Early Childhood | Upper Elementary and Middle School | Young Adult | Adult
Teaching for Change carefully selects the best multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators. Learn about our criteria for selecting titles. Feedback on these lists and suggestions for additional titles are welcome. Most of the books on these lists are linked for more information or purchase to Powells.com (an independent, unionized bookstore) and/or Bookshop (indie bookstore platform). A small percentage from book sales through these links goes to Teaching for Change. Titles with reviews on this site are noted with an asterisk(*).
For further recommended reading, see below.
Eyes That Kiss in the Corners
By Joanna Ho and Dung Ho (Illustrator)
Eyes That Speak to the Stars
By Joanna Ho and Dung Ho (Illustrator)
I Am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story
By Martha Brockenbrough, Grace Lin and Julia Kuo (Illustrator)
Punky Aloha
Written and illustrated by Shar Tuiasoa
Rise Up and Write It: With Real Mail, Posters, and More!
By Nandini Ahuja and Anoosha Syed (Illustrator)
Watercress
By Andrea Wang and Jason Chin (Illustrator)
When Lola Visits
By Michelle Sterling and Aaron Asis (Illustrator)
Angel Island: Gateway to Gold Mountain
By Russell Freedman
Baseball Saved Us
By Ken Mochizuki, Dom Lee
Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix
By Jacqueline Briggs Martin and June Jo Lee
Cilla Lee-Jenkins: The Epic Story
By Susan Tan and Dana Wulfekotte (Illustrator)
A Different Mirror for Young People: A History of Multicultural America *
By Ronald T. Takaki
Dragonwings
By Laurence Yep
Stand Up, Yumi Chung!
By Jessica Kim
See Sarah Park Dahlen's: Discussion Guide for Stand Up, Yumi Chung!
A Different Mirror for Young People: A History of Multicultural America *
By Ronald T. Takaki
Escape to Gold Mountain: A Graphic History of the Chinese in North America
By David H. T. Wong
Listen, Slowly
By Thanhha Lai
Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience
By Lawson Fusao Inada (Editor), Patricia Wakida (Preface by), William M. Hohri (Afterword by)
We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration
By Frank Abe, Tamiko Nimura and Ross Ishikawa (Illustrator)
A Good Fall
By Ha Jin
Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama
By Diane C. Fujino
Insurrecto
By Gina Apostol
Myth of the Model Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism, Second Edition
By Rosalind S. Chou and Joe R. Feagin
Strangers from a Different Shore
By Ronald Takaki
Teaching about Asian Pacific Americans *
Edited by Edith Wen Chen and Glenn Omatsu
A Tale for the Time Being
By Ruth Ozeki
See more titles on these lists:
For further reading, we recommend:
- Dear Educators, It Is Time to Fight for Asian America by Wayne Au and Moé Yonamine in Rethinking Schools
- Teaching Asian American History through Children's Literature NCSS 2016 presentation by Noreen Naseem Rodriguez, Iowa State University
- In Search of Mirrors: An Asian Critical Race Theory Content Analysis of Asian American Picturebooks from 2007 to 2017 by Noreen N. Rodriguez and Esther J. Kim in the Journal of Children's Literature, 2018
- 15 Titles for Young Readers Celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage by Sarah Park Dahlen and Noreen Naseem Rodríguez May 26, 2020 in School Library Journal
- Addressing Anti-Asian Bias from Learning for Justice.
- Asian American and Pacific Islander people’s history at the Zinn Education Project.
A small percentage of the book sales goes to Teaching for Change to support this Social Justice Books website.