After discovering the incredible resource developed by Alexis Wiggins and seeing on Twitter Pernille Ripp ask if there was a list for middle school teachers of books that would fit an Antiracist canon I wanted to create a document for middle school teachers and students. So with Alexis’s permission to model the middle school antiracist resource list after hers we have this...work in progress...….please help. Please add and remove and make use of comments and highlighting so we can create a resource for middle school teachers and students!

* Denotes appropriate for older readers ?

A New, Antiracist Canon - Suggested Texts for Middle Schoolers

Fiction - Chapter Books:

1. Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes
2. Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes
3. Clean Getaway by Nic Stone
4. Dear Martin by Nic Stone*
5. Dear Justyce by Nic Stone*
6. Tight by Torrey Maldonado
7. What Lane by Torrey Maldonado
8. For Black Girls Like Me Mariama J. Lockington
9. You Should See Me in A Crown by Leah Johnson
10. Efren Divided by Ernesto Cisneros
11. Jackpot by Nic Stone
12. Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia
13. Shuri by Nic Stone
14. The Revolution of Birdie Randolph by Brandy Colbert
15. The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert
16. Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds
17. For Everyone by Jason Reynolds
18. Parachutes by Kelly Yang *
19. Front Desk by Kelly Yang
20. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo*
21. A Phoenix First Must Burn edited by Patrice Caldwell
22. Frankly in Love by David Yoon
23. They Call Me Guero by David Bowles
24. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
25. What Lane by Torrey Maldonado
26. Standing Strong by Gary Robinson
27. The Downstairs Girl by Stacy Lu
28. I Can Make this Promise by Christine Day
29. Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish by Pablo Cartana
30. Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
31. Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
32. Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez
33. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
34. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
35. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
36. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
37. Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli
38. The Way to Rainy Mountain by M. Scott Momaday
39. Beloved by Toni Morrison
40. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
41. The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
42. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
43. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
44. Dactyl Hill Squad series by Daniel Jose Older
45. Black Brother, Black Brother by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Nonfiction/Memoir - Chapter Books:

46. Say Her Name by Zetta Elliott
47. This Book is Anti-racist by Tiffany M Jewell
48. Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon
49. Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
50. This Promise of Change by Jo Allen Boyce
51. My Story Starts Here: Voices of Young Offenders by Deborah Ellis
52. Dreaming in Indian edited by Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale
53. No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row by Susan Kuklin
54. Between the World and Me Ta-nehisi Coates
55. The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley
56. Decoded by Jay-Z
57. The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
58. Tell Me How It Ends by Valeria Luiselli
59. The Color of Water by James McBride
60. The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
61. It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (Adapted for Young Readers) by Trevor Noah
62. Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
63. When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago
64. Hidden Figures - Young Readers Edition by Margot Lee Shetterly
65. Just Mercy - Young Readers Edition  by Bryan Stevenson
66. Becoming by Michelle Obama*
67. The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta

Novels in Verse

1. For Everyone by Jason Reynolds
2. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds*
3. The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
4. Swing by Kwame Alexander
5. Rebound by Kwame Alexander
6. Solo by Kwame Alexander
7. Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson*
8. Other Words From Home by Jasmine Warga
9. The Red Pencil by by Andrea Davis Pinkney, Shane W. Evans (Illustrations)
10. Words With Wings by Nikki Grimes
11. Booked by Kwame Alexander
12. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
13. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo *

Graphic Novels

69. 7 Generations: A Plains Cree Saga  by David Alexander Robertson illus by Scott Henderson
70. The New Kid by Jerry Craft
71. Almost American Girl by Robin Ha (Illustrated memoir)
72. Good Talk by Mira Jacob
73. The Harlem Hellfighters by Max Brooks
74. March series by John Lewis
75. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
76. They Called Us Enemy by George Takei (Illustrated Memoir)
77. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (Illustrated memoir)
78. Twins by Varian Johnson
79. Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang

Fiction Picture Books:

1. Sulwe by Lupita NYong and illus by Vashti Harrison
2. M is for Melanin: A Celebration of the Black Child  by Tiffany Rose
3. Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillard and Illus by Juana Martinez-Neal
4. Freedom Soup by Tami Charles and illus by Jacqueline Alcantara
5. I am Perfectly Designed by Karamo Brown with Jason “Rachel” brown and illus by Anoosha Syer
6. Ron’s Big Mission by Rose Blue and Corrine J Naden, Illus by Don Tate
7. Just Like a Mama by Alice Faye Duncan and illus by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow
8. The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander and illus by Kadir Nelson
9. When Father Comes Home by Sarah Jung
10. All Because You Matter by Tami Charles, Illus by Bryan Collier
11. Your Name is a Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, illus by
12. I am Enough by Grace Byers
13. On the Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson illus by Rafael Lopez
14. I am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes illus by Gordon C James
15. The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet by Carmen Agra Deedy illus by Eugene Yelchin
16. Bedtime Bonnet by Nancy Redd and illus by Nneka Myers
17. Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice by Mahogany L Brown et al
18. I Lost My Talk by Rita Joe and illus by Pauline Young
19. Take Me Out to the Yakyu by Aaron Meshon.
20. Louis Sockalexis: Native American Baseball Pioneer by Bill Wise, illustrated by Bill Farnsworth
21. Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki, illustrated by Dom Lee
22. Let Them Play by Margot Theis Raven, illustrated by Chris Ellison
23. The Bat Boy and His Violin by Gavin Curtis, illustrated by E.B. Lewis

Nonfiction Picture Book:

1. Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Geraldine Brooks by Suzanne Slade and illus by Cozbi A Cabrera
2. Equality’s Call: The Story of Voting Rights in America by Deborah Diesen and illus by Magdalena Mora
3. The Power of Her Pen by Lesa Cline-Ransom and John Parra
4. I am Not a Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis and illus by Gillian Newland
5. Queen of the Diamond: The Lizzie Murphy Story by Emily Arnold McCully

Drama:

Short Stories, Linked Short Stories, and Collections:

81. “A Coyote Columbus Story” by Thomas King
82. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
83. There, There by Tommy Orange
84. Lot by Bryan Washington

Poets:

85. Maya Angelou
86. Richard Blanco
87. Gwendolyn Brooks
88. Jericho Brown
89. Rita Dove
90. Martín Espada
91. Nikki Giovanni
92. Joy Harjo
93. Terrance Hayes
94. Langston Hughes
95. Yusef Komunyakaa
96. Aimee Nezhukumatathil
97. Claudia Rankine
98. Natalie Scenters-Zapico
99. Naomi Shihab Nye
100. Tracy Smith
101. Clint Smith
102. Jason Reynolds
103. Natasha Tretheway
104. Ocean Vuong
105. Derek Walcott
106. Kevin Young
107. Sarah Kay
108. Jamila Lyiscott
109. #TeachLivingPoets

Essays:

110. “You Can Never Leave the Border Behind” by Roberto José Andrade Franco (Texas Monthly)
111. “Only Daughter” by Sandra Cisneros
112. “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” by Frederick Douglass (PBS)
113. “An Asian-American Teen Idol Onscreen, Finally” by Jenny Han (the New York Times)
114. “A MeToo Moment for Journalists of Color” by Soledad O’Brien (the New York Times)
115. My Decision to Wear Hijab is Mine Alone -  by Faatimah Solomon (MTV News)
116. “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan
117. “Raising a Black Son in the U.S.” by Jesmyn Ward (The Guardian)
118. “You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument” by Caroline Randall Williams (the New York Times)
119. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

Films:

121. Wadjda dir. by Haifa Al-Mansour
122. Hair Love dir. by Matthew A. Cherry
123. Fruitvale Station dir. by Ryan Coogler
124. Black Panther dir. By Ryan Coogler
125. Selma dir. by Ava Duvernay
126. 13th dir by Ava Duvernay
127. Lagaan dir. by Ashutosh Gawariker
128. Sankofa dir. by Haile Gerima
129. Harriet dir. by Kasi Lemmons
130. Barefoot Gen dir. by Mori Masaki
131. 12 Years a Slave dir. by Steve McQueen
132. Us dir. by Jordan Peele
133. The Farewell dir. by LuLu Wang

Podcasts/Multimedia Resources:

134. Podcasts:

1. Code Switch (NPR)
2. Pod Save the People with Deray (Crooked Media)
3. Still Processing (NYT)

135. Fresh Air Interviews (NPR - 30-40 min):

1.  Jay-Z
2. 12 Years a Slave Director Steve McQueen and Leading Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor 
3. “How the Systemic Segregation of Schools Is Maintained by Individual Choice” with journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones
4. “Filmmaker LuLu Wang Based The Farewell on Her Family’s Real-Life Lie”
5. “Hamilton Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda”
6. “Mindy Kaling Brings a New Nerd to TV and Finds She ‘Was Not Alone’ as a Teen”

136. Visual Albums:

1. Black is King by Beyoncé (Disney+ July 2020)
2. Lemonade by Beyoncé (iTunes,)

137. TED Talks (20 min):

1. “The Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
2. “Can Art Amend History?” by Titus Kaphar

138. Videos:

1. Saudi Arabian artists confront Islamophobia on US road trip (The Guardian - 6 min)

2. My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman (Netflix - 1 hour)

1. Tiffany Haddish
2. Malala Yousafzai
3. Barack Obama

3. Homecoming King by Hasan Minhaj
4. Reconstruction: American After the Civil War (PBS)

Visual Artists

103.  Ai Weiwei
104.  R.C. Gorman
105.  Abdulnasser Gharem
106.  Glenn Ligon
107.  Maha Malluh
108.  Kerry James Marshall
109.  Pepón Osorio
110.  Diego Rivera
111.  Faith Ringgold
112.  Amy Sherald
113.  Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
114.  Kara Walker
115.  Kehinde Wiley

Readings with Data/Graphs

105. “313,000 Texans Are Now Human Trafficking Victims” - (Houston Chronicle)
106. “Extensive Data Shows Punishing Reach of Racism for Black Boys” - (NYT)
107. “Police Shootings Database” - (Washington Post)