Visit Teaching for Change's website TeachingCentralAmerica.org for more resources to teach about Central America, including lessons, films, websites, biographies of noted historical figures, and readings for free use by classroom teachers.
See more recommended titles: El Salvador, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Teaching About Immigration
Titles with reviews on this site are noted with an asterisk (*). Some titles are recommended with a caveat.
Elementary | Middle | YA Fiction | YA Nonfiction | Adult Fiction | Adult Nonfiction | Poetry
Abuela's Weave *
By Omar S. Casteneda, Enrique O. Sanchez (Illustrator)
Recommended with caveat. See review: Abuela's Weave Review
Guatemala
Alejandria Fights Back! / ¡La Lucha de Alejandria!
By Leticia Hernández-Linares, The Rise-Home Stories Project, and Robert Liu-Trujillo (Illustrator)
Central America
As the Seas Rise: Nicole Hernández Hammer and the Fight for Climate Justice
By Angela Quezada Padron
Guatemala
Berta Saves the River/Berta salva el río
By Suzanne Llewellyn and Luis Chávez (Illustrator)
Honduras
Central America, ¡mira, mira, mira!
By Araceli Figueroa, Edith Lopez, and Shurjo Mukhi (Illustrator)
Central America
Colorful Mondays: A Bookmobile Spreads Hope in Honduras
By Nelson Rodríguez and Leonardo Agustín Montes
Honduras
Conejito: A Folktale from Panama
By Margaret Read MacDonald and Geraldo Valerio (Illustrator)
Panama
El niño de maíz / The Boy of Maize
By Mario Bencastro and Christina Rodriguez (Illustrator)
Central America
Jasmín Pictures Home / Jasmín ilustra su hogar *
By Andy Pina, Antonia Marisol Garcia, Pedro Reyes, Yunior Jose Garcia, and Ian L Springer (Illustrator)
Central America
A Journey Toward Hope
By Victor Hinojosa, Coert Voorhees, and Susan Guevara (Illustrator)
Central America
Spanish version: Una Jornada Hacia La Esperanza
A Movie In My Pillow/Una Pelicula en Mi Almohada*
By Jorge Argueta, Elizabeth Gomez (Illustrator)
El Salvador
Mama and Papa Have a Store
By Amelia Lau Carling
Spanish edition: La Tienda de Mamá Y Papá
Guatemala
My Daddy Is a Cowboy
By Stephanie Seales and C. G. Esperanza (Illustrator)
See author interview: Father’s Day Discussion
Panama
La piedra mágica de la Chinchintora / The Chinchintora Snake and the Magic Stone
By Manlio Argueta
El Salvador
Sopa de Frijoles / Bean Soup: Un Poema Para Cocinar / A Cooking Poem
By Jorge Argueta and Rafael Yockteng (Illustrator)
El Salvador
Talking with Mother Earth/Hablando Con Madre Tierra: Poems/Poemas
By Jorge Argueta, Lucia Angela Perez (Illustrator)
El Salvador
Telegramas al cielo/Telegrams to Heaven (Spanish and English Edition)
By René Colato Laínez
El Salvador
Un Tren Llamado Esperanza / A Train Called Hope*
By Mario Bencastro and Robert Casilla (Illustrator)
Central America
Uncle Nacho's Hat / El Sombrero del Tío Nacho
By Harriet Rohmer and Mira Reisberg (Illustrator)
Nicaragua
Wagücha: El cofre de los secretos de mis ancestros
By Cintia Marizel Bernardez and Jen Chibi (Illustrator)
Central America
Wilfredo: A Boy from El Salvador
El Salvador
Xochitl And The Flowers/Xochitl, la Nina de las Flores
By Jorge Argueta, Carl Angel (Illustrator)
El Salvador
Yefferson, Actually / En realidad, es Yefferson
By Scott Martin-Rowe, Katherine Trejo, and Karla Monterrosa (Illustrator)
El Salvador
Contemporary Short Stories from Central America
By Enrique Jaramillo Levi (Editor), Leland H. Chambers (Editor)
Central America
The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum and the Us-Mexican Border and Beyond
By John Washington
El Salvador
The Far Away Brothers (YA edition): Two Teenage Immigrants Making a Life in America
By Lauren Markham
El Salvador
The Other Side: Stories of Central American Teen Refugees Who Dream of Crossing the Border
By Juan Pablo Villalobos
Central America
Students of Revolution: Youth, Protest, and Coalition Building in Somoza-Era Nicaragua
By Claudia Rueda
Nicaragua
Voces Sin Fronteras: Our Stories, Our Truth
By the Latino Youth Leadership Council of LAYC
Central America
The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Country from Corporate Greed
By Robin Broad and John Cavanagh
El Salvador
Wild Tongues Can't Be Tamed: 15 Voices from the Latinx Diaspora
Edited by Saraciea J. Fennell
Central America
Popol Vuh: A Retelling
By Ilan Stavans, Gabriela Larios, (Illustrator), foreword by Homero Aridjis
Guatemala
The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States
Edited By Leticia Hernández-Linares, Rubén Martínez, & Héctor Tobar
Central America
The African Diaspora in the Educational Programs of Central America
By Dario Euraque and Yesenia Martinez
Central America
Assassination of a Saint: The Plot to Murder Óscar Romero and the Quest to Bring His Killers to Justice
By Matt Eisenbrandt
Guatemala
Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala
By Stephen Schlesinger, Stephen Kinzer
Guatemala
Blacks & Blackness in Central America: Between Race and Place
Edited by Lowell Gudmundson and Justin Wolfe
Central America
¡Canta Conmigo! Songs and Singing Games from Guatemala and Nicaragua
By Rachel Gibson
Central America
Central America in the Crosshairs of War: On the Road from Vietnam to Iraq
By Scott Wallace
Central America
Central America Inside Out: The Essential Guide to Its Societies, Politics, and Economics
By Tom Barry
Central America
Central America's Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration
By Aviva Chomsky
Central America
Coffeeland: One Man's Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favorite Drug
By Augustine Sedgewick
El Salvador
Constituting Central American-Americans: Transnational Identities and the Politics of Dislocation
By Maritza E. Cárdenas
Central America
The Costa Rica Reader: History, Culture, Politics
By Steven Palmer (Editor), Ivan Molina (Editor)
Costa Rica
Dividing the Isthmus: Central American Transnational Histories, Literatures, and Cultures
By Ana Patricia Rodriguez
Central America
The Ends of Paradise: Race, Extraction, and the Struggle for Black Life in Honduras
By Christopher Loperena
Honduras
Esperanza en tiempos de oscuridad: Experiencia de un Salvadore-o Americano
By Randy Jurado Ertll
El Salvador
Everyday Revolutionaries: Gender, Violence, and Disillusionment in Postwar El Salvador
By Prof. Irina Carlota Silber
El Salvador
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis
By Jonathan Blitzer
Central America
From the Banana Zones to the Big Easy: West Indian and Central American Immigration to New Orleans, 1910-1940
By Glenn A Chambers
Central America
From Threatening Guerrillas to Forever Illegals: US Central Americans and the Cultural Politics of Non-Belonging
By Yajaira M. Padilla
Central America
The Gospel in Solentiname
By Ernesto Cardenal (Translator)
OUT OF PRINT
Nicaragua
Grabbing Power: The New Struggles for Land, Food and Democracy in Northern Honduras
By Tanya M. Kerssen
Honduras
The Guatemala Reader: History, Culture, Politics
By Greg Grandin (Editor), Deborah T. Levenson (Editor), Elizabeth Oglesby (Editor)
Guatemala
Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America (Second Revised and Updated Edition)
By Juan Gonzalez
Central America
Maya Nationalisms and Postcolonial Challenges in Guatemala
By Emil’ Keme (aka Emilio del Valle Escalante)
Spanish edition: NACIONALISMOS MAYAS Y DESAFIOS POSTCOLONIALES EN GUATEMALA
Guatemala
No Place to Hide: Gang, State, and Clandestine Violence in El Salvador
By Laura Pedraza Farina, Spring Miller, James L. Cavallaro
El Salvador
The Northern Triangle: El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras A Global Perspective of Migration
By Carol L. Schmid
Central America
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent
By Eduardo Galeano
Central America
Our Maya Word: Poetics of Resistance in Guatemala/Le Maya q'Atzij
By Emil’ Keme (aka Emilio del Valle Escalante)
Spanish edition: Le qatzij Mayab’ / Nuestra palabra Maya
Guatemala
Precarious Protections: Unaccompanied Minors Seeking Asylum in the United States
By Chiara Galli
Central America
Queer and Trans Migrations: Dynamics of Illegalization, Detention, and Deportation
Edited by Eithne Luibheid and Karma R. Chavez
Central America
A Radical Faith: The Assassination of Sister Maura
By Eileen Markey
Book review by Hilary Goodfriend
Central America
Reinterpreting the Banana Republic: Region and State in Honduras, 1870-1972
By Darío a. Euraque
Honduras
Remembering a Massacre in El Salvador
By Hector Lindo-Fuentes, Erik Ching, Rafael A. Lara-Martinez
El Salvador
Reunited: Family Separation and Central American Youth Migration
By Ernesto Castañeda and Daniel Jenks
Central America
Roots of Resistance: A Story of Gender, Race, and Labor on the North Coast of Honduras
By Suyapa G. Portillo Villeda
Honduras
Sacrificing Families: Navigating Laws, Labor, and Love Across Borders
By Leisy J. Abrego
El Salvador
Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954
By Piero Gleijeses
Guatemala
Surviving the Americas: Garifuna Persistence from Nicaragua to New York City
By Serena Cosgrove, Leonard Joseph Bent, José Idiáquez, and Andrew Gorvetzian
Nicaragua
Teaching Central American Literature in a Global Context
Edited by Gloria Elizabeth Chacón and Mónica Albizúrez Gil
Central America
To Defend This Sunrise: Black Women's Activism and the Authoritarian Turn in Nicaragua
By Courtney Desiree Morris
Nicaragua
Understanding Central America: Global Forces, Rebellion, and Change, 5th Edition
By John A. Booth
Central America
Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas
By Roberto Lovato
El Salvador
U.S. Central Americans: Reconstructing Memories, Struggles, and Communities of Resistance
Edited by Ester E Hernández, Karina Oliva Alvarado, and Alicia Ivonne Estrada
Central America
The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States
Edited By Leticia Hernández-Linares, Rubén Martínez, & Héctor Tobar
Central America
Who Killed Berta Caceres? Dams, Death Squads, and an Indigenous Defender's Battle for the Planet
By Nina Lakhani
El Salvador
Witness to War: An American Doctor in El Salvador
By Charles Clements
BOOK IS OUT OF PRINT
Movie available at Kanopy.com
El Salvador
Aquí era el paraíso / Here Was Paradise: Selección de poemas de Humberto Ak'abal / Selected Poems of Humberto Ak'abal
By Humberto Ak'abal and Amelia Lau Carling (Illustrator)
Guatemala
Historias y poemas de una lucha de clases / Stories and Poems of a Class Struggle
By Roque Dalton, translated by Jack Hirschman
El Salvador
On the Front Line: Guerrilla Poems of El Salvador
By Claribel Alegria, Darwin J. Flakoll
El Salvador
The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States
Edited By Leticia Hernández-Linares, Rubén Martínez, & Héctor Tobar
Central America
Alejandria Fights Back! / ¡La Lucha de Alejandria!
By Leticia Hernández-Linares, The Rise-Home Stories Project, and Robert Liu-Trujillo (Illustrator)
Central America
Central America, ¡mira, mira, mira!
By Araceli Figueroa, Edith Lopez, and Shurjo Mukhi (Illustrator)
Central America
El niño de maíz / The Boy of Maize
By Mario Bencastro and Christina Rodriguez (Illustrator)
Central America
Jasmín Pictures Home / Jasmín ilustra su hogar *
By Andy Pina, Antonia Marisol Garcia, Pedro Reyes, Yunior Jose Garcia, and Ian L Springer (Illustrator)
Central America
Jasmín Pictures Home / Jasmín ilustra su hogar *
By Andy Pina, Antonia Marisol Garcia, Pedro Reyes, Yunior Jose Garcia, and Ian L Springer (Illustrator)
Central America
A Movie In My Pillow/Una Pelicula en Mi Almohada*
By Jorge Argueta, Elizabeth Gomez (Illustrator)
El Salvador
La piedra mágica de la Chinchintora / The Chinchintora Snake and the Magic Stone
By Manlio Argueta
El Salvador
Sopa de Frijoles / Bean Soup: Un Poema Para Cocinar / A Cooking Poem
By Jorge Argueta and Rafael Yockteng (Illustrator)
El Salvador
Talking with Mother Earth/Hablando Con Madre Tierra: Poems/Poemas
By Jorge Argueta, Lucia Angela Perez (Illustrator)
El Salvador
Telegramas al cielo/Telegrams to Heaven (Spanish and English Edition)
By René Colato Laínez
El Salvador
Un Tren Llamado Esperanza / A Train Called Hope*
By Mario Bencastro and Robert Casilla (Illustrator)
Central America
Uncle Nacho's Hat / El Sombrero del Tío Nacho
By Harriet Rohmer and Mira Reisberg (Illustrator)
Nicaragua
Wagücha: El cofre de los secretos de mis ancestros
By Cintia Marizel Bernardez and Jen Chibi (Illustrator)
Central America
Wilfredo: A Boy from El Salvador
El Salvador
Xochitl And The Flowers/Xochitl, la Nina de las Flores
By Jorge Argueta, Carl Angel (Illustrator)
El Salvador
Yefferson, Actually / En realidad, es Yefferson
By Scott Martin-Rowe, Katherine Trejo, and Karla Monterrosa (Illustrator)
El Salvador
Un misterio más grande que grandisimo: Coleccion Mickey Rangel, detective privado*
René Saldaña Jr.
Guatemala
Voces Sin Fronteras: Our Stories, Our Truth
By the Latino Youth Leadership Council of LAYC
Central America