Black Authors

Of Thee I Sing

By: Barack Obama

Narrated by: Andre Braugher

Length: 16 minutes

Abridged: No

Barack Obama delivers a tender, beautiful letter to his daughters in this powerful picture book illustrated by award-winner Loren Long that's made to be treasured!

In this poignant letter to his daughters, Barack Obama has written a moving tribute to thirteen groundbreaking Americans and the ideals that have shaped our nation. From the... Read more

Brendan Buckley's Sixth-Grade Experiment

By: Sundee T. Frazier

Narrated by: Mirron Willis

Length: 6 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

Read about Brendan, a biracial boy who loves science, and his middle school adventures in this sequel to the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award-winner Brendan Buckley’s Universe and Everything in It.
 
Brendan Buckley is headed to middle school on a whole new adventure. When his alternative energy idea gets him paired with... Read more

The Mighty Miss Malone

By: Christopher Paul Curtis

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 7 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

In the Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award–winning Bud, Not Buddy, Bud met a girl named Deza Malone in a Hooverville. This is her story.
 
“We are a family on a journey to a place called wonderful" is the motto of Deza Malone's family. Deza is the smartest girl in her class in Gary, Indiana, singled out by teachers for a special path in... Read more

When I Was the Greatest

By: Jason Reynolds

Narrated by: JB Adkins

Length: 6 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

In Bed Stuy, New York, a small misunderstanding can escalate into having a price on your head—even if you’re totally clean. This gritty, triumphant debut captures the heart and the hardship of life for an urban teen.

A lot of the stuff that gives my neighborhood a bad name, I don’t really mess with. The guns and drugs and all that, not really my... Read more

On a Clear Day

By: Walter Dean Myers

Narrated by: Rebecca Soler

Length: 6 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

"Visionary. This book should be in every reader's hands." –JACQUELINE WOODSON, National Book Award-winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming

Young heroes decide that they are not too young or too powerless to change their world in this gripping, futuristic young adult novel by the New York Times bestselling author of the Printz Award–winning... Read more

And Sometimes I Wonder About You

By: Walter Mosley

Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi

Length: 8 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: No

The welcome return of Leonid McGill, Walter Mosley's NYC-based private eye, his East Coast foil to his immortal L.A.-based detective Easy Rawlins. As the Boston Globe raved, "A poignantly real character, [McGill is] not only the newest of the great fictional detectives, but also an incisive and insightful commentator on the American scene."
 ... Read more

Bud, Not Buddy

By: Christopher Paul Curtis

Narrated by: James Avery

Length: 5 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

Hit the road with Bud in this Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award-winning classic about a boy on a journey to find his father—from Christopher Paul Curtis, recipient of the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.
 
It’s 1936, in Flint Michigan. Times may be hard, and ten-year-old Bud may be a... Read more

The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963

By: Christopher Paul Curtis

Narrated by: LeVar Burton

Length: 4 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

During one of the most important times in the civil rights movement, one unforgettable family goes on a road trip in this Newbery and Coretta Scott King Honoree, from author Christopher Paul Curtis, recipient of the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.

A PARADE BEST KIDS BOOK OF ALL TIME

When the Watson... Read more

Brown Girl Dreaming

By: Jacqueline Woodson

Narrated by: Jacqueline Woodson

Length: 3 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

A New York Times bestseller and National Book Award winner

Jacqueline Woodson, the acclaimed author of Another Brooklyn, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. 
 
Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African... Read more

Bang!

By: Sharon G. Flake

Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman

Length: 6 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

Mann lost his younger brother, Jason, two years ago–an innocent bystander in a shooting on his own porch. These murders are a frequent occurrence in Mann’s neighborhood. They’re so common, in fact, that he and his best friend, Kee-lee, keep a running tally of all the deceased, since no one else seems to be paying attention. Even that is not... Read more

Mr. Chickee's Messy Mission

By: Christopher Paul Curtis

Narrated by: Joe Holt

Length: 5 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

Steven and his best friend Russell are back!

When Russell's dog, Rodney Rodent, jumps into a mural to chase a demonic-looking gnome and disappears, the Flint Future Detectives are on the case. With the secret password (Bow-wow-wow yippee yo yippee yay!) Steven, Richelle, and Russell enter the mural too, only to find the mysterious Mr. Chickee on... Read more

The Broken Bike Boy and the Queen of 33rd Street

By: Sharon G. Flake

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 2 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

Queen is a royal pain in the neck. Her Highness treats everyone as though they were her loyal subjects: her classmates, her teacher, even her parents! When a new kid comes to Queen’s school, riding a broken bike and wearing run-over shoes, he immediately becomes the butt of everyone’s jokes. Queen’s parents insist she be nice to Leroy, but Queen... Read more

Elijah of Buxton

By: Christopher Paul Curtis

Narrated by: Mirron Willis

Length: 8 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

Eleven-year-old Elijah is the first child born into freedom in Buxton, Canada, a settlement of runaway slaves just over the border from Detroit. He’s best known in his hometown as the boy who made a memorable impression on Frederick Douglass. But things change when a former slave steals money from Elijah’s friend, who has been saving to buy his... Read more

Invisible Life

By: E. Lynn Harris

Narrated by: Mirron Willis

Length: 8 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

The remarkable first novel by a young, gay, black author who fashioned a deeply moving and compelling coming-of-age story out of the controversial issues of bisexuality and AIDS

Law school, girlfriends, and career choices were all part of Raymond Tyler's life, but there were other, more terrifying issues for him to confront. Being black was tough... Read more

Faith, Hope, and Ivy June

By: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Narrated by: Karen White

Length: 6 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

When push comes to shove, two Kentucky girls find strength in each other.

Ivy June Mosely and Catherine Combs, two girls from different parts of Kentucky, are participating in the first seventh-grade student exchange program between their schools. The girls will stay at each other’s homes, attend school together, and record their experience in... Read more

Discovering Wes Moore (The Young Adult Adaptation)

By: Wes Moore

Narrated by: Wes Moore

Length: 4 hours

Abridged: No

From the governor-elect of Maryland comes a story of two fatherless boys from Baltimore, both named Wes Moore. One is in prison, serving a life sentence for murder. The other is a Rhodes Scholar, an army veteran, and an author whose book is being turned into a movie produced by Oprah Winfrey.
 
The story of “the other Wes Moore” is one that the... Read more

The Land

By: Mildred D. Taylor

Narrated by: Ruben Santiago-Hudson

Length: 10 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

This searing and inspiring prequel to ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY is the story of Cassie Logan's grandfather. Paul-Edward is the son of a white father and a half-black, half-Indian mother. His father raises him almost as if he were white, but when it counts, he's treated as a black man with racist spite and hatred. He cannot fit into either the... Read more

Playground

By: 50 Cent

Narrated by: Dwayne Clark & 50 Cent

Length: 4 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

Thirteen-year-old Butterball doesn't have much going for him. He's teased about his weight. He hates the Long Island suburb his mom moved them to so she could go to nursing school and start her life over. He wishes he still lived with his dad in New York City - where there's always something happening, even if his dad doesn't have much time for... Read more

Everything, Everything

By: Nicola Yoon

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin & Robbie Daymond

Length: 6 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

Risk everything for love with this #1 New York Times bestseller from Nicola Yoon • "Gorgeous and lyrical"—The New York Times Book Review

What if you couldn’t touch anything in the outside world? Never breathe in the fresh air, feel the sun warm your face . . . or kiss the boy next door? In Everything, Everything, Maddy is a girl who’s literally... Read more

This Way Home

By: Wes Moore & Shawn Goodman

Narrated by: JD Jackson

Length: 7 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

“Brimming with hard realities about the choices we make, the friendships we keep, and the unlikely allies we find along the way, this affecting novel helps to fill the gaping hole left by Walter Dean Myers’s passing.” —Booklist
 
“A taut, haunting tragedy.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
One young man searches for a place to call home in this gut-wrenching,... Read more

Monster

By: Walter Dean Myers

Narrated by: Full Cast

Length: 2 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

BONUS FEATURE: Afterword read by the author

Sometimes I feel like I have walked into the middle of a movie. Maybe I can make my own movie. The film will be the story of my life. No, not my life, but of this experience. I’ll call it what the lady who is the prosecutor called me. Monster.

FADE IN: INTERIOR COURT. A guard sits at a desk behind... Read more

Bucking the Sarge

By: Christopher Paul Curtis

Narrated by: Michael Boatman

Length: 6 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

Luther T. Farrell has got to get out of Flint, Michigan.

As his best friend Sparky says, “Flint’s nothing but the Titanic.”

And his mother, a.k.a. the Sarge, says, “Take my advice and stay off the sucker path.”

The Sarge milked the system to build an empire of slum housing and group homes. Luther’s just one of the many people trapped in the Sarge’s... Read more

The Cay

By: Theodore Taylor

Narrated by: Michael Boatman

Length: 2 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

For fans of Hatchet and Island of the Blue Dolphins comes Theodore Taylor’s classic bestseller and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award winner, The Cay.
   Phillip is excited when the Germans invade the small island of Curaçao. War has always been a game to him, and he’s eager to glimpse it firsthand–until the freighter he and his mother are traveling to... Read more

47

By: Walter Mosley

Narrated by: Ossie Davis

Length: 6 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

47 is the first young adult novel to be written by bestselling author Walter Mosley. A master storyteller, Mosley deftly mixes speculative and historical fiction in this daring novel. Set in a plantation, 47 (a young slave boy) is growing up under the watchful eye of a brutal slave master. His life seems doomed, until he meets the mysterious... Read more