
As much as I love all of my handy digital reading trackers that my 7th graders use, sometimes it’s so nice to just physically see what everyone is reading. For the month of February, we read books by Black authors (we used this Slide deck for inspiration!).

So many YA books have amazing book covers these days, so I wanted to see the covers, as well as read the students’ reviews. I created a template for the students to use, based on the “bookstagram” Instagram posts that fill up my feed.

My students blew me away with their responses! Here are some incredible examples that also serve as a perfect student-chosen list of books by Black authors:



















If your students try this out please tag me on Instagram so that I can see their amazing work! I’m just over here trying to decide which book to check out first!
Student Book Recommendations:
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson
Spider-man by Jason Reynolds
Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi
The Mamba Mentality by Kobe Bryant
Ghost by Jason Reynolds
Shooter by Walter Dean Meyers
Blended by Sharon M. Draper
Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds
Swing by Kwame Alexander
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Fast Pitch by Nic Stone
Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon
Fake ID by Lamar Giles
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
Dope Sick by Walter Dean Meyers
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds
Stella By Starlight by Sharon M. Draper