The Bookish Boy

Turning Black Boys onto reading and on to college

There has been a lot said about the state of Black Boys and their college attendance. College attendance among boys has been dropping for awhile now, and we all know that when America catches a cold, Black America catches the flu. Toure just went viral for letting everyone know that just 19% of Howard University students are Black Men. According to him and his research there are more international students than there are on the campus. This is alarming given that most of the Black doctors in this country come from HBCU’s. So what do we do?

We analyze the problem first and there are many reasons. Some are saying Black boys are intimidated by college, they can’t see themselves there. Some say that it’s the feminization of education (I’m rolling my eyes on that one) and still others say that its the school-to-prison pipeline. It is almost undoubtedly very many factors contributing to the issue, but I want to focus on one. Poor literacy rates.

Less than 1/2 of Americans in general are reading above the eight grade level and you absolutely need good reading skills to be able to make it to and through college. Remember what I said about American catching a cold?

We learn the basic mechanics of reading in grade school, but there’s nothing but practice left to make us good readers. The boys must read and read often. They can’t afford to say “I’m not a reader,” and we can’t allow them to sit in that. We have to encourage them to read, buy them books and allow them the time and space to put something down and pick something else up.

I’ve put together a list of books for boys, mostly authored by Black men. These books feature Black boys and men in everyday situations, falling in love, fighting monsters, getting in trouble and living to tell the tale. They affirm their existence and they are absolutely necessary.

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The Books

Weirdo

Eleven-year-old Tony Weaver, Jr. loves comic books, anime, and video games, and idolizes the heroic, larger-than-life characters he finds there. But his new classmates all think he’s a weirdo. Bullied by his peers, Tony struggles with the hurt of not being accepted and tries to conform to other people's expectations. After a traumatic event shakes him to his core, he embarks on a journey of self love that will require him to become the hero of his own story.

Ruin Road

Cade Webster lives between worlds. He's a standout football star at the right school but lives in the wrong neighborhood--if you let his classmates tell it. Everywhere but home, people are afraid of him for one reason or another. Afraid he's too big, too fast, too ambitious, too Black.

Then one fateful night, to avoid a dangerous encounter with the police, he ducks into a pawn shop. An impulse purchase and misspoken desire change everything when Cade tells the shopkeeper he wishes people would stop acting so scared around him, and the wish is granted...

At first, it feels like things have taken a turn for the better. But it's not just Cade that people no longer fear--it's everything. With Cade spreading this newfound "courage" wherever he goes, anything can happen. Fearless acts of violence begin to escalate in both his neighborhood and at school. With the right moves, and brave friends, Cade might have one -- and only one -- chance to save all he loves. But at what cost? After all, the devil's in the details.

The Rose that Grew from Concrete

For the first time in paperback, this collection of deeply personal poetry is a mirror into the legendary artist's enigmatic world and its many contradictions.

Written in his own hand from the time he was nineteen, these seventy-two poems embrace his spirit, his energy—and his ultimate message of hope.

All of these books are linked to Mahogany Books or Left on Read, Black Owned Bookstores. If you’ve been feeling my lists you can buy me a coffee!

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