Fans pick 100 books like Delectable Vegetables

By Trace Wilkins Francis, Hh Pax (illustrator),

Here are 100 books that Delectable Vegetables fans have personally recommended if you like Delectable Vegetables. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Bippity Bop Barbershop

Ciara L. Hill Author Of Shiloh and Dande the Lion: Embrace diversity, accept others, and courageously be yourself!

From my list on positively affirming African-American boys' experiences.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an African American woman with an African-American son, on a mission to ensure that more books positively affirm black boys. Growing up, I moved every two years due to my father’s military service. Through those experiences, I grew up appreciating various cultures, diversity, and the importance of different voices having representation. As a licensed therapist in the mental health field for over 15 years, I see the incredible impact that books reflecting authentic representation can bring. I love reading and writing books featuring African-American protagonists for all children and families to read, love, and enjoy, hoping that readers will gain a new positive perspective.

Ciara's book list on positively affirming African-American boys' experiences

Ciara L. Hill Why did Ciara love this book?

Bippity Bop Barbershop is a love letter and a rite of passage for black and brown boys everywhere.

It highlights the experience of a young boy named Miles as he gets his first haircut. This story is so relatable to me and others because it highlights many things that happen at the barbershop within the African-American community.

The watercolor illustrations are stunning and go hand in hand with the story.

By Natasha Anastasia Tarpley, E B Lewis (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Bippity Bop Barbershop as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

In this companion book to the bestselling I Love My Hair, a young boy, Miles, makes his first trip to the barbershop with his father. Like most little boys, he is afraid of the sharp scissors, the buzzing razor, and the prospect of picking a new hairstyle. But with the support of his dad, the barber, and the other men in the barbershop, Miles bravely sits through his first haircut. Written in a reassuring tone with a jazzy beat and illustrated with graceful, realistic watercolors, this book captures an important rite of passage for boys and celebrates African-American identity.


Book cover of The Adventures of Joshua and Pip: Calvin the Catfish

Ciara L. Hill Author Of Shiloh and Dande the Lion: Embrace diversity, accept others, and courageously be yourself!

From my list on positively affirming African-American boys' experiences.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an African American woman with an African-American son, on a mission to ensure that more books positively affirm black boys. Growing up, I moved every two years due to my father’s military service. Through those experiences, I grew up appreciating various cultures, diversity, and the importance of different voices having representation. As a licensed therapist in the mental health field for over 15 years, I see the incredible impact that books reflecting authentic representation can bring. I love reading and writing books featuring African-American protagonists for all children and families to read, love, and enjoy, hoping that readers will gain a new positive perspective.

Ciara's book list on positively affirming African-American boys' experiences

Ciara L. Hill Why did Ciara love this book?

The Adventures of Joshua & Pip: Calvin the Catfish is a lighthearted and fun story that takes readers on a fishing adventure.

Throughout the story, Joshua and Pip try to catch the infamous “Calvin the Catfish.” Children and adults will laugh throughout the story as they try to guess what will happen next. You’ll have to read the story yourself to find out if “Calvin the Catfish” is real or just a tall tale.

I appreciate that this story is relatable and shows that African-American boys enjoy the same activities that other children from different backgrounds enjoy. The strong messages within the story include patience, perseverance, joy, and creativity. 

By John A Light, Jamie R Gandy (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Adventures of Joshua and Pip as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

On a humidly hot day, Joshua and Pip are geared up and ready for a great day of fishing. On the way to Ogeechee Lake, they see a sign that challenges them to catch Calvin the Catfish. Pip is ready and willing to accept the challenge. However, Pip and Joshua soon find out that catching any fish, let alone the great CALVIN THE CATFISH, takes lots of patience and a little luck.


Book cover of Max and the Tag-Along Moon

Ciara L. Hill Author Of Shiloh and Dande the Lion: Embrace diversity, accept others, and courageously be yourself!

From my list on positively affirming African-American boys' experiences.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an African American woman with an African-American son, on a mission to ensure that more books positively affirm black boys. Growing up, I moved every two years due to my father’s military service. Through those experiences, I grew up appreciating various cultures, diversity, and the importance of different voices having representation. As a licensed therapist in the mental health field for over 15 years, I see the incredible impact that books reflecting authentic representation can bring. I love reading and writing books featuring African-American protagonists for all children and families to read, love, and enjoy, hoping that readers will gain a new positive perspective.

Ciara's book list on positively affirming African-American boys' experiences

Ciara L. Hill Why did Ciara love this book?

This is a beautifully written story highlighting young Max's tender relationship with his grandfather.

Before Max leaves to return home, his grandfather assures him that the tag-along moon will always be there and remind him of their time together, even if his grandfather is not physically with him.

Max and the Tag-Along Moon is comforting, peaceful, and a great reminder of unconditional love, acceptance, and positive familial relationships.

By Floyd Cooper,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Max and the Tag-Along Moon as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 3, 4, 5, and 6.

What is this book about?

Experience the wonder of the moon following you home with a Coretta Scott King Award-winning illustrator! Great for Father’s Day and Grandparent’s Day!

Max loves his grandpa. When they must say good-bye after a visit, Grandpa promises Max that the moon at Grandpa’s house is the same moon that will follow him all the way home. On that swervy-curvy car ride back to his house, Max watches as the moon tags along. But when the sky darkens and the moon disappears behind clouds, he worries that it didn’t follow him home after all. Where did the moon go—and what about…


Book cover of No Limits: A Story Celebrating the Unconditional Love of a Father

Ciara L. Hill Author Of Shiloh and Dande the Lion: Embrace diversity, accept others, and courageously be yourself!

From my list on positively affirming African-American boys' experiences.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an African American woman with an African-American son, on a mission to ensure that more books positively affirm black boys. Growing up, I moved every two years due to my father’s military service. Through those experiences, I grew up appreciating various cultures, diversity, and the importance of different voices having representation. As a licensed therapist in the mental health field for over 15 years, I see the incredible impact that books reflecting authentic representation can bring. I love reading and writing books featuring African-American protagonists for all children and families to read, love, and enjoy, hoping that readers will gain a new positive perspective.

Ciara's book list on positively affirming African-American boys' experiences

Ciara L. Hill Why did Ciara love this book?

No Limits: A Story Celebrating the Unconditional Love of a Father is a rhyming story that shows the unbreakable bond and love between a father and son.

The story highlights many obstacles a child faces until young adulthood, as the father is right there to provide unwavering support, acceptance, and, most importantly, love. This book is a must-have for all father-and-son relationships.

By Ashley Finley,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked No Limits as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the author of the heartfelt Jade's Secret Ingredients: A Recipe for Managing Feelings, comes a new story that celebrates the unconditional love parents have for their children.


With rhyming verse and statements of affirmation, author Ashley Finley shares the beautiful journey of a young boy growing from infancy to young adulthood as viewed through the eyes of his loving father.


No Limits: A Story Celebrating the Unconditional Love of a Father celebrates the ebbs and flows of growing up within the protection of a loving and supportive parent-child relationship.


Paired with beautiful illustrations by Agia Putri, No Limits: A…


Book cover of Transatlantic Cultural Exchange: African American Women's Art and Activism in West Germany

Laura Visser-Maessen Author Of Robert Parris Moses: A Life in Civil Rights and Leadership at the Grassroots

From my list on Black Europe.

Why am I passionate about this?

My current research centers on the organizing strategies of 20th and 21st-century Black activists in the U.S. and western Europe and on the U.S. as a reference culture for European anti-racism movements, particularly in my native country, the Netherlands. I believe the recent Black Lives Matter protests in Europe are an example of the effectiveness of diasporic politics and the next phase in a much longer history of homegrown activism. Foregrounding ‘Black Europe’ as an independent field of study accordingly helps to create much needed critical knowledge about Black Europeans’ history, agency, and needs as we navigate further into the volatile twenty-first century, while simultaneously challenging the perimeters of diasporic meaning and the centrality of ‘Black America’ within.

Laura's book list on Black Europe

Laura Visser-Maessen Why did Laura love this book?

This impressively well-researched study focuses on the reception of Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker in post-World War II Germany. Although it only marginally references the Black German perspective (for that I recommend among others the work of Tina Campt, Tiffany Florvil, and Fatima El-Tayeb), it skillfully shows how Europeans perceive notions of race and racism through the prism of (African) Americanization.

Gerund illuminates particularly how White Germans’ interactions with (Black) America can provide pivotal insights into the meaning of ‘Whiteness’ and ‘citizenship’ in a European national context. This matters, because this in turn shapes (mis)understandings of the Black European plight and thus what anti-racism activists are up against. Like the works by Black scholars on the Netherlands, such as Gloria Wekker’s White Innocence and Philomena Essed’s edited volume Dutch Racism, Gerund’s study contributes to our understanding of how (fighting) notions of race must include grasping…

By Katharina Gerund,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Transatlantic Cultural Exchange as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From Josephine Baker's performances in the 1920s to the 1970s solidarity campaigns for Angela Davis, from Audre Lorde as "mother" of the Afro-German movement in the 1980s to the literary stardom of 1993 Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, Germans have actively engaged with African American women's art and activism throughout the 20th century. The discursive strategies that have shaped the (West) German reactions to African American women's social activism and cultural work are examined in this study, which proposes not only a nuanced understanding of "African Americanizations" as a form of cultural exchange but also sheds new light on the role…


Book cover of Release Me: The Spirits of Greenwood Speak

Hannibal B. Johnson Author Of Black Wall Street 100: An American City Grapples With Its Historical Racial Trauma

From my list on the Black experience in Oklahoma.

Why am I passionate about this?

The Black Experience is my experience. Through living that experience, and with the benefit of education, my passion for storytelling—for sharing oft-neglected Black history from a Black perspective—evolved. Professionally, I am a Harvard-educated attorney who writes, lectures, teaches, and coaches in the general area of the Black experience and in the broader realm of diversity, equity, and inclusion. My ten books focus on aspects of the Black experience in America. I have received many honors and accolades for my professional and community work, including induction into both the Tulsa Hall of Fame and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.

Hannibal's book list on the Black experience in Oklahoma

Hannibal B. Johnson Why did Hannibal love this book?

Release Me is an anthology that looks at the legacy of Tulsa's Historic Greenwood District through the eyes of various authors tapping a plethora of literary styles and devices. Through Release Me, the voices of the oft-unheard ring out. The legacy of the Greenwood District lives. 

By Phetote Mshairi (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Release Me as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“Apparitions roam the Greenwood District, yearning to be free of the day they died…”
The story of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, OK (aka Black Wall Street) is more than the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. RELEASE ME, the Spirits of Greenwood Speak anthology focuses on the lives of the citizens of Greenwood. The anthology is a symphony of historic facts about the Greenwood District (before and after the massacre) along with timeless and borderless community building principles wrapped in poetry, short stories, art, essays, and photography. RELEASE ME, the Spirits of Greenwood Speak anthology has contributions from Poet Laureate of…


Book cover of A Is for Ancestors: My Black College ABCs

Cynthia Sanders Author Of Mia, the Monster of Fear and the Fairy of Courage

From my list on Black education, dreams, and self-love.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always been passionate about Black authors and Black children being writers and writing about their experiences or their children’s experiences since I was a young adult. Ever since the Trayvon Martin incident years ago, these Black history stories and books have been so meaningful to the Black community. I used to read just Urban fiction AA books back in high school, but ever since I became a writer/author I have taken a liking to reading children's books about self-love, fear, and going to college, especially for young black children. I read these books to remind me that we are strong-minded people. That no one can take our light from us.

Cynthia's book list on Black education, dreams, and self-love

Cynthia Sanders Why did Cynthia love this book?

It shows Black graduates graduating from an HBCU and inspiring younger Black children to follow their dreams. This is to educate young Black children to attend college. I feel this can help a parent get their kids into a Black college to be great and well educated. I personally loved this book because it showed encouragement and empowerment. It taught me to never give up.

By Erica White, Cami Vollmer (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Is for Ancestors as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

Have you always dreamed of your child attending an HBCU? In Erica Stovall White’s debut children’s book, your child can have a glimpse into the joys of an HBCU. This fun and interactive ABC book uses rhyme and vibrant pictures to showcase the best that HBCUs offer, including lifelong friendships, caring professors, new social activities, and preparation for exciting careers. A Is for Ancestors includes engaging questions for younger readers and a resource guide for families and older children to explore the history and value of an HBCU education.


Book cover of Black, French, and African

Anaïs Angelo Author Of Power and the Presidency in Kenya: The Jomo Kenyatta Years

From my list on African presidents and their history.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I was a university student, I wanted to know how African presidencies function, not only how African presidents acquire and keep power, but also how they imagine it, how they anticipate political battles, who they trust, and who they fear. All too often, the literature focuses on colonial legacy and neo-colonization and describes African presidents with too little agency. As a doctoral researcher, I stumbled on a biography of Jomo Kenyatta and got caught by the intricacies of his political career. Since then, Kenyan political history has become my area of specialization, and while my background in political science keeps inspiring me, I have a passion for historical writing.

Anaïs' book list on African presidents and their history

Anaïs Angelo Why did Anaïs love this book?

This book stands as a reference when it comes to the early life of Senegal’s first president, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and it is one of the first biographies of an African president that I read. Beyond the extreme richness of this book, I have always been struck by how little the author wrote about Senghor’s political career as president (which remains quite controversial). For a long time, biographies of African presidents were grounded in an idea of greatness and exceptionality rather than unraveling political intricacies. 

Book cover of Black Power, Jewish Politics: Reinventing the Alliance in the 1960s

Cheryl Lynn Greenberg Author Of Troubling the Waters: Black-Jewish Relations in the American Century

From my list on Black-Jewish relations.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a professor who teaches and works in the field of African American History. Because I am both white and Jewish, I’ve been repeatedly asked to give talks about relationships between African Americans and white Jewish Americans, and about what “went wrong” to shatter the “grand alliance” of the civil rights movement embodied by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. I had no answer, but I suspected that none of the stories that we had been told, whether good or bad, were fully true. So I went back to the sources and uncovered a complex and multilayered history. Black and Jewish collaboration was never a given, and underlying tensions and conflicts reflected the broader realities of race and class in the U.S. In the book I explored how these historical and political forces operated, and continue to resonate today.

Cheryl's book list on Black-Jewish relations

Cheryl Lynn Greenberg Why did Cheryl love this book?

There are many wonderful, useful and thoughtful books on the subject from local studies to broader political and philosophical overviews, and while I wish I could recommend them all, I want to highlight Marc Dollinger’s book because he turns so many widely held beliefs on their heads. He argues that far from alienating Jewish allies, Black Power actually animated them and spurred them to rethink “Jewish Power,” revitalizing Jewish political action within a civil rights context. If there has been a divide between African American and (white) Jewish American leaders or agendas, it has at least partly been caused by losing sight of that story and ignoring the impact of white privilege on Jewish communal responses to civil rights challenges.

By Marc Dollinger,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Black Power, Jewish Politics as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this provocative critique, Marc Dollinger charts the transformation of American Jewish political culture from the Cold War liberal consensus of the early postwar years to the rise and influence of Black Power-inspired ethnic nationalism. He shows how, in a period best known for the rise of black anti-Semitism and the breakdown of the black-Jewish alliance, black nationalists enabled Jewish activists to devise a new Judeo-centered political agenda and express it in more visible forms of Jewish identity-including the emancipation of Soviet Jews, the development of a new form of American Zionism, the opening of hundreds of Jewish day schools,…


Book cover of Sistuhs in the Struggle: An Oral History of Black Arts Movement Theater and Performance

Jonathan Shandell Author Of The American Negro Theatre and the Long Civil Rights Era

From my list on Black culture and history in the Civil Rights era.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a theater historian whose research focuses on African American theater of 1940s-50s. While other periods and movements—the Harlem Renaissance (1920s), the Federal Theatre Project (1930s), the Black Arts Movement (1960s), and contemporary theater—have been well studied and documented, I saw a gap of scholarship around the 1940s-50s; I wondered why those years had been largely overlooked. As I dived deeper, I saw how African American performance culture (ie. theater, film, television, music) of the later-20th Century had its roots in the history of those somewhat overlooked decades. I’m still investigating that story, and these books have helped me do it.

Jonathan's book list on Black culture and history in the Civil Rights era

Jonathan Shandell Why did Jonathan love this book?

We tend to think about the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s as dominated by militant male voices. This book explores the rich contributions of black women artists to the movement—by amplifying the voices of women artists in their own words. The book is a collection of oral histories, drawing on dozens of interviews with influential Black women artists. Some of them are recognizable, like playwrights/poets Sonia Sanchez and Ntozake Shange. Others are less familiar names whose influence should be appreciated more fully. This is a rich celebration of the impact of women artists during a key period of African American cultural change.

By La Donna Forsgren,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Sistuhs in the Struggle as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The first oral history to fully explore the contributions of black women intellectuals to the Black Arts Movement, Sistuhs in the Struggle reclaims a vital yet under-researched chapter in African American, women's, and theater history. This groundbreaking study documents how black women theater artists and activists-many of whom worked behind the scenes as directors, designers, producers, stage managers, and artistic directors-disseminated the black aesthetic and emboldened their communities.

Drawing on nearly thirty original interviews with well-known artists such as Ntozake Shange and Sonia Sanchez as well as less-studied figures including distinguished lighting designer Shirley Prendergast, dancer and choreographer Halifu Osumare,…


Book cover of Bippity Bop Barbershop
Book cover of The Adventures of Joshua and Pip: Calvin the Catfish
Book cover of Max and the Tag-Along Moon

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