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Middle Grade Books: Ages 8 - 13

Young Adult Books: Ages 13 +

The Secret Library

Since Grandpa died, Dally’s days are dull and restricted. She’s eleven and a half years old, and her exacting single mother is already preparing her to take over the family business. Starved for adventure and release, Dally rescues a mysterious envelope from her mother’s clutches, an envelope Grandpa had earmarked for her. The map she finds inside leads straight to an ancient vault, a library of secrets where each book is a portal to a precise moment in time. As Dally “checks out” adventure after adventure—including an exhilarating outing with pirates—she begins to dive deep into her family’s hidden history. Soon she’s visiting every day to escape the demands of the present. But the library has secrets of its own, intentions that would shape her life as surely as her mother’s meticulous plans. What will Dally choose? Equal parts mystery and adventure—with a biracial child puzzling out her identity alongside the legacy of the past—this masterful middle-grade fantasy rivets with crackling prose, playful plot twists, and timeless themes.

by Kekla Magoon

Travel through time with National Book Award Finalist Kekla Magoon in a page-turning fantasy adventure about family secrets and finding the courage to plot your own life story.

In an alarming trend sweeping across our educational landscape, "The Reading Lens" has compiled a growing list of books by Black authors facing bans. This systematic removal of Black literature from shelves represents more than just administrative censorship—it's an erasure of crucial perspectives from our educational spaces. The targeting of Black authors echoes a disturbing historical pattern where the acquisition of literacy and knowledge by Black Americans was once criminalized, with severe punishments for those caught learning to read.

Black-owned bookstores have long served as vital community hubs, offering safe spaces where banned literature can be discovered and discussed freely. These establishments aren't merely retail operations—they're cultural institutions that preserve and celebrate Black literary traditions when educational systems fail to do so. As the titles appearing on "The Reading Lens" list continue to grow—spanning genres from children's picture books to academic texts—these bookstores become increasingly important sanctuaries of knowledge, providing access to the honest portrayals of Black experiences and historical truths that some would prefer to silence.

Banned and Challenged Books: When Black Voices Are Silenced