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.
New children’s books about Central America are few and far between and the U.S. publishing industry has let several outstanding works on the region go out of print. We urge publishers to address this scarcity of books about Central America and by Central American authors. Given the lack of good books in print, we have included a few out of print titles on this list.
See more recommended titles: El Salvador
Elementary | Middle Grades | High School/Adult Nonfiction | High School/Adult Fiction | Poetry
Alejandria Fights Back! / ¡La Lucha de Alejandria!
By Leticia Hernández-Linares, The Rise-Home Stories Project, and Robert Liu-Trujillo (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
Rene Has Two Last Names / Rene Tiene DOS Apellidos
By Rene Colato Lainez, Fabiola Graullera (Illustrator), Gabriela Baeza Ventura (Translator)
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
The Village that was Buried by an Erupting Volcano
By Frida Larios
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
Contemporary Short Stories from Central America
By Enrique Jaramillo Levi (Editor), Leland H. Chambers (Editor)
Central America
The Far Away Brothers (Adapted for Young Adults): Two Teenage Immigrants Making a Life in America
By Lauren Markham
El Salvador
Voces Sin Fronteras: Our Stories, Our Truth
By the Latino Youth Leadership Council of LAYC
Central America
The African Diaspora in the Educational Programs of Central America
By Dario Euraque and Yesenia Martinez
Central America
Blacks & Blackness in Central America: Between Race and Place
Edited by Lowell Gudmundson and Justin Wolfe
Central America
Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala
By Stephen Schlesinger, Stephen Kinzer
Guatemala
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
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
El Salvador en la Revolucion Centroamericana: Imperialismo y Revolucion en Centroamerica Tomo 2
By Roque Dalton
El Salvador
Everyday Revolutionaries: Gender, Violence, and Disillusionment in Postwar El Salvador
By Prof. Irina Carlota Silber
El Salvador
The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life
By Lauren Markham
El Salvador
The Guatemala Reader: History, Culture, Politics
By Greg Grandin (Editor), Deborah T. Levenson (Editor), Elizabeth Oglesby (Editor)
Guatemala
No Place to Hide: Gang, State, and Clandestine Violence in El Salvador
By Laura Pedraza Farina, Spring Miller, James L. Cavallaro
El Salvador
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent
By Eduardo Galeano
Central America
The Other Side: Stories of Central American Teen Refugees Who Dream of Crossing the Border
By Juan Pablo Villalobos
Central America
A Radical Faith: The Assassination of Sister Maura
By Eileen Markey
El Salvador
Book review by Hilary Goodfriend
Remembering a Massacre in El Salvador
By Hector Lindo-Fuentes, Erik Ching, Rafael A. Lara-Martinez
El Salvador
Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954
By Piero Gleijeses
Guatemala
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
Voces Sin Fronteras: Our Stories, Our Truth
By the Latino Youth Leadership Council of LAYC
Central America
The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States
Edited By Leticia Hernández-Linares, Rubén Martínez, & Héctor Tobar
Central America
Witness to War An American Doctor in El Salvador
By Charles Clements
El Salvador
Interview with Dr. Charlie Clements
The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum and the Us-Mexican Border and Beyond
By John Washington
El Salvador
The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States
Edited By Leticia Hernández-Linares, Rubén Martínez, & Héctor Tobar
Central America
The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Country from Corporate Greed
By Robin Broad and John Cavanagh
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
