Visit Teaching for Change's website TeachingCentralAmerica.org for more resources to teach about Panama and other countries in Central America, including lessons, films, websites, biographies of noted historical figures, and readings for free use by classroom teachers.

See more recommended titles: Central America, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Teaching About Immigration.

Elementary

Conejito: A Folktale from Panama

By Margaret Read MacDonald and Geraldo Valerio (Illustrator)

Elena y las hormigas

By FONAMUPP

FREE DOWNLOAD
(in multiple languages)

From Panamá to New York: Jacquelina's Story

By Jacqueline Atkins

My Daddy Is a Cowboy

By Stephanie Seales and C. G. Esperanza (Illustrator)
See author interview: Father’s Day Discussion

Panama

Vámonos a Panama City

By Patty Rodriguez, Ariana Stein, and Ana Godinez (Illustrator)

Middle School

Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal

By Margarita Engle

Sincerely Sicily

By Tamika Burgess

YA / Adult

African Maroons in Sixteenth-Century Panama: A History in Documents

By Robert C. Schwaller

The Canal Builders: Making America's Empire at the Panama Canal

By Julie Greene

Erased: The Untold Story of the Panama Canal

By Marixa Lasso

The Great Divide

By Cristina Henríquez

Panama in Black: Afro-Caribbean World Making in the Twentieth Century

By Kaysha Corinealdi

The Silver Women: How Black Women's Labor Made the Panama Canal

By Joan Flores-Villalobos

Learn about our criteria for selecting and reviewing titles at Social Justice Books. Feedback on these lists and suggestions for additional titles are welcome.

Most of the books on these lists are linked for more information or purchase to Bookshop (an indie bookstore platform). A small percentage from book sales through these links goes to Teaching for Change.

If you value this book list, please help us promote it and create more book lists.

Donate Today