Social Justice Books

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

Your Plantation Prom Is Not Okay

Reviewed by Lucy Sieczka Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author:  Your Plantation Prom Is Not Okay by Kelly McWilliams follows the story of 17-year-old Harriet Douglass on her mission to stop a neighboring plantation from becoming an event venue. Harriet has lived on the Westwood Plantation for about a decade as her parents restored the […]

Juliet Takes a Breath

Reviewed by Sawyer Lovett Source: Lambda Literary Author: Do you remember the first book that changed the way you looked at the world? The one that made you question the status quo and your place in it? For Juliet, a chubby 19-year-old Puerto Rican queer girl from the Bronx, it’s Raging Flower: Empowering your Pussy by […]

Call Me Miss Hamilton: One Woman’s Case for Equality and Respect

Reviewed by Valencia Abbott Review Source: Social Education Book Author: I hadn’t heard about Miss Mary Lucille Hamilton before reading this book. But after reading that she demanded to be addressed as “Miss Hamilton,” I knew I wanted to know her better. Miss Hamilton would become the plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court case Hamilton […]

Troublemaker

Reviewed by Deborah Jung Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: Troublemaker is a nuanced and emotionally rich middle grade chapter book recalling the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising, or Sa-I-Gu, from the perspective of a young Korean American boy trying to find his father. The book’s protagonist, Jordan, is a Korean American seventh grader whose […]

Strong as Fire, Fierce as Flame

Reviewed by Paige Pagan Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author:  This is a moving and thought-provoking middle grade historical novel set in British-occupied India in 1857. On the day before Meera’s 13th birthday, she’s expected to move into her husband’s home with his family, as is the Indian custom, but in a twist of fate, […]

The Arabic Quilt: An Immigrant Story

Reviewed by Karen Leggett Abouraya Book Source: African Access Book Author: Egyptian-born author Aya Khalil has focused her picture book on immigrant children who may love the traditions of their family and homeland, but seek desperately to fit into their American world.  On her first day in third grade in a new school, Kanzi hears […]