This week’s “5 Books” post is short and sweet! This month is Black History Month, so today, I’m featuring 5 picture books about Black inventors.
As always, I’ve got a free, editable display poster for you (links below). This will help you set up an easy library display about African American inventors.
Want to use the “Black Inventors” display poster above? Download it here:
- edit in Canva (open this link) in your Canva account, then go to FILE – MAKE A COPY)
- download a copy in your Google Drive — This PDF is not editable. Google messes up the Canva formatting too much, so I flattened the poster. If you want to edit the poster, use the Canva link above. Canva accounts are free for teachers and school librarians. If you don’t have a Canva account yet, you are really missing out!
FIVE BOOKS ABOUT BLACK INVENTORS
All the following titles received at least two positive professional reviews on Titlewave, with some earning starred reviews.
Author: Chris Barton
Illustrator: Don Tate
Publication date: May 3, 2016
Genre: picture book biography
Setting: begins in 1949, Alabama, USA
Recommended for: PreS - Grade 4
Themes: Black history, inventors, toys, engineers, NASA, robots, STEM, Tuskegee Institute
Protagonist: Lonnie Johnson, African American male inventor
Starred reviews: Publishers Weekly, Horn Book, Kirkus
Pages: 32
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY
You know the Super Soaker. It’s one of top twenty toys of all time. And it was invented entirely by accident. Trying to create a new cooling system for refrigerators and air conditioners, impressive inventor Lonnie Johnson instead created the mechanics for the iconic toy.
A love for rockets, robots, inventions, and a mind for creativity began early in Lonnie Johnson’s life.
Growing up in a house full of brothers and sisters, persistence and a passion for problem solving became the cornerstone for a career as an engineer and his work with NASA.
But it is his invention of the Super Soaker water gun that has made his most memorable splash with kids and adults.
Author: Vivian Kirkfield
Illustrator: Chris Ewald
Publication date: April 2, 2019
Genre: picture book biography
Setting: Chicago, Illinois, USA; 1880s
Recommended for: PreS - Grade 4
Themes: African American inventors, furniture, carpentry, Black History, Women's History, overcoming obstacles
Protagonist: female, African American, born a slave
Starred reviews: no starred reviews
Pages: 36
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY
Sarah E. Goode was one of the first African-American women to get a US patent.
Working in her furniture store, she recognized a need for a multi-use bed and through hard work, ingenuity, and determination, invented her unique cupboard bed.
She built more than a piece of furniture. She built a life far away from slavery, a life where her sweet dreams could come true.
Author: Karyn Parsons
Illustrator: R. Gregory Christie
Publication date: 7 Dec 2021
Genre: picture book (fictionalized biography)
Setting: begins in late 1800s; Kentucky, USA
Recommended for: PreS - Grade 3
Themes: Black history, inventors, traffic lights, traffic safety
Protagonist: Garrett Morgan, African American male inventor
Starred reviews: Kirkus
Pages: 48
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY
Before Garrett Morgan became a successful inventor and saved countless lives with his creations, he was a little boy with a head full of ideas on how to make life better for everyone.
At a tumultuous time filled with racism and discrimination, Garrett became a prominent business man and skilled inventor who produced the traffic signal, a gas mask, and others objects still used today.
This second book from the award-winning children’s film series founded by Karyn Parsons, Sweet Blackberry, comes a little-known story about a man whose talent would be a gift to the world.
Author: Don Tate
Illustrator: Cherise Harris
Publication date: August 29, 2023
Genre: picture book biography
Setting: begins in 1940s Queens, New York, USA
Recommended for: PreS - Grade 3
Themes: engineers, STEM, video games, history of video games, Black history, inventors, perseverance
Protagonist: Jerry Lawson, African American male engineer and inventor
Starred reviews: no starred reviews
Pages: 40
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY
Before Xbox, PlayStation, or Nintendo Switch, there was a tinkerer named Jerry Lawson. As a boy, Jerry loved playing with springs, sprockets, and gadget-y things. When he grew up, Jerry became an engineer—a professional tinkerer—and in the 1970s, he turned his technical know-how to video games.
Back then, if players wanted a new video game, they had to buy an entire new console, making gaming very expensive. Jerry was determined to fix this problem, and despite roadblocks along the way and having to repeat a level or two, it was never game over for his mission.
Eventually, he leveled up and built a brand-new kind of video game console: one that allowed players to switch out cartridges! He also founded Video Soft, Inc., the first African American–owned video game company in the country.
Jerry’s tinkering and inventions changed the video gaming world forever. Today, gamers have access to hundreds of video games at the push of a button, all thanks to him. Game on!
Author: Michelle Lord
Illustrator: Alleanna Harris
Publication date: January 7, 2020
Genre: picture book biography
Setting: Harlem, New York, USA and Tanzania, Africa; starts in the 1940s
Recommended for: Grades K-5
Themes: optometry, inventors, Black history, women's history, racism, sexism, STEM, doctors, eye surgery, eye anatomy
Protagonist: Patricia Bath, African American female ophthalmologist
Starred reviews: no starred reviews
Pages: 48
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY
Born in the 1940s, Patricia Bath dreamed of being an ophthalmologist at a time when becoming a doctor wasn’t a career option for most women—especially African-American women.
This empowering biography follows Dr. Bath in her quest to save and restore sight to the blind, and her decision to “choose miracles” when everyone else had given up hope.
Along the way, she cofounded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, invented a specialized laser for removing cataracts, and became the first African-American woman doctor to receive a medical patent.
MORE “5 BOOKS” LISTS + DISPLAY POSTERS
