The (incomplete) Lit in Colour Book List 2023 Edition: KS3-5

We have created The (incomplete) Lit in Colour book lists in response to one of the key findings in the research commissioned with our partner The Runnymede Trust, which found that teachers often struggle finding books by writers of colour.

We’re calling our book lists incomplete, because we know they will never manage to be exhaustive or definitive, and we plan to update them annually bringing even more new and classic titles to the list.

This list builds on the incomplete lists of previous years, and each list has 100 different titles from Penguin and our fellow publishers.

The lists also contain handy indexes grouping books together, for educators who want to assign or recommend a number of books on a particular topic, or for pupils who want to read further in a particular area, subject matter or genre.