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Ansel's silence has grave consequences: an innocent man dies, and Ansel faces painful losses. The novel centres on the burden of a choice made under danger and on racism's dehumanising effects.

A picture-book biography about how Billie Holiday made a protest song her own, set against racial discrimination and the history of lynching.

This verse novel follows a teenage artist through wrongful imprisonment and his effort to preserve his humanity and pursue the truth.

This is a family-centred story shaped by Valena’s experiences and the stories she hears about earlier generations. Its linked episodes range from striking natural events to ordinary family life.

A teen story that brings together debating, a first crush and a disagreement at home, with Phoebe facing the challenge of speaking up for herself as well as in competition.

A family’s car journey becomes a story about how racial prejudice changes the sisters’ experience of a trip they had anticipated with pride and excitement.

This is a sports history and biography, but its scope reaches beyond football: it examines the Carlisle school’s treatment of Native American students and racism in sport and wider society.

A layered teen mystery combines the search for truth about Roberta’s mother with questions about racism, media, politics and standing up for oneself.

This is a socially engaged sports novel: football brings two North American teenagers into contact with marginalised local players, while different experiences of race, class and belonging become increasingly difficult to ignore.

This is an intense, visually symbolic story about shame, identity and survival. Its painful experiences are balanced by friendship and a hopeful possibility of acceptance, without suggesting that every difficulty has been resolved.

This is a lively historical novel about sisters navigating an emotionally distant mother while encountering Black Panther community work and racial injustice. Its strongest offering is the combination of distinct girl characters, family complexity and a child’s perspective on a changing society.

Expect an unusual war fantasy where friendship and chosen family matter amid occupation, bodily vulnerability and shifting loyalties. Its experimental form may reward patient readers, but the story’s violence and sexual exploitation are substantial.

A historical account of four African American women mathematicians whose work contributed to aircraft and spacecraft research, while explaining segregation, wartime aviation, NASA’s origins and the space race.

This offers a politically charged fantasy about cross-community partnership, inherited divisions and the status of a future heir. Its appeal may lie in shapeshifter cultures, royal stakes and a quick-moving search involving concealed identities and tangled histories.

A reflective coming-of-age story about discovering family roots and negotiating more than one sense of home. Its strongest elements are relationships, vivid place-writing, cultural encounter and questions of identity.

This novel follows a mixed-heritage teenager negotiating family ties, cultural belonging and other people’s expectations. It offers a story about identity that places personal uncertainty alongside racial prejudice and changing relationships.

This is a visually told historical story about a young person treated as an outsider both outside and inside an internment camp. Its strongest offering is a personal route into prejudice, citizenship and belonging.

This offers an accessible introduction to a pioneering doctor and inventor, combining a poetic life story with scientific and historical detail. Its strongest appeal is the connection between personal ambition, medical discovery and wider questions of equality.

This offers a supernatural murder mystery rooted in Prohibition-era New York, alongside folklore, occult ideas, jazz-club life and vivid secondary storylines. Its horror is central rather than incidental.

This is a broad, narrative survey of United States history between the world wars, linking public life, culture, economic crisis, racism, presidential leadership and the Second World War.

This is a discussion-led introduction to the relationship between race, crime and public institutions, asking readers to question assumptions in headlines and consider how different systems and viewpoints shape understanding.

This is a mystery about discovering and confronting organised racism in a new community. It offers suspense, a young investigator and questions about how prejudice can be spread through technology and social networks.

This is a family-and-community story about cultural identity, belonging and resilience. Its period details, family interactions and humour sit alongside racism, economic pressure and the difficult work of translating between languages and expectations.

This is an informational exploration of the links between race, racism and economic well-being in America, combining historical background with discussion of present disparities and attempts to reduce them.

This is an emotionally intense, socially engaged story of young people facing bereavement, family instability, discrimination and addiction. Its perspective shifts and layered histories invite sustained attention, while compassion, accountability, faith and hope remain important strands.

This is a richly layered historical coming-of-age novel about a book-loving girl negotiating family duty, education, friendship and romance while a murder’s consequences reach into her community.

Expect a suspenseful mystery built around unreliable perspectives, teenage status and the question of whether Tasha’s near-drowning was an accident. The investigation gradually exposes strained friendships and hidden motives.

A stranger arrives by sea and is confined, mistreated and expelled as the islanders’ fear becomes hatred. Their final wall leaves a bleak image of exclusion rather than reconciliation.

A contemporary coming-of-age story about queer identity, family ties and friendship, told in verse through Kai’s perspective. Its social concerns sit alongside romance and everyday school life, while the ending’s handling of these strands remains only partly clear.

A concise, focused account of Walter Tull’s life, linking football achievement with racism, military service and the search for respect. Its accessible presentation may help readers encounter a significant historical figure without a lengthy or highly demanding text.

This is a character-led coming-of-age romance about uncertainty rather than a straightforward love story. Ellie’s relationships, creative ambitions, family life and friendships overlap, offering humour, emotional complication and culturally specific family tensions.

This is an adventure-led historical novel centred on Deaf community, sign language and human dignity, while exploring how inherited prejudice shapes relationships between communities.

This offers imaginative fantasy alongside sustained questions about Black identity, friendship, prejudice and self-determination. Its dual perspective gives Tavia and Effie distinct forms of identity exploration, though the opening may feel slow before the action intensifies.

This is a fast-moving mystery-romance centred on recovery, guilt and uncertain trust. Its atmosphere combines a summer setting with disturbing discoveries, while journal flashbacks gradually disclose the protagonist’s past.

This is a symbolic story about colours whose town becomes divided after one colour claims superiority. Friendship, mixing and cooperation challenge exclusion, making the book particularly useful for starting conversations about racism and belonging.

Expect lively, performative poems alongside serious real-world concerns. The collection can invite laughter, close attention to word choice and discussion about fairness, nature, animal treatment and how poetry communicates ideas.

This is an adventurous, emotionally charged fantasy combining dragons with Cold War intrigue. It follows danger, friendship, romance and hope while confronting racism, bereavement, political violence and the destructive consequences of power.

This is a serious memoir about a child navigating poverty, school exclusion, racism and violent home relationships. Alongside distressing experiences, it includes friendship, sibling joy, Abuela’s influence and moments of perseverance.

A richly imagined fantasy combines Arthurian legend, secret societies and demons with Bree’s investigation into her mother’s death. Its strongest offering is a Black protagonist navigating grief, power and contested history alongside diverse allies and difficult questions about inherited authority.

A visually presented life story linking football, military leadership and racial unfairness.

This is a serious story about racial injustice, bereavement and responsibility. Its supernatural viewpoint lets Jerome observe the consequences of his death while the historical connection to Emmett Till broadens the story beyond one family.

This is a personal investigation into relatives who vanished during the Holocaust. Rosen follows clues, disappointments and discoveries, while poems and family materials give emotional and historical shape to what happened.

This is a socially aware family story with a determined child protagonist. It combines motel life, immigrant family pressures and Mia’s writing ambitions, while presenting difficult injustices alongside friendship, support and attempts to help others.

A fast-moving fictional coming-of-age story about a Korean American teenager chasing a place in K-pop, while negotiating friends, family expectations, identity and the realities behind performance culture.

This is a high-stakes coming-of-age story about trying to become a K-pop star while navigating outsider status, friendship, romance and an industry that demands perfection. Its setting offers a close look at training culture and the pressures surrounding public success.