Richmond Libraries share Black History Month books for teens

October 2023 marks the start of Black History Month. To commemorate diversity and celebrate Black authors, our children's librarians have put together a list featuring a wide variety of teen and young adult books, with something for everyone. 

The list of librarian recommendations feature novels in verse, short stories, comedy, fantasy, romance and more. All in an accessible video format and available to browse and reserve on our library website. 

Curating a list like this is both fun and challenging. It is also an opportunity to share our favourite reads from the past few years, but it's also so tricky to narrow it down to just a short list! Last month it was announced by The Diverse Book Awards that there would be a new annual prize, The Malorie Blackman Impact Award, to honour those who have committed to diversity and inclusivity in publishing. This is such wonderful news, and us librarians are sure that there will be some highly deserving winners. Whilst there are no Malorie Blackman titles on our list, all her books definitely could have been included!

Especially for teenagers and young adults, diversity in literature is incredibly important. Our yearly booklist releases, Front to Back for 7 to 11-year-olds, Cover Story for 11 to 14-year-olds and The Current for teens and adults aged 15+ all feature wonderful, librarian reviewed, books by authors of colour.

Watch our short video that features our book recommendations for Black History Month, specially selected for teens and young adults.

You can also check out events taking place in Richmond for Black History Month.