21 Bestselling Children’s Books

Period: March/April - 2022

AALBC Bestseller Seal

The African American Literature Book Club’s Bestsellers List has been published continuously since 1998. It celebrates the bestselling titles from our curated selection of books written by or about Black people. Learn More below.

★ New: The BLK Bestsellers: America’s Bestselling Books

Fiction:
Fiction was our top-selling genre this period, with the Fall/Winter 20221 issue of the Killens Review of Arts & Letters (magazine) and Ladee Hubbard’s The Last Suspicious Holdout being the #1 and #2 bestsellers across all genres. Urban fiction titles experienced stronger sales this period.

Nonfiction:
The 1619 Project created by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Caste by Isabel Wilkerson have both made AALBC’s bestsellers list 5 times or more.

Children’s Books:
Sales were led by Mirror Girls by Kelly McWilliams. Nkechi Taifa has three books on the list this period helping to make her a Top 100 AALBC Bestselling Author.

Poetry:
There were not enough poetry book sales to generate a bestsellers list for this period.

1
Cover for Mirror Girls

Mirror Girls

by Kelly McWilliams
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5
Cover for Shining Legacy: Storypoems for the Young, So Black Heroes and Heroines Forever Will Be Sung

Shining Legacy

by Nkechi Taifa
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6
Cover for The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural

The Dark-Thirty

by Patricia C. Mckissack
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7
Cover for Cool Cuts

Cool Cuts

by Mechal Renee Roe
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9
Cover for Virginia Hamilton: Five Novels

Virginia Hamilton

by Virginia Hamilton
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10
Cover for Hey You!: An Empowering Celebration of Growing Up Black

Hey You!

by Dapo Adeola
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11
Cover for Born on the Water: The 1619 Project

Born on the Water

by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson
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12
Cover for Sulwe

Sulwe

by Lupita Nyong’o
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13
Cover for Me & Mama

Me & Mama

by Cozbi A. Cabrera
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14
Cover for I Am Loved

I Am Loved

by Nikki Giovanni
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17
Cover for Stand Up!: 10 Mighty Women Who Made a Change

Stand Up!

by Brittney Cooper
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18
Cover for Ty’s Travels: Lab Magic

Ty’s Travels

by Kelly Starling Lyons
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19
Cover for Your Name Is a Song

Your Name Is a Song

by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow
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20
Cover for Whoosh!: Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions

Whoosh!

by Chris Barton
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21
Cover for Beautiful Moon: A Child’s Prayer

Beautiful Moon

by Tonya Bolden
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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.