Nikki Grimes Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of Danitra Brown Books
Meet Danitra Brown | (1984) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Danitra Brown Leaves Town | (2001) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Danitra Brown, Class Clown | (2005) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Dyamonde Daniel Books
Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel | (2000) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Rich | (2009) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Almost Zero | (2010) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Halfway to Perfect | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Garvey Books
Publication Order of Oh, Bother! Books
Oh, Bother! No One's Listening | (1991) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Oh, Bother! Someone's Baby-Sitting | (1991) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Oh, Bother! Someone's Fighting | (1991) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Oh Bother: Someone Didn't Say Thank You | (2003) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
Growin' | (1977) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Jazmin's Notebook | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Stepping Out with Grandma Mac | (2001) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Bronx Masquerade | (2001) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Dark Sons | (2005) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Road to Paris | (2006) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Girl Named Mister | (2010) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Planet Middle School | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Picture Books
Disney's The Little Mermaid | (1605) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Something on My Mind | (1986) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Disney's Mickey Mouse In Sky Island | (1990) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Mickey Mouse in the Viking's Eye | (1990) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Minnie 'n Me | (1990) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Walt Disney's Pinocchio | (1992) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Minnie's New Friend | (1992) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
From a Child's Heart | (1993) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Walt Disney's Cinderella | (1993) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
C is for City | (1995) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Wild, Wild Hair | (1997) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Baby's Bedtime | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
My Man Blue | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
At Break of Day | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Aneesa Lee and the Weaver's Gift | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
When Daddy Prays | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Under the Christmas Tree | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Day with Daddy | (2004) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
When Gorilla Goes Walking | (2007) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Oh, Brother! | (2007) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Chasing Freedom | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Watcher | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Bedtime for Sweet Creatures | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Southwest Sunrise | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Off to See the Sea | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Playtime for Restless Rascals | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Walk in the Woods | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Lullaby for the King | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Collections
Come Sunday | (1996) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
It's Raining Laughter | (1997) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Dime a Doze | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Hopscotch Love | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Is it Far to Zanzibar? | (2000) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Shoe Magic | (2000) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Pocketful of Poems | (2001) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Dreams by Day, Dreams by Night | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What is Goodbye? | (2004) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
At Jerusalem's Gate | (2005) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Thanks a Million | (2006) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Welcome, Precious | (2006) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Voices of Christmas | (2009) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Poems in the Attic | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
One Last Word | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Between the Lines | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Legacy | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Glory in the Margins | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
Malcolm X | (1992) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Portrait of Mary | (1994) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Talkin' About Bessie | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Tai Chi Morning | (2004) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Barack Obama | (2008) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Out of the Dark | (2009) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Words with Wings | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Ordinary Hazards | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Kamala Harris: Rooted in Justice | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Jerry Pinkney as Illustrator Books
Tales from Africa | (0) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Ugly Duckling | (1843) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Little Match Girl | (1845) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi | (1894) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Education of Henry Adams | (1918) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Early Autumn | (1927) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Flowering of New England | (1936) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Lolita | (1955) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Rabbit, Run | (1960) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Adventures of Spider | (1964) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Year Around Book | (1965) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
This is Music for Kindergarten and Nursery School | (1965) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Traveling Frog | (1966) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Book of Shapes & Sizes | (1966) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Beautiful Blue Jay, and other Tales of India | (1967) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Even Tiny Ants Must Sleep | (1967) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Clock Museum | (1967) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Folktales and Fairytales of Africa | (1967) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Shoes, Pennies, and Rockets | (1968) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Kostas the Rooster | (1968) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Twin Witches of Fingle Fu | (1969) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Juano and the Wonderful Fresh Fish. | (1969) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Babushka and the Pig | (1969) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Porcupine and the Tiger | (1970) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Cora Annett's Homerhenry | (1970) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The King's Ditch | (1971) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Planet of Junior Brown | (1971) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Femi and Old Grandaddie | (1972) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
JD | (1973) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Kasho and the Twin Flutes. | (1973) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Prince Littlefoot | (1973) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Mickey and Minny | (1973) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Great Minu | (1974) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Roots of Time | (1974) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Song of the Trees | (1975) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Wuthering Heights | (1975) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry | (1975) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Yagua Days | (1976) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Winthrop Covenant | (1976) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Gulliver's Travels | (1977) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Selected plays | (1977) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Ji-Nongo-Nongo Means Riddles | (1978) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
History of Tom Jones a Founding | (1978) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Childtimes: A Three-Generation Memoir | (1979) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Tonweya and the Eagles | (1979) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
These Thirteen | (1979) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
More Adventures of Spider | (1980) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Count on Your Fingers African Style | (1980) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Covenant | (1980) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Jahdu | (1980) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Rabbit Redux | (1981) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Monster Myths of Ancient Greece | (1981) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Apples On A Stick | (1983) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Patchwork Quilt | (1985) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Half a Moon and One Whole Star | (1986) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Wild Wild Sunflower Child Anna | (1987) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Pop-Up: Strange Animals of the Sea | (1987) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Mirandy and Brother Wind | (1988) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Green Lion of Zion Street | (1988) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
More Tales of Uncle Remus | (1988) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Rabbit Makes a Monkey of Lion | (1989) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Talking Eggs | (1989) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Turtle in July | (1989) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Home Place | (1990) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Pretend You're a Cat | (1990) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
In for Winter, Out for Spring | (1991) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Man Who Kept His Heart in a Bucket | (1991) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Their Eyes Were Watching God | (1991) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
David's Songs | (1992) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Back Home | (1992) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Drylongso | (1992) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Starlit Somersault Downhill | (1993) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
I Want to Be | (1993) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
New Shoes for Silvia | (1993) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Sunday Outing | (1994) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
John Henry | (1994) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Jungle Book | (1995) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Tanya's Reunion | (1995) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman | (1996) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Sam and the Tigers | (1996) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Hired Hand | (1997) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Black Cowboy, Wild Horses | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Journeys with Elijah | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Aesop's Fables | (2000) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Albidaro and the Mischievous Dream | (2000) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Goin' Someplace Special | (2001) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Noah's Ark | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Nightingale | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
God Bless the Child | (2003) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Old African | (2005) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Music from Our Lord's Holy Heaven Book and CD | (2005) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Ain't Nobody a Stranger to Me | (2007) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The All-I'll-Ever-Want Christmas Doll | (2007) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Moon Over Star | (2008) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Sweethearts of Rhythm | (2009) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Starlit Snowfall | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The First Adventures of Spider | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Further Adventures of Spider: West African Folktales | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
In Plain Sight | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Christmas Boot | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Home in the Barn | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Little Mermaid | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Walk in the Woods | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Anthologies
First Kissof True Lip-Locked Moments | (2007) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Amazing Faces | (2010) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Exquisite Corpse Adventure | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
One Minute till Bedtime | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans Making History | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Talk: Conversations About Race, Love & Truth | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Ab Normal: Short Stories That Smash Mental Health Stereotypes | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Calling the Moon | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Nikki Grimes is a bestselling author of children’s fiction and inspirational fiction in addition to some critically acclaimed poetry.
Surprisingly, the 2022 Virginia Lifetime Achievement award-winning author never considered herself a bonafide storyteller. She believes she has always been is a good poet, even though she had become known as a prolific artist and bestselling author.
Over the years, Nikki Grimes has penned all manner of award-winning fiction for young adults and children. She is also the author of numerous novels and picture books including “Barack Obama,” which would become a New York Times bestselling title.
In addition to her children’s fiction works she has also been featured in the likes of the “Journal of Religion & Art,” “Essence,” “Image,” “Book Links,” and “Today’s Christian Woman.”
Given her reputation, she frequently conducts poetry lectures and poetry readings at international schools across the globe.
During the 1970s, she was the host and coproducer of WBAI FM’s “The Kid’s Show.” She was also the host of “Grunslost,” a Swedish Educational Radio program for immigrants when she lived in Sweden.
Most of Nikki Grimes’s novels are a reflection of her experience living as an African American woman in New York during the 60s. She published “Growin’” her debut novel in 1977.
Grimes began writing as a six-year-old as she loved words and languages. She was always fascinated by the notion that one word could have all manner of meanings.
During this time, she used to do all manner of word jumbles, puzzles, and games. She used to take a dictionary and pick words to see if she was able to pick out all the different meanings and how to use the word.
Born and raised in Harlem in New York, she first attended a Countee Cullen library poetry reading when she was six years old. The library often held poetry reading sessions for young poets, most of who were older than she was at the time.
When she was thirteen, her father signed her up and encouraged her to be brave by looking into his eyes when she did her first reading. She would then get a lot of encouragement from her father and sister who she was living with.
In fact, she credits her sister for being embarrassingly supportive and always saying she would one day be a renowned poet.
Whenever Nikki Grimes wrote something even if it was in the middle of the night, her sister would always be there to listen to her read it.
While she is now a renowned author and poet, Nikki Grimes still works very hard. Whenever she is home, she will usually write six days a week during the early mornings.
In fact, her car and house are full of notepads as she can often get ideas from anywhere and at any time. She usually feels her ideas better when she writes on a pad that she will then ultimately write into a word processor on her computer for editing.
Once she is done writing, she usually gets the manuscript to teachers and other writer friends that she trusts for feedback.
She is also part of an arts group that comprises columnists, writers, essayists, painters, composers, and sculptors that has been going strong for more than two decades.
She will often read excerpts of her novels and poems to the group for feedback and then take some notes before editing her work.
She takes her editing very seriously and always ensures that it has been seen by another set of eyes and combed through thoroughly by herself before it is published.
Nikki Grimes’s novel “Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel” is a work that introduced the lead as a third grader with crazy wild hair who is also as skinny as a toothpick.
The saving grace is that she is also fun and brilliant but this has not yet been able to solve her biggest problem.
What she really needs and wants is a best friend but no one at her new school seems interested in the position.
But then she is lucky that another new kid joins her class but he just happens to be the rudest, mopiest, and grumpiest kid Dyamonde has ever dealt with. It does not take long before she wants to understand what his problem is.
Soon enough they are fast friends as she investigates her new friend trying to cheer him up. Dyamonde Daniel is an interesting character with a good heart.
Nonetheless, this does not take away from the other characters and themes Grimes tackles such as the lack of apartment space, divorce, and unemployment.
Nikki writes about a plucky third-grade girl who has to face the pain of poverty and divorce but still manages to navigate the rigors of school, make a lot of friends and have empathy and inclusion on her radar.
“Rich” by Nikki Grimes follows the spirited young African American girl that was introduced in the first novel of the series. Dyamonde’s best friend is a girl named Fee who always had a desire for more money.
Free and Dyamonde are excited to participate in a school poetry contest as the winner is set to get published in the newspaper and receive a prize of $100.
Free has been dreaming of how she would spend the prize money if she is the winner but Damaris participates in the contest for a very different purpose.
Dyamonde finds Damaris’ entry into the competition weird and wants to understand her motivation and soon enough discovers that there is more to life than money or being rich.
The work explains what it is to be homeless and poor in a way that learned can relate to. The author also does a very good job of giving insights into aspects of sympathy and exploring Damaris’ character.
It also emphasizes that friendship can be important in enriching lives, even if the people involved do not have much money.
Nikki Grimes’s “Almost Zero” continues to follow third grader Dyamonde Daniel and her new classmate Tameeka.
The latter has recently gotten new sneakers and has been telling Dyamonde that her mother needs to get her new ones too since it is her job to get her whatever she needs.
Upon arriving home, she demands that her mother get her the latest sneakers. When she comes back home from school the following day, she finds her room empty.
It turns out that her mother has hidden all her playthings and is only providing her with the bare necessities that she really needs.
Dyamonde is frustrated and does not understand what is happening until the house of one of her classmates burns down. She knows her friend really needs clothes and donates some of her extra ones to her.
It makes for great work that teaches students about not being too hung up on material possessions. It is also effective at teaching learners the difference between needs and wants.