All branches of the Ocean County Library will be closed Friday, March 29, for Good Friday, and Sunday, March 31, for Easter Sunday.
  • Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship

    By Charles Waters and Irene Latham

    J811.6 Lath

    hoopla: eBook

    Irene Latham, who is white, and Charles Waters, who is black, present paired poems about topics including family dinners, sports, recess, and much more. This relatable collection explores different experiences of race in America.

     

  • On the Playground: Our First Talk About Prejudice

    By Jillian Roberts

    E303.385 Robe

    hoopla: eBook

    Gives a comprehensive introduction to the topic of prejudice.

     

  • We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices

    By Wade Hudson

    J305.8 We

    What do we tell our children when the world seems bleak, and prejudice and racism run rampant? With 96 lavishly designed pages of original art and prose, fifty diverse creators lend voice to young activists.

     

  • All Are Welcome

    By Alexandra Penfold

    E Penf

    Illustrations and simple, rhyming text introduce a school where diversity is celebrated and songs, stories, and talents are shared.

     

  • Crown : An Ode to the Fresh Cut

    By Derrick Barnes

    E Barn

    hoopla: eBook

    Celebrates the magnificent feeling that comes from walking out of a barber shop with newly-cut hair.

     

  • Schomburg : The Man Who Built a Library

    By Carole Boston Weatherford

    EB Scho

    hoopla: eBook

    Traces legal clerk Arturo Schomburg's efforts to curate a collection of African books, letters, music, and art.

     

  • Sulwe

    By Lupita Nyong'o

    E Nyon

    OverDrive: eBook

    When five-year-old Sulwe's classmates make fun of her dark skin, she tries lightening herself to no avail, but her encounter with a shooting star helps her understand there is beauty in every shade.

     

  • A Ride to Remember : a Civil Rights Story

    By Sharon Langley, Amy Nathan, Floyd Cooper

    E323.1196 Lang

    hoopla: eBook

    When Sharon Langley was born, amusement parks were segregated, and African American families were not allowed in. This picture book tells how a community came together--both black and white--to make a change.

     

  • New Kid

    By Jerry Craft

    J Craf

    hoopla: eBook

    After his parents send him to a prestigious private school known for its academics, Jordan Banks finds himself torn between two worlds.

     

  • Blended

    By Sharon M. Draper

    J Drap

    OverDrive: eBook

    Piano-prodigy Isabella, eleven, whose black father and white mother struggle to share custody, never feels whole, especially as racial tensions affect her school, her parents both become engaged, and she and her stepbrother are stopped by police.

     

  • It All Comes Down to This

    By Karen English

    J Engl

    In the summer of 1965, Sophie's family becomes the first African Americans to move into their upper middle-class neighborhood in Los Angeles. When riots erupt in nearby Watts, she learns that life and her own place in it are a lot more complicated than they had seemed.

     

  • The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora

    By Pablo Cartaya

    J Cart

    OverDrive: eBook

    This is the vibrant story of a family, a striking portrait of a town, and one boy's quest to save both.

     

  • Soldier for Equality

    By Duncan Tonatiuh

    EB Saen

    hoopla: eBook

    José de la Luz Sáenz (1888-1953)--or Luz--believed in fighting for what was right. Although he was born in the United States, he and his family experienced prejudice because of their Mexican heritage.

     

  • Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down

    By Andrea Davis Pinkney

    E323.1196 Pink

    This picture book is a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the momentous Woolworth's lunch counter sit-in, when four college students staged a peaceful protest that became a defining moment in the struggle for racial equality and the growing civil rights movement.

     

  • Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans

    By Kadir Nelson

    J973.0496 Nels

    Revolutionary-era slavery up to the election of President Obama.

     

  • It Ain’t so Awful Falafel

    By Firoozeh Dumas

    J Duma

    OverDrive: eBook

    Eleven-year-old Zomorod, originally from Iran, tells her story of growing up Iranian in Southern California during the Iranian Revolution and hostage crisis of the late 1970s.