Lest We Forget: The Passage from Africa to Slavery and Emancipation
by Velma Maia Thomas
Nonfiction · ages 10–14 · 920L (~6th grade) · 128 pages · 2019
Why we'd hand it over
Essential, unflinching introduction to slavery and African American history for upper-middle-grade readers—treats children as capable of hard truths while centering resilience and resistance alongside trauma.