UPDATED: 10:30 a.m. ET, Sept. 6, 2020 —

At NewsOne, we believe that the child who reads is the child who leads. In keeping with that idea, we decided to take a look at the state of reading for Black youth, right before school starts.

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Research has found that the proportion of young people who are daily readers drops has dropped dramatically in recent years. According to some studies, since 1984, the percentage of 13-year-olds who are weekly readers dropped from 70% to 53%. Even worse, the percentage of 17-year-olds who are weekly readers fell from 64% to a startling 40%. And the percentage of 17-year-olds who never or hardly read tripled during the same period, from 9% to 27%. It’s jarring news.

We tapped our brother and sister sites Hello Beautiful and The Urban Daily to get their reading recommendations. Here are a few titles they said had an impact on them and that every Black youth should read.