18 Bestselling Children’s Books

Period: July/August - 2021

AALBC Bestseller Seal
Celebrating Black stories and authors since 1998, the AALBC Bestsellers List is now published quarterly. Here’s a printable list and collage of this period’s titles. Also check out the BLK Bestsellers—the definitive monthly guide to America’s bestselling books by Black writers.

Sales for this period also include sales from AAALBC’s Black Wall Street Book Store, a pop-up bookstore which began operating on Black Wall Street, in Tulsa OK, in August of 2021.

Fiction: Sales this period were dominated by writers with decades of experience, including contemporary authors Jewel Parker Rhodes and Terry McMillan and venerable writers, no longer with us, like John Oliver Killens and Donald Goines.

Nonfiction: There was a excellent mix of classic titles from Black writers and important new books from non-Black writers like Richard Rothstein whose research on how governments deliberately imposed racial segregation on metropolitan areas nationwide adversely impacting Black Americans.

Children’s Books: Children’s books were strongly influenced by our Black Wall Street Bookstore’s sales which focused on Oklahoma related stories including the top three selling books, Unspeakable, Opal’s Greenwood Oasis, and Papa’s Free Day Party

Poetry: The impressive anthology of Black poetry, African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song, which includes poetry from the colonial period to the present, make our list for the second time this year.

1
Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre

Unspeakable

by Carole Boston Weatherford
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2
Opal’s Greenwood Oasis

Opal’s Greenwood Oasis

by Quraysh Ali Lansana and Najah-Amatullah Hylton
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4
Sulwe

Sulwe

by Lupita Nyong’o
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5
Baby Says

Baby Says

by John Steptoe
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7
Do Not Disturb! Meditating…

Do Not Disturb! Meditating…

by Adijah & Atiya Brabham
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8
Cool Cuts

Cool Cuts

by Mechal Renee Roe
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9
Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut

Crown

by Derrick Barnes
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11
Jump at the Sun

Jump at the Sun

by Alicia D. Williams
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14
Carla and Monica’s Safari of a Lifetime

Carla and Monica’s Safari of a Lifetime

by Monica R. Guillemin and Carla McMichael
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15
Something Beautiful

Something Beautiful

by Sharon Dennis Wyeth
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17
Your Name Is a Song

Your Name Is a Song

by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow
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