black Lives Matter. Elliott engages poets from the past two centuries to create a chorus of voices celebrating the creativity, resilience, and courage of Black women... Read more »
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning
By Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi
Narrated by: Jason Reynolds
Length: 4 hours 11 minutes
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
“I really enjoyed this audiobook, and was lucky enough to meet Jason Reynolds at Winter Institute 2020, and he said he hopes this book helps all of us have a full knowledge and a frank discussion about race in America. Reynolds is an engaging narrator, and he deftly reads this remix of Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award winning Stamped From the Beginning. I learned a great deal from this book, and I have been studying American history my whole life. Reynolds' book will allow adults to educate middle readers -- and all of us -- about the true legacy of America's past, and where we go from here. An absolutely essential book. I can't recommend it highly enough, and am grateful to Kendi and Reynolds for providing an accessible telling of the great irony of the premise on the American truth that all men are created equal.”
John, Main Point Books
How to Be an Antiracist
By Ibram X. Kendi
Narrated by: Ibram X. Kendi
Length: 10 hours 43 minutes
How to Be an Antiracist
“Among the multi-faceted array of antiracist literature newly published in the last two years, Ibram X. Kendi’s How To Be an Antiracist stands alone as a definitive source of history and socio-political critique, while offering a new paradigm of thought aimed at paving the way for correcting centuries of social injustice. Hearing this visionary and transformative work in Kendi’s own voice will no doubt bring it all straight into your heart, humanizing his ideas, and firmly setting you on your own path to doing the work of becoming an antiracist.”
Noelle, Oblong Books
Stamped from the Beginning: A Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
By Ibram X. Kendi
Narrated by: Christopher Dontrell Piper
Length: 18 hours 32 minutes
WINNER OF THE 2016 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTION
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER IN RACE AND CIVIL RIGHTS
FINALIST FOR THE 2016 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR NONFICTION
THE MOST AMBITIOUS BOOK OF 2016 —The Washington Post
A BOSTON GLOBE BEST BOOK OF 2016
A WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK OF 2016
A CHICAGO REVIEW OF BOOKS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF... Read more »
So You Want to Talk about Race
By Ijeoma Oluo
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
Length: 7 hours 41 minutes
A current, constructive, and actionable exploration of today’s racial landscape, offering straightforward clarity that readers of all races need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide
In So You Want to Talk about Race, editor-at-large of the Establishment Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in... Read more »