17 Bestselling Children’s Books

Period: January/February - 2016

AALBC Bestseller Seal

Celebrating books written by or about Black people, the African American Literature Book Club’s Bestsellers List has been published continuously since 1998 (Learn More ▶). In 2025, we began publishing our list annually, focusing our efforts on America’s top-selling titles: The BLK Bestsellers.

3
Cover for One Crazy Summer

One Crazy Summer

by Rita Williams-Garcia
Add to Cart
5
Cover for You Are Wonderfully Made: 12 Life-Changing Principles for Teen Girls to Embrace

You Are Wonderfully Made

by Gwen Richardson and Sylvia Richardson
Add to Cart
6
Cover for Dirt

Dirt

by Teffanie Thompson
Add to Cart
7
Cover for I Am Mixed

I Am Mixed

by Garcelle Beauvais
Add to Cart
8
Cover for Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl

Maritcha

by Tonya Bolden
Add to Cart
10
Cover for P.S. Be Eleven

P.S. Be Eleven

by Rita Williams-Garcia
Add to Cart
11
Cover for We Are The Ship: The Story Of Negro League Baseball

We Are The Ship

by Kadir Nelson
Add to Cart
12
Cover for A is for Activist

A is for Activist

by Innosanto Nagara
Add to Cart
13
Cover for Beautiful Moon: A Child’s Prayer

Beautiful Moon

by Tonya Bolden
Add to Cart
14
Cover for Black Mother Goose Book

Black Mother Goose Book

by Elizabeth Murphy Oliver
Add to Cart

More About our Bestsellers List

View a printer-friendly version or a collage of the book covers.

You will learn about books selling well in the Black community that may never show up on lists published by corporate entities. Spread the word about our list; don’t let one or two lists, which we don’t control, determine which books are important.

We collect our bestselling titles from all our sales channels. The majority of our sales come from this website and our in-person events. We also include sales generated through our affiliate relationships, including Bookshop.org, Libro.fm (audiobooks), and Amazon.com*.

*For a few years, we actively boycotted Amazon but have discontinued this practice to ensure we do not exclude authors who are exclusive to that platform. We still discourage exclusivity but support all Black authors.