This week’s List kicks off the start of Black History Month and features some truly historic books, like Maude Martha, the only novel written by Gwendolyn Brooks, who was the first African-American to win a Pulitzer Prize (1950 for poetry).

Brooks was appointed Poet Laureate for the state of Illinois in 1968, and along with Zora Neale Hurston, helped shape the landscape for black writers.

Hurston’s Jonah’s Gourd Vine also makes the list of must-reads this week, along with Newbery Award-winner Christopher Paul Curtis’s The Mighty Miss Malone, about a spunky, smart young black girl fighting to find “wonderful” as her family experiences tragedy during  The Great Depression.

Get the entire List at PostScript’d.

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