Angie Thomas Book Recommendations

Check out Angie Thomas' list of her top book recommendations. To purchase one or more of these books, click the title and find your local bookstore!

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
by Mildred D. Taylor
This was one of my favorites as a child and still is. Though Cassie Logan’s story is set decades before I was born, she, like me, was a black girl living in poverty in Mississippi. She was the hero I aspired to be, and as a reader, this was the first time I read a book and saw myself on its pages. 

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou
As a teenager, I started to dislike reading, mainly because it was hard to find books I identified with. This is one of the few books that pulled me in at that time.

Monster
by Walter Dean Myers
I am able to write the young adult novels that I write only because of Walter Dean Myers. Monster is a modern classic. Through a combination of screenplay excerpts and diary entries, it tells the story of 16-year-old Steve Harmon as he awaits trial for murder, and shows us the dehumanization that Black boys often endure, especially within the justice system.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley
by Malcolm X., Alex Haley, Laurence Fishburne
In college, I attended an elite, mostly white school and shrank myself to make others comfortable. But this was the novel that opened my eyes and helped me become my own person.

The Rose That Grew from Concrete
by Tupac Shakur
It's no secret that I’m a huge Tupac fan, but at first, I didn’t know that he wrote poetry—and not just in songs. This book gives insight into Tupac the person and the artist, and it also gave me a sense of myself as a rose growing in concrete.

Salvage the Bones
by Jesmyn Ward
Jesmyn is one of the most brilliant writers I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. When I first read this book about a young pregnant girl and her family as they faced Hurricane Katrina, I was not only blown away by her gift, but also by the fact that she, too, is a Black woman from Mississippi. So many of Mississippi’s well-known authors are old, white, or dead—and she is none those things, nor am I. Seeing her succeed showed me that maybe my own author dreams were possible.

Death of Innocence: The Story Of The Hate Crime That Changed America
by Mamie Till-Mobley
Before I started working on The Hate U Give, I read this memoir by Emmett Till’s mother. She’s one of the unsung heroes of the civil rights movement, and her strength, bravery, and resilience are truly inspirational.

The Fault in Our Stars
by John Green
This book nurtured my love for young adult fiction. As soon as I started reading it, I was hooked.

Long Way Down
by Jason Reynolds
Long Way Down is a masterpiece from one of the best authors that children's literature has ever seen. Told in verse, it follows a young boy, Will, as he takes an elevator ride on his way to avenge his brother's murder. But over the course of the ride, he encounters the spirits of those he's lost to gun violence. Haunting but necessary.

Between the World and Me
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Although Coates wrote this book as a letter to his Black son, it is also a letter to all Black boys, and to all of us, about what it truly means to be Black in America.

Dear Justyce
by Nic Stone
Anyone who follows me on social media knows that Nic Stone is one of my best friends, but she's also one of my favorite authors. Her phenomenal follow-up to 2017's Dear Martin tells the story of Quan, a young man incarcerated and accused of murder. More than that, it's a story of Black boyhood, the ways in which the system fails boys like Quan, and how we can create a better world for them.

Ghost
by Jason Reynolds
I love every single thing Jason does, I would read his grocery lists. 

They Both Die at the End
by Adam Silvera
Adam Silvera brings me all the joy in the world, despite the fact that his books give me all the heartbreak in the world. 

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
by Becky Albertalli
Becky Albertalli writes wonderful, diverse love stories.

The Poet X
by Elizabeth Acevedo
Elizabeth Acevedo is a master of “beautiful verse."

Sharon Draper 

Jacqueline Woodson