Social Justice Books

The best selection of multicultural and social justice books for children, YA, and educators.

Articles

Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children’s Books

By Louise Derman-Sparks
Children’s books continue to be an invaluable source of information and values. They reflect the attitudes in our society about diversity, power relationships, and various social identities. Read and share these guidelines for selecting books for young children that support the development of a healthy self-image… Read more.

Hair Representation in Children’s Literature

D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice, Communities for Just Schools Fund, and the Early Childhood Initiative at the National Museum of African American History and Culture offered a workshop on hair representation in children’s books on November 2, 2019. Read more.

Diversity in Children’s Books Graphic Distribution

The 2018 Diversity in Children’s Literature graphic is available as a 2-sided, full color 5 x 7 postcard. Request copies below to disseminate at workshops, conferences, and other public events. Note that we have been positively overwhelmed by the demand for the cards. Within 48 hours of announcing their availability, the 5,000 cards… Read more.

Sense of an Ending: Picture Books as an Entry to Activism

By Colleen Massaquoi. The third graders huddled around the photographs, their faces filled with concern. “Whoa, that’s a lot of bags,” Sam said, scooting closer to examine a picture of a goat surrounded by towering mounds of twisted, multicolored plastic bags. “Oh no!” Claire exclaimed. “It looks like that goat is going to eat the plastic.” Read more.

The Struggle Continues: How the Endings of Children’s Literature Create False Narratives of Social Movements

By Makai Kellogg. We all know what “The End” means when reading a children’s book. The story has concluded. The last sentence of a book can also indicate to a reader that there is closure. But what are the consequences of that closure when it comes to books about ongoing social movements? Isn’t there always more to the story? Read more.

We Are Kid Lit Collective 2019 Summer Reading List

Are you looking for a curated summer reading list that celebrates diversity, inclusivity and intersecting identities? The We Are Kid Lit Collective selects books by and about IPOC (Indigenous and People of Color), people with disabilities, and people from the LGBTQIA+ communities. Chosen books are thoroughly selected, discussed, and vetted… Read more.

Women’s History Month – A Book Every Day

In honor of Women’s History Month, each day Social Justice Books is featuring a children’s book we recommend to highlight grassroots women’s history. Read more.

Whitewashed Colonial History Children’s Book Still in Print

On the last day of Black History Month, children at a predominantly African American D.C. elementary school were each given a book to keep. One of our staff members brought in the outrageous title given to her daughter If You Lived in Colonial Times (Scholastic, 1992). While the book all but erases African Americans and demonizes Native Americans… Read more.

Taking the Stage at NMAAHC to Discuss Representation in Children’s Literature

On December 15, 2018, Teaching for Change joined an important dialogue about representation in children’s literature on-stage at the Oprah Winfrey Theater in the National Museum for African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). Read more.

Highlights from Social Justice Books

It has been one year since Teaching for Change launched SocialJusticeBooks.org to identify and promote the best multicultural and social justice children’s books. We partnered with the See What We See (SWWS) coalition to create a database of critical children’s book reviews. Read more.

Despite National Outrage, Scholastic Defends Children’s Book Celebrating Trump

Earlier this month we published critical reviews of the Scholastic books for early and upper elementary students about the election of President Trump. Both books present Trump’s life and the election in a celebratory tone, as summarized by this poem in the book for first and second grade. Read more.

Junot Díaz’s Islandborn: Before and After

We are proud of the role of Teaching for Change played to make this excellent book even better. When an advance copy arrived at our office in January, we were dismayed to see that that the monster was illustrated as a black bat in an ominous sky. One more time, the message was that black is bad and scary. We quickly consulted with our colleagues… Read more.

Tell Knopf: Stop Publishing “Monkey” Book Series by Marc Brown

It is hard to believe that anyone looking at the Monkey early childhood book series by Marc Brown did not see the racist stereotypes it perpetuates. But, they all missed or overlooked it. In fact, the author, illustrator, publisher, reviewers, and libraries gave it an enthusiastic thumbs up. Edith Campbell, a children’s book reviewer who is a member of the… Read more.

CCBC 2017 Multicultural Statistics

The Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) of the School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison has started to release the 2017 publishing statistics on children’s books about people of color and first/native nations and by people of color and first/native nations. The CCBC’s tracking information doesn’t consider the quality of the titles but does indicate… Read more.

Why is the Monster Black in Islandborn?

The new children’s book Islandborn by Junot Díaz tells the story of a young girl, Lola, who learns from family and friends about the Dominican Republic where she was born. She was brought to the U.S. as a baby, so the stories help paint a picture of life on the island and the forces that led her family to leave such a wonderful place. Read more.

Dragons in a Bag Cover Reveal

The See What We See (SWWS) coalition is thrilled to introduce the cover for Dragons in a Bag by Zetta Elliott. Random House will release Dragons in a Bag in October of 2018. It is a wonderful middle grade novel, the first in a series, that will leave you clamoring for the sequel. This is the first cover reveal for SWWS and the Social Justice Books website. Read more.

Puerto Rican Children’s Literature for Social Justice: A Bibliography For Educators

By Marilisa Jimenez Garcia, Ph.D. Recent national news reflect the public’s lack of knowledge of the U.S. as a country in possession of colonies, such as Guam and Puerto Rico. In recent polls, many Americans were unaware that Puerto Rican’s born on the island were U.S. citizens. Moreover, Puerto Ricans remain one of the largest Latinx… Read more.

2017 Summer Reading List

Teaching for Change challenges young people to read as many books as they can over the summer – especially multicultural and social justice books that encourage them to question, challenge, and re-think the world beyond the headlines. This reading list features new (2016 and 2017) titles. Read more.

Developing Critical Literacy

We share here articles and ideas that parents and teachers can use to help children develop critical literacy skills that will help them as citizens and consumers for years to come… Read more.

Creating an Anti-Bias Library

In addition to selecting books that reflect the criteria of the Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children’s Books, consider the balance of books in your library or classroom as a whole. All books should portray people who are real and distinctive without stereotyping or tokenism. Find books that represent groups who are often invisible. Read more.

Missing From the Shelf: Book Challenges and Lack of Diversity in Children’s Literature

By Pen America Reading is a formative part of childhood: educating, widening horizons, offering adventures and stoking imagination and creativity. Books for children and young adults are not often thought of as a free expression battleground in the United States—and yet every year, hundreds of demands to remove books… Read more.

Teaching Young Children About Race

Recent events— including the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the Charleston church shooting, and the debate over the Confederate flag— have led many parents and teachers to seek out resources to address issues of race and inequality with young children. We share with you here an excerpt from the book Anti-Bias Education for Young Children… Read more.

A Gift for Ellington: The Books We’ve Read

By Clarence Lusane As a young child I became a voracious reader. I don’t remember a time when my mother did not read to me. Then she and I began to make weekly trips to the library as I got older. It was the best time of the week bar none. Finally, I grew old enough to go by myself which I did frequently. While I remember reading… Read more.

Rush Limbaugh Calls Teaching for Change Racist for Promoting Diverse Children’s Books

In the last five years, only 10% of children’s books published were about people of color despite the fact that 37% of the U.S. population are people of color. Rush Limbaugh found out that Teaching for Change is trying to challenge this disparity and he is hopping mad. Limbaugh devoted a long segment of his show on June 16 to tell his listeners that… Read more.

Where Are the People of Color in Children’s Books? A Retrospective.

By Amy Rothschild In March, Walter Dean Myers and his son Christopher Myers brought national attention to a question often asked by frustrated parents, teachers, librarians, and youth: where are the people of color in children’s books? The two authors wrote must-read op-eds featured on the front page of the New York Times… Read more.

‘All Indians Are Dead?’ At Least That’s What Most Schools Teach Children

By Alysa Landry It’s time to break out the construction paper and synthetic feathers. Students in schools across the country this month will learn about the first Thanksgiving, perpetuating a fairy tale about struggling pilgrims and the friendly Indians who shared a harvest banquet. This usually follows… Read more.

Putting Visions of Social Justice Education into Practice

By Louise Derman-Sparks Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it’s the presence of justice.” Consistent with that perspective, the impetus for anti-bias education work is rooted in a desire to build just early childhood programs for all children. Early childhood education plays a part… Read more.

Banned Books and Publishing Industry Censorship

By Amy Rothschild Banned Book week provides us the chance to reflect on what is and what isn’t available for us to read at different moments in history and different places.  We think of Orwell, and we think of more recent events, like the banning of the Mexican American Studies program in Tucson, AZ. Government censorship… Read more.

Nursery Rhymes and the Anti-Bias Classroom

By Amy Rothschild I teach in a preschool program at a public school, and while my teaching team and I have ample freedom to follow the children’s interests in our planning, our school does place a high value on the teaching of nursery rhymes. Nursery rhymes are to early childhood curricula what Frost and Poe are to high school… Read more.

Children, Arab Heritage, and Anti-Bias Education

By Louise Derman-Sparks with Merrie Najimy What messages are you hearing from the mainstream media about the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt? What about the fighting in Libya or the government crackdowns in Syria and Bahrain? If the messages and images of Arabs and their countries are confusing to you, imagine what children are picking… Read more.

Unions, Work, and Class in the Early Childhood Classroom

By Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards The political struggle in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and several other states over the right to unionize has thrust working people into the limelight. The threat to unionized labor, and the economic and health benefits supported by unions, also threatens children’s quality of life—now and in the future… Read more.

Council of Interracial Books for Children (CIBC)

Social Justice Books draws inspiration from the work of the Council on Interracial Books for Children (CIBC) formed in 1965 with the objective “to promote a literature for children that better reflects the realities of a multicultural society.” The impetus to create the council came from Mississippi Freedom School teachers concerned by the racist… Read more.

The Color of Authenticity in Multicultural Children’s Books

By Rebecca A. Hill Most students know Rosa Parks as the woman with tired feet who refused to move to the back of the bus. What they don’t know is that, for all of her life, she was an avid Civil Rights worker. Elementary school children learn about Christopher Columbus as an adventurous explorer, not as a mercenary who… Read more.

Something Like an Open Letter to the Children’s Publishing Industry

By Zetta Elliot In 1986, poet/activist June Jordan published a brilliant essay titled “The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America: Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley.” I taught this essay in my course on black women writers; I revisit it often and especially when I am feeling disheartened and demoralized… Read more.