McGruder, Aaron. A Right to be Hostile: The Boondocks Treasury. Three Rivers Press, 2003.

Here’s the first big book of The Boondocks, more than four years and 800 strips of one of the most influential, controversial and scathingly funny comics ever to run in a daily newspaper.

Coles, Jay. Tyler Johnson Was Here. Little, Brown and Company, 2018.

When Marvin Johnson’s twin, Tyler, goes to a party, Marvin decides to tag along to keep an eye on his brother. But what starts as harmless fun turns into a shooting, followed by a police raid. The next day Tyler is missing, and it’s up to Marvin to find him. But when Tyler is found dead, a video leaked online tells an even more chilling story: Tyler has been shot and killed by a police officer. Terrified as his mother unravels, mourning a brother who is now a hashtag, Marvin must learn what justice and freedom really mean.

Reynolds, Jason. All American Boys. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2015.

When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend. Told through Rashad and Quinn’s alternating viewpoints.

Stone, Nic. Dear Martin. Crown, 2017.

Justyce McAllister is a good kid, an honor student and always there to help a friend—but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. Despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can’t escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates. Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out.

Thomas, Angie. The Hate U Give. HarperCollins, 2017.

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter navigates between the poverty stricken neighborhood she has grown up in and the upper-crust suburban prep school she attends. Her life is up-ended when she is the sole witness to a police officer shooting her best friend, Khalil, who turns out to have been unarmed during the confrontation—but may or may not have been a drug dealer. As Starr finds herself even more torn between the vastly different worlds she inhabits, she also has to contend with speaker her truth and, in the process, trying to stay alive herself.