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