African Icons: Ten People Who Shaped History

Ages 8 to 12, Grades 3 to 7

Heroic full-color portraits illustrate the stories of ten people who helped shape the African continent from ancient times through the tumultuous sixteenth century. In a richly designed work including profiles of rulers, educators, inventors, scholars, and explorers with additional maps and graphics, an award-winning author introduces reader to underrepresented stories of Black history.

Meet the ten remarkable kings, queens, inventors, scholars, and visionaries who changed the world. 

Black history begins thousands of years ago with the many cultures and people of the African continent.

Through portraits of ten heroic figures, author Tracey Baptiste takes readers on a journey across Africa to meet some of the great leaders and thinkers whose vision built a continent and shaped the world.

Illustrator Hillary D. Wilson’s brilliant portraits accompany each profile, along with vivid, information-filled landscapes, maps, and graphics for readers to pore over and return to again and again.

About the Author

Tracey Baptiste lived in Trinidad until she was fifteen; she grew up on jumbie stories and fairy tales. She is a New York Times bestselling author of Minecraft: The Crash, and a former teacher who works as a writer and editor. Visit her online at traceybaptiste.com and on Twitter: @TraceyBaptiste.