50 Books Every Black Teen Should Read

Source: Richard Bailey / Getty

UPDATED: 7:15 a.m. ET, Aug. 9, 2022

There aren’t many life skills more important to a child than learning how to read and our Black teens need to read more books.

MORE: 15 Acclaimed And Unapologetically Black Authors

Reading is like a gateway to your imagination and it allows you to learn and grow as a person.  

Reading exposes the mind to new words and ideas while building focus and concentration that ultimately make us better learners. 

“If there is a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” – Toni Morrison

Share

It’s also a critical foundation for developing logic and problem-solving skills.

Creating good reading habits as a child or young adult can lead to more productivity as an adult.

“Reading exposes us to other styles, other voices, other forms, and other genres of writing. Importantly, it exposes us to writing that’s better than our own and helps us to improve, said author Roz Morris in an interview with the University Of Rochester. 

The luxury of reading hasn’t always been afforded to Black people in America. (Slaves weren’t allowed to read, but I think you already knew that.) Although times have changed and Books are pretty much readily available to those who choose to read them, Black teens lag behind their white counterparts in literacy. 

According to a 2015 report by the American Council on Education, more than one-third of all Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, and American Indian or Alaska Native 12th graders fell in the below basic achievement level for reading, compared with one in five White and Asian 12th graders.

MORE: 8 Of The Most Empowering Toni Morrison Quotes To Get You Out Of Your Funk

At NewsOne, we believe that the child who reads is the child who leads. In keeping with that idea, we decided to take a look at the state of reading for Black youth.

Research has found that the proportion of young people who are daily readers drops has dropped dramatically in recent years. According to some studies, since 1984, the percentage of 13-year-olds who are weekly readers dropped from 70% to 53%. Even worse, the percentage of 17-year-olds who are weekly readers fell from 64% to a startling 40%. And the percentage of 17-year-olds who never or hardly read tripled during the same period, from 9% to 27%. It’s jarring news.

We tapped our brother and sister sites Hello Beautiful and The Urban Daily to get their reading recommendations.

Here are dozens of titles they said had an impact on them and that every Black teen should read.

The post 50 Books Every Black Teen Should Read appeared first on NewsOne.