Social Justice Books

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

Kinda Like Brothers

Reviewed by Kaitlyn Plyley Review Source: Disability in Kids Lit Book Author: Kinda Like Brothers is New York novelist Coe Booth’s first book for middle-grade readers, and it is told from the point of view of an eleven-year-old boy who has asthma. Jarrett is struggling to keep up at school and to show the other boys that […]

Stonewall: A Building. An Uprising. A Revolution

Review Author Dr. Laura M. Jimenez Review Source: Book Toss Book Author: June in Pride Month and I’m a long-time Latinx lesbian and we’ve got some history to cover. I’ve been out for the majority of my life. I’m out to friends, family, acquaintances, neighbors, colleagues, students, my sons’ friends and families, the checkout people […]

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People

Reviewed by Jen Forbus Review Source: Shelf Awareness Book Author: Curriculum specialists Debbie Reese and Jean Mendoza have adapted Indigenous human rights activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s acclaimed academic text An Indigenous People’s History of the United States for young readers. This history of North America’s native tribal nations rebuts popular cultural beliefs and offers school-aged children a different perspective […]

Dalia’s Wondrous Hair

Review Author Sujei Lugo Review Source: Latinx in Kid Lit Book Author: DESCRIPTION FROM THE BOOK: A Cuban girl transforms her long and unruly hair into a garden. MY TWO CENTS: In this bilingual picture book, with a Spanish translation by Gabriela Baeza Ventura, Laura Lacámara brings us a whimsical Caribbean tale of a young Cuban girl and […]

Let’s Go Swimming on Doomsday

Reviewed by Lidwien Kapteijns, Ph.D. Wellesley College Review Source: Africa Access Book Author: This action novel is a page-turner from beginning to end. The story is set in near-contemporary Mogadishu, Somalia, where the armed Islamist movement called Al-Shabaab conducts terrorist attacks on civilian targets, while African peacekeeping troops and U.S. anti-terrorism units try to contain […]

The Jumbies

Reviewed by Edi Campbell Review Source: Cotton Quilts Book Author: Tracey Baptiste has been writing nonfiction and for quite a while. The Jumbies, her first book in this series, debuted in 2015. Rise of the Jumbies released in 2017 and The Jumbie God’s Revenge comes out this September. Baptise, a native of Trinidad, is quite familiar with the folklore that surrounds […]