Social Justice Books

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

Dragons in a Bag

Reviewed by Deborah Menkart Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: See all the books in the Dragons in a Bag series. Set in gentrifying Brooklyn, Dragons in a Bag is about a young boy (Jax) who spends the day with an elderly neighbor (Ma) while his mother goes to court to challenge their eviction. To […]

This Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality

Reviewed by Deborah Menkart Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: Did you know that one year before the Little Rock Nine, in Clinton, Tennessee, 12 Black students desegregated their high school? Their dramatic story is told by one of the 12 students — Jo Ann Allen Boyce — in collaboration with children’s book author […]

Dreamers

Reviewed by Debbie Reese Review Source: American Indians in Children’s Literature Book Author: The first library I knew as a child was a cardboard box full of books. You see, I went to a government day school on my reservation. We didn’t have a library. What we had was a librarian from the nearby public […]

Teddy Roosevelt: The People’s President

Reviewed by: Kathleen Nganga Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: Like many children’s biographies, Teddy Roosevelt: The People’s President by Sharon Gayle celebrates Roosevelt’s perseverance and rise to power, but misses his failings, shortcomings, and the nuances of his life. Thus, while imparting valuable lessons about determination, the book glorifies militarism and erases people […]

Ghost Boys

Reviewed by: Zetta Elliot Review source: Zetta Elliot Book author: Lately I’ve been reflecting on the debt I owe so many Black women scholars. I stepped away from academia several years ago and have no regrets, but your training doesn’t leave you and it’s been energizing to find current scholarship that aligns with my kid […]

Finding Langston

Reviewed by: Kathleen Nganga Review source: Independent Book Author:  Finding Langston is Lesa Cline-Ransome’s superb first novel. The book is about eleven-year-old Langston, a young boy from Alabama who moves with his father to Chicago in 1946 after the death of his mother. The move jars Langston as he is forced to grapple with a […]