Titles that we recommend are featured below. The ones with reviews are noted with an asterisk (*). Some titles are recommended with a caveat. At the end of this page, we provide a list of titles on this theme, with reviews, that we do not recommend.

To learn more about Teaching for Change's program to bring go-go, D.C.'s indigenous music, to the classroom, visit Teach the Beat.

See more recommended titles: Poetry

Elementary | Middle School | Young Adult | Adult

Ada's Violin*

By Maria Brescia-Weiler

Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane

By Carole Boston Weatherford, Sean Qualls (Illustrator)

Born to Swing: Lil Hardin Armstrong's Life in Jazz

By Mara Rockliff and Michele Wood (Illustrator)

Bravo, Anjali! *

By Sheetal Sheth and Lucia Soto (Illustrator)

Build a House *

By Rhiannon Giddens and Monica Mikai (Illustrator)

Building an Orchestra of Hope: How Favio Chavez Taught Children to Make Music from Trash

By Carmen Oliver and Luisa Uribe (Illustrator)

Calling the Water Drum

By LaTisha Redding, Aaron Boyd (Illustrator)

Carlos Santana: Sound of the Heart, Song of the World

By Gary Golio, Rudy Gutierrez (Illustrator)

Dancing Hands: How Teresa Carreño Played the Piano for President Lincoln

By Margarita Engle

The Day They Found...Go-Go!

By Ihkand Mason and Funkgraphicz (Illustrator)

Diarou's Not So Different

By Diarou Bayo, Riley Campbell, Anthony Cooke, Alex Perkins (Illustrator)

Down on James Street

By Nicole McCandless and Byron Gramby (Illustrator)

Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music*

By Margarita Engle, Rafael Lopez (Illustrator)

The Electric Slide and Kai

By Kelly J. Baptist and Darnell Johnson (Illustrator)

Finding the Music/En Pos de La Musica

By Jennifer Torres, Renato Alarcao (Illustrator)

Grandma's Records

By Eric Velasquez

Harlem's Little Blackbird

By Renee Watson, Christian Robinson (Illustrator)

Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat

Edited by Nikki Giovanni, Alicia Vergel De Dios (Illustrator), Damian Ward (Illustrator)

A Horn for Louis: Louis Armstrong--As a Kid!

By Eric A. Kimmel

I Got the Rhythm

By Connie Schofield-Morrison

Itzhak: A Boy Who Loved the Violin

By Tracy Newman and  Abigail Halpin (Illustrator)

Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker

By Patricia Hruby Powell

The Legendary Miss Lena Horne

By Carole Boston Weatherford

Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion *

By Shannon Stocker and Devon Holzwarth (Illustrator)

Little Melba and Her Big Trombone

By Katheryn Russell-Brown, Frank Morrison (Illustrator)

Make a Pretty Sound: A Story of Ella Jenkins – The First Lady of Children's Music

By Traci N. Todd and Eleanor Davis (Illustrator)

Mama Africa!: How Miriam Makeba Spread Hope with Her Song

By Kathryn Erskine, Charly Palmer (Illustrator)

Mamiachi & Me: My Mami's Mariachi Band

By Jolene Gutiérrez, Dakota Gutiérrez, and Mirelle Ortega (Illustrator)

Me Llamo Celia / My Name Is Celia

By Monica Brown, Rafael Lopez (Illustrator)

Moses Goes to a Concert

By Isaac Millman

Nobody Gonna Turn Me 'Round: Stories and Songs of the Civil Rights Movement

By Doreen Rappaport, Shane W. Evans (Illustrator)

Playing at the Border: A Story of Yo-Yo Ma

By Joanna Ho and Teresa Martinez (Illustrator)

Rise Up Singing

By Peter Blood (Other), Annie Patterson (Other)

The Roots of Rap: 16 Bars on the 4 Pillars of Hip-Hop

By Carole Boston Weatherford, Frank Morrison (Illustrator)

She Sang for India: How M.S. Subbulakshmi Used Her Voice for Change

By Suma Subramaniam and Shreya Gupta (Illustrator)

Sing a Song: How "Lift Every Voice and Sing" Inspired Generations*

By  Kelly Starling Lyons

Sonny Rollins Plays the Bridge

By Gary Golio and James Ransome (Illustrator)

Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!: A Sonic Adventure

By Wynton Marsalis, Paul Rogers (Illustrator)

The Story of the Saxophone

By Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome (Illustrator)

Tito Puente: Mambo King / Rey del Mambo*

By Monica Brown

Trombone Shorty

By Troy Andrews, Bryan Collier (Illustrator)

A Voice Named Aretha

By Katheryn Russell-Brown

Welcome to the Cypher

By Khodi Dill and Awuradwoa Afful (Illustrator)

When I Get Older: The Story Behind "Wavin' Flag"*

By K'Naan, Rudy Gutierrez (Illustrator), Sol Guy (With)

When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop*

By Laban Carrick Hill, Theodore Taylor (Illustrator)

When We Love Someone

By Ernesto Javier Martinez

Wu-Tang Is for The Children

By Lee Lawrence and Marco Mares

Yellow Dog Blues *

By Alice Faye Duncan and Chris Raschka (Illustrator)

The Order of Things

By Kaija Langley

Rise Up and Sing! Power, Protest, and Activism in Music

By Andrea Warner and Louise Reimer (Illustrator)

Sing and Shout: The Mighty Voice of Paul Robeson

By Susan Goldman Rubin

The Beat: Go-Go Music from Washington, D.C.

By Kip Lornell, Charles C. Stephenson Jr

Black Punk Now

Edited by James Spooner and Chris L. Terry

Can't Stop Won't Stop: A Hip-Hop History (Young Adult Edition)

By Jeff Chang and Dave "Davey D" Cook

Crank Shaped Notes

By Thomas Sayers Ellis

The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere.

By James Spooner

In Search of Gil Scott-Heron, The Godfather of Rap

By Thomas Mauceri and  Seb Piquet (Illustrator)

Billie Holiday: The Musician and the Myth

By John Szwed

Black Country Music

By Francesca T. Royster

Culture Is Our Weapon: Making Music and Changing Lives in Rio de Janeiro

By Patrick Neate, Damian Platt, Caetano Veloso (Foreword by)

Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music

By Gerald Horne

My Song: A Memoir of Art, Race, and Defiance

By Harry Belafonte, Michael Shnayerson

Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone

By Nadine Cohodas

Take Me Out the the Go-Go: The True Story of a Music Culture and the Impact It Made on the Life of One Man

By Kato Hammond

Wasn't That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America

By Jesse Jarnow

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