Books like The Roots of Rap: 16 Bars on the 4 Pillars of Hip Hop
By Carole Boston Weatherford
For the kid who's already rapping along to the radio or spinning on the living room floor, this book hands them the whole family tree behind the beat. Rhythmic, proud, electric — a book that moves like a beat you can't sit still to.
A true story of a small boy in New Orleans's Tremé neighborhood who plays a trombone twice his size, chasing music even without money for an instrument, until Bo Diddley calls him up on stage.
A joyous celebration erupts at Harlem's Schomburg Library in honor of Langston Hughes, as word-children like Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka gather to dance, stomp, and recite poems at their hero's feet.
A quiet, piano-loving boy — the son of a man once enslaved — grows up to compose music so joyful and rhythmic it earns him a new name: the King of Ragtime.
A lyrical journey through the history of Black music in America, from spirituals and blues to jazz, soul, and hip-hop, packed with over 80 references to real artists like Billie Holiday and Kendrick Lamar.
A young left-handed girl picks up her brother's guitar, flips it upside down to play it her own way, and by age eleven has written "Freight Train," a song the world would come to know.
A born builder who once made a tower from diapers and glue faces a teacher who despises architecture — until a class picnic goes wrong and his skills turn out to be exactly what's needed.
An aspiring young musician hauls his double bass through busy city streets on the long walk home from school, weaving between crowds while music fills his heart the whole way.
A young woman arrives in America in 1921 carrying the folktales of Puerto Rico, becomes New York City's first Puerto Rican librarian, and turns her storytelling into books that spread bilingual stories for generations.
A Black boy growing up in segregated 1940s North Carolina loves to draw everything around him, but becomes a football star instead — until his dream of making art finds its way to him.
Across a city, ninety-two men and thirteen women bathe, dress in black-and-white clothes, and gather their instruments before heading to midtown for an 8:30 concert.
A boy settles into the barber's chair for a fresh cut, and with every snip of the clippers feels himself transform into something sharper, prouder, and more sure of who he is.
A young Hawaiian girl named Ano explores her island home through canoes, hawks, and forest lizards, then learns hula — the storytelling dance that carries her people's history — and discovers what aloha truly means.
