Books with Black characters for DD12

Nation is a fabulous book, seriously underrated but also Elizabeth Laird has written some great books with black protagonists such as 'The Garbage King'.

Nobody's family is going to change - Louise Fitzhugh
Excellent book for young teenagers about dealing with growing up and your family, who happen to be black.

Buddy

Oh, Nation, Terry Pratchett. Brilliant book.

Oh look there are books about the young Precious Ramotswe! They could be fun.

Precious and the Monkeys: Precious Ramotswe's Very First Case www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1846973201/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_PrMIyb047XT3K?tag=mumsnetforum-21

What about The Number One Ladies Detective Agency - the main character is a Botswanan woman. I know it doesn't sound very 'young' and I don't know if it would be way outside her interest (although I started enjoying Agatha Christie not much older). It's been a few years since I've read any but I don't think the themes were very adult. They are written by a white man though so I don't know how authentic the voice is ...

Black dove, white raven by Elizabeth Wein
Brown Girl Dreaming
The Secrets of Billie Bright by Susie Day
Hell and High Water by Tanya Landsman
Orangeboy by Patrice Laurence
Abela by Berlie Doherty
The Prince Who Walked With Lions by Elizabeth Laird
The Fastest Boy in the World
Counting by (in?) Sevens
Liccle Bit and Crongton Knights by Alex Wheatle
Salvage by Keren David
Lionboy and sequels
Sawbones by Catherine Johnson

My dd12 loved The Lions of Little Rock.

How about Stella by Starlight (young girl/Ku Klux Klan) or Copper Sun (slave trade) both by Sharon M Draper.

Not sure if they're a bit too young for your DD but mine read them at 11.

I also think Rivers of London is a bit much for a twelve year old. Will be brilliant in a few years time though.

Rick Riordan did two markedly racially mixed series following his hugely successful but very white Percy Jackson series. The Kane Chronicles and Heroes of Olympus series both have key black/mixed race protagonists and are worth a look to fill the "light reading" gap that others have mentioned.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Riordan

I think the rivers of london series is too adult for a tween. there is some "adult" content (nothing heavy) but the humor would be probably wasted on her.

Wing Jones

Interesting Kick, I tend to read the serious books my kids like rather than the lighter ones, and certainly I am struggling to think of lighter books with black character. What about Jacqueline Wilson, say, are there any main ethnic minority characters in any of hers?

One more I remembered A Long Way to Go by Marjorie someone. About a black girl in WW1 whose brother was a conscientious objector.

You could try 'A Medal for Leroy' by Michael Morpurgo although that is possibly a bit young.

A Country for Ice Cream Star would be good when she's older. The themes might be a bit too mature at the moment.

OK one more.

The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexis. Fantastic book about a Native American kid deciding to go to a predominantly White school off the reservation. Bits are sad but I thought it was fantastic. My 12 year old D's read it, content is definitely YA so dd(10) hasn't had it yet.

Yes - there's a Canadian charity that does a count every year of number of books published, characters who are non-white, authors, and illustrators, then compares it to the population %.

there is actually (now) reasonable representation of main characters, but if you look at supporting characters and crowd scenes, there tend to be too many white faces. It's like some people think 'well done, I put one non-white character in there, job done' and just stop thinking about diversity.

There's also a much higher representation of non-whites in 'serious' books, and if you want your kid just to read any old fiction there isn't the diversity that there should be in children's books.

Thinking about this more, is there a real shortage of books for preteens that have black/ethnic minority main characters but aren't about slavery or Civil Rights?

Would also recommend the Tillerman series. Really strong interesting black character Mina, who appears in the second of the series (Dicey's Song) and is the heroine of Come A Stranger. You can get them second hand.

Thanks for this thread, I am always looking for similar books for my dc.

Roots, Too kill a mocking bird and the movie 'The Slave'

Has she read the follow ups to Roll of Thunder, Let the Circle be Unbroken and several more?

The poet Jackie Kay has written one children's book called Strawgirl. I didn't think it was as amazing as her adult books but my dd (10) liked it. About a black girl in the Highlands.

Has she seen the film, The Queen of Katwe, about the Ugandan girl who became a chess champion? I loved watching a film where all the characters are black that is about a girl's amazing achievements and not about slavery etc. Think there is a book about her too, it is a true story.

Twintuition with Tia and Tamara. Or is that too young?

bookriot.com/2016/11/28/faces-color-2017-ya-books/

Some of these might be a little old for a 12 year old but just posting it here in case its useful for anyone else looking

I'm on the US Amazon site, but this author here writes a variety of childrens/YA fiction.

On the US site it's also possible to search for African American Children's Books - don't know how they'd categorize the same books for the UK.

Was going to say Roll of Thunder. Also, Journey to Jo'Burg

I used to love 'point horror' at that age!! my fave set was called 'the forbidden game' was a trilogy by LJ Smith and one of the main characters was black. Quite a scary tale tho.