Teaching for Change carefully selects the best multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators. Learn about our criteria for selecting titles. Feedback on these lists and suggestions for additional titles are welcome. Most of the books on these lists are linked to Powells.com (an independent, unionized bookstore) and/or Bookshop (an indie bookstore platform). A small percentage of the book sales goes to Teaching for Change to support this Social Justice Books website.
Titles with reviews on this site are noted with an asterisk(*).
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Mighty Justice: The Untold Story of Civil Rights Trailblazer Dovey Johnson Roundtree
By Dovey Johnson Roundtree and Katie McCabe
December 2020
Project Censored's State of the Free Press 2021
Edited by Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth, foreword by Matt Taibbi
December 2020
Shayla's Shutdown Solution
By Danya Carter, Samaria Short, and Camryn Simms (Illustrator)
November 2020
William Still and His Freedom Stories: The Father of the Underground Railroad *
By Don Tate
November 2020
No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans Making History *
Edited by Lindsay H. Metcalf, Keila V. Dawson, and Jeanette Bradley
September 2020
The Teachers March! How Selma's Teachers Changed History *
By Sandra Neil Wallace, Rich Wallace, and Charly Palmer (Illustrator)
September 2020
Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers Won the Vote & Insisted on Equality for All
By Martha S. Jones
September 2020
When They Call You a Terrorist (Young Adult Edition): A Story of Black Lives Matter and the Power to Change the World
By Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele
September 2020
Celebrate People's History: The Poster Book of Resistance and Revolution *
Edited by Josh MacPhee
August 2020
Fauja Singh Keeps Going: The True Story of the Oldest Person to Ever Run a Marathon
By Simran Jeet Singh, Baljinder Kaur
August 2020
Sharuko: El Arqueólogo Peruano / Peruvian Archaeologist Julio C. Tello
By Monica Brown and Elisa Chavarri (Illustrator)
August 2020
She Was the First! The Trailblazing Life of Shirley Chisholm
By Katheryn Russell-Brown and Eric Velasquez (Illustrator)
August 2020
Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart
By Zetta Elliott and Noa Denmon (Illustrator)
July 2020
Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks
Suzanne Slade, Cozbi A. Cabrera (Illustrator)
April 2020
BOX: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom
By Carole Boston Weatherford, Michele Wood (Illustrator)
April 2020
Teaching Critically about Lewis and Clark: Challenging Dominant Narratives in K-12 Curriculum
By Alison Schmitke and Leilani Sabzalian and Jeff Edmundson
April 2020
Baba, What Does My Name Mean? A Journey to Palestine
By Rifk Ebeid, Lamaa Jawhari (Illustrator)
March 2020
Woke: A Young Poet's Call to Justice
By Mahogany L. Browne, Elizabeth Acevedo, Olivia Gatwood, Theodore Taylor, III (Illustrator), Jason Reynolds (Contributions by)
March 2020
Beautiful Shades of Brown: The Art of Laura Wheeler Waring
By Nancy Churnin and Felicia Marshall (Illustrator)
February 2020
Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens the Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era
By Jerry Mitchell
February 2020
Mamie on the Mound: A Woman in Baseball's Negro Leagues
By Leah Henderson, George Doutsiopoulos (Illustrator)
January 2020
Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation
By Octavia E. Butler, Damian Duffy (Adapted by), John Jennings (Illustrator)
January 2020
Freedom Libraries: The Untold Story of Libraries for African Americans in the South
By Mike Selby
October 2019
Dreams from Many Rivers: A Hispanic History of the United States Told in Poems
By Margarita Engle
October 2019
One Person, No Vote (YA Edition): How Not All Voters Are Treated Equally
By Carol Anderson with Tonya Bolden
September 2019
The Power in the Room: Radical Education Through Youth Organizing and Employment
By Jay Gillen
September 2019
The Other Side: Stories of Central American Teen Refugees Who Dream of Crossing the Border
By Juan Pablo Villalobos
September 2019
Fantasy Island: Colonialism, Exploitation, and the Betrayal of Puerto Rico
By Ed Morales
September 2019
The Women Who Caught The Babies: A Story of African American Midwives*
By Eloise Greenfield, Daniel Minter (Illustrator)
September 2019
Troublemaker for Justice: The Story of Bayard Rustin, the Man Behind the March on Washington*
By Jacqueline Houtman, Walter Naegle, Michael G. Long
August 2019
Sing a Song: How "Lift Every Voice and Sing" Inspired Generations*
By Kelly Starling Lyons
August 2019
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People*
By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Debbie Reese
July 2019
Por Todo Nuestro Alrededor = All Around Us*
By Xelena Gonzalez, Adriana M. Garcia (Illustrator)
June 2019
The Dark Fantastic: Race & the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games
By Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
May 2019
It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (Adapted for Young Readers)
By Trevor Noah
From the Radical Teacher: Teaching Middle School Students About Structural Racism with Born a Crime
April 2019
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything American History Textbooks Get Wrong (Young Readers Edition)
By James W. Loewen
April 2019
This Place: 150 Years Retold
By Alicia Elliott (Foreword by), Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm (Contribution by), Sonny Assu (Contribution by)
April 2019
Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence
By Kellie Carter Jackson
March 2019
The New Teacher Book: Finding Purpose, Balance, and Hope During Your First Years in the Classroom
Edited By Linda Christensen, Stan Karp, Bob Peterson, Moé Yonamine
March 2019
We the Resistance: Documenting a History of Nonviolent Protest in the United States
By Michael Long, Chris Hedges
February 2019
Fighter in Velvet Gloves: Alaska Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich
By Annie Boochever and Roy Peratrovich Jr
February 2019
Rethinking Ethnic Studies
Edited By R. Tolteka Cuauhtin, Miguel Zavala, Christine Sleeter, Wayne Au
February 2019
Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow
By Henry Louis Gates Jr and Tonya Bolden
January 2019
Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge: Young Readers Edition*
By Erica Armstrong Dunbar and Kathleen Van Cleve
January, 2019
Free All Along: The Robert Penn Warren Civil Rights Interviews
By Stephen Drury Smith (Editor), Catherine Ellis (Editor)
January 2019
This Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality*
By Jo Ann Allen Boyce, Debbie Levy
January 2019
The Roots of Rap: 16 Bars on the 4 Pillars of Hip-Hop
By Carole Boston Weatherford, Frank Morrison (Illustrator)
January 2019
Pies from Nowhere: How Georgia Gilmore Sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott*
By Dee Romito
November 2018
Adventures in Ana Park (Books by Teens #23)
By Kahliya Ruffin, Trevon Evans, Liu Light (Illustrator)
November 2018
Finding Mumbo (Books by Teens #24)
By de'Asia Scott, India Dawkins, West Cahall (Illustrator)
November 2018
Journey for Justice: The Life of Larry Itliong *
By Dawn Bohulano Mabalon and Gayle Romasanta
October 2018
What Do You Do with a Voice Like That? The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan
By Chris Barton, Ekua Holmes (Illustrator)
September 2018
Carlos Santana: Sound of the Heart, Song of the World
By Gary Golio, Rudy Gutierrez (Illustrator)
September 2018
Just Mercy (Adapted for Young Adults): A True Story of the Fight for Justice
By Bryan Stevenson
September 2018
We Rise We Resist We Raise Our Voices: Words & Images of Hope*
By Wade Hudson, Cheryl Willis Hudson
September 2018
Someday Is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-ins*
By Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Jade Johnson (Illustrator)
August 2018
Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968
By Alice Faye Duncan, R. Gregory Christie (Illustrator)
August 2018
"Lift Us Up, Don't Push Us Out!" Voices from the Front Lines of the Educational Justice Movement
By Mark R. Warren, David Goodman
August 2018
55 Strong: Inside The West Virginia Teachers' Strike
Edited by Elizabeth Catte, Emily Hilliard, and Jessica Salfia
July 2018
The Lost Education of Horace Tate: Uncovering the Hidden Heroes Who Fought for Justice in Schools
By Vanessa Siddle Walker
July 2018
Rad Girls Can: Stories of Bold, Brave, and Brilliant Young Women
By Kate Schatz, Miriam Klein Stahl (Illustrator)
July 2018
Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots*
By Margarita Engle, Rudy Gutierrez (Illustrator)
May 2018
Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement
By Janet Dewart Bell
May 2018
La Frontera: El viaje con papa / My Journey with Papa*
By Deborah Mills, Alfredo Alva, Claudia Navarro (Illustrator)
May 2018
Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology
By Melissa Tuckey (Editor), Camille Dungy (Foreword by)
April 2018
Crescent Moons and Pointed Minarets: A Muslim Book of Shapes*
By Hena Khan, Mehrdokht Amini (Illustrator)
April 2018
Trailer Park / Parque de Remolqu
By Jc Dillard, Anna Usacheva (Illustrator), Madelin Romero (Translator)
April 2018
Things That Make White People Uncomfortable
By Michael Bennett, Dave Zirin, Martellus Bennett (Foreword by)
April 2018
Midnight Teacher: Lilly Ann Granderson and Her Secret School*
By Janet Halfmann, London Ladd
February 2018
A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History
By Jeanne Theoharis
January 2018
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir
By Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Asha Bandele, Angela Davis (Foreword)
January 2018
P is for Palestine: A Palestine Alphabet Book
By Golbarg Bashi (Illustrator), Golrokh Nafisi (Editor), Kourosh Beigpour (Editor)
November 2017
Mama Africa!: How Miriam Makeba Spread Hope with Her Song
By Kathryn Erskine, Charly Palmer (Illustrator)
October 2017
I Am Alfonso Jones*
By Tony Medina, Stacey Robinson (Illustrator), and John Jennings (Illustrator), foreword by Bryan Stevenson
October 2017
These Schools Belong to You and Me: Why We Can't Afford to Abandon Our Public Schools
By Deborah Meier, Emily Gasoi
September 2017
#NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women*
Edited by Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale
September 2017
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria - Revised and Updated Edition
By Beverly Tatum
September 2017
Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education
By Noliwe Rooks
September 2017
The Color of Law A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
By Richard Rothstein
May 2017
Rethinking Bilingual Education
Edited by Elizabeth Barbian, Grace Cornell Gonzales, Pilar Mejia
April 2017
Anti-Bias Education in the Early Childhood Classroom: Hand in Hand, Step by Step
By Katie Kissinger
March 2017
Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation*
By Octavia E. Butler, John Jennings (Illustrator), Damian Duffy (Adapted by)
January 2017
Fannie Never Flinched: One Woman's Courage in the Struggle for American Labor Union Rights*
By Mary Cronk Farrell
November 2016
Somos Como Las Nubes / We Are Like the Clouds*
By Jorge Argueta, Alfonso Ruano (Illustrator), Elisa Amado
October 2016
One of a Kind, Like Me / Unico Como Yo*
By Laurin Mayeno, Robert Liu-Trujillo (Artist)
September 2016
Rad Women Worldwide: Artists and Athletes, Pirates and Punks, and Other Revolutionaries Who Shaped History*
By Kate Schatz, Miriam Klein Stahl (Illustrator)
September 2016
Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their lives and Dreams Brought to Life*
By Ashley Bryan, Ashley Bryan (Illustrator)
September 2016