Social Justice Books

Critically reviewed selection of multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators.

Unbound: A Novel in Verse

Reviewed by Deborah Menkart Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: When Grace, the enslaved protagonist of this beautiful novel-length poem, turns 9, she is sent to live and work in the big house, forcing a heart-wrenching separation from her family. Then Grace hears that her mother and younger brothers will be placed on the auction […]

Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation

Reviewed by Crystal Brunelle Review Source: Rich in Color Book Author: Kindred is not generally tagged as young adult, but it will likely be a cross-over title and it was one I wanted to read for our focus on women in graphic novels this month. Dana, the main character, has just turned twenty-six when the main […]

Rad Women Worldwide: Artists and Athletes, Pirates and Punks, and Other Revolutionaries Who Shaped History

Reviewed by Rethinking Schools Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: From the authors of Rad American Women A-Z, Rad Women Worldwide has a similarly defiant and playful approach, featuring a few women students may have heard of, but mostly introducing little-known “rad” women who are “passionate, purposeful, and totally powerful.” It’s hard not to fall in […]

Hidden Figures: Young Readers Edition

Reviewed by Tameka Brown Review Source: The Brown Bookshelf Book Author: The book pays homage to four trailblazing African American human computers–Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Christine Darden–who served as an integral part of NASA/NACA at the height of the Space Race between America and Russia. In November 2016, HarperCollins released the Young […]

One of a Kind, Like Me/Unico Como Yo

Reviewed by Latinx in Kid Lit Review Source: Latinx in Kid Lit Book Author: One of a Kind Like Me/Único como yo is a book every elementary school should own. It takes the subject of gender identity out of the public discourse, where morality and religion weigh heavily in the debate, and puts it into the personal […]

Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life

Reviewed by Megan Schliesman Review Source: Reading While White Book Author: Peggy, John, Charlotte and child, Stephen, Mulvina, Jane, Athelia, Qush, Bacus, Betty. It is with little more than these names that this book began. Ashley Bryan explains in his author’s note that he acquired a collection of slave-related documents and found among them an 1828 […]