Social Justice Books

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

Historical Fiction: Elementary Through High School

Elementary and Middle School | Young Adult

Here are recommended historical fiction titles for Young Adults. In addition to the titles below, we recommend:

Titles with reviews on this site are noted with an asterisk(*).

Elementary and Middle School

Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule*
By Harriette Gillem Robinet

Being Clem
By Lesa Cline-Ransome
The Birchbark House *
By Louise Erdrich
Chickadee *
By Louise Erdrich

Day of Tears
By Julius Lester

Dayshaun's Gift
By Zetta Elliott, Alex Portal (Illustrator)

The Fire *
By Thomas Peacock

Flor Fights Back: A Stonewall Riots Survival Story
By Joy Michael Ellison and Francesca Ficorilli (Illustrator)
The Game of Silence *
By Louise Erdrich
Lion of the Sky
By Ritu Hemnani
A Place to Belong
By Cynthia Kadohata and Julia Kuo (Illustrator)
The Porcupine Year *
By Louise Erdrich

Rebellion 1776
By Laurie Halse Anderson

A Sky Full of Stars
By Linda Williams Jackson
Sugar
By Jewell Parker Rhodes

Sylvia and Aki*
By Winifred Conkling

Three Strike Summer *
By Skyler Schrempp
Treasure Island: Runaway Gold
By Jewell Parker Rhodes

When the World Was Ours
By Liz Kessler

Zora and Me: The Summoner
By Victoria Bond

Young Adult

 

47
By Walter Mosley

African Town
By Irene Latham and Charles Waters

All the Stars Denied
By Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Angel of Greenwood
By Randi Pink

Ashes of Izalco
By Claribel Alegria, Claribel Laegria, Darwin J. Flakoll

Black Was the Ink *
By Michelle Coles 

The Book Thief
By Markus Zusak

Bread and Roses, Too
By Katherine Paterson

Bull Run
By Paul Fleischman

Chains*
By Laurie Halse Anderson

Crossing Ebenezer Creek*
By Tonya Bolden

Day of Tears
By Julius Lester

Elijah of Buxton
By Christopher Paul Curtis

Fire from the Rock
By Sharon Draper

Fire in the Streets
By Kekla Magoon

For Lamb
By Lesa Cline-Ransome

Forge
By Laurie Halse Anderson

Freedom Road
By Howard Fast

The Glory Field
By Walter Dean Myers

Hey, White Girl
By Judith Bice

House of Purple Cedar *
By Tim Tingle

In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse*
By Joseph Marshall III

Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots*
By Margarita Engle, Rudy Gutierrez (Illustrator)

Kindred
By Octavia Butler
One Day of Life
By Manlio Argueta

Out of Darkness *
By Ashley Hope Pérez

Red Glass
By Laura Resau

The Reformatory
By Tananarive Due

Return to Sender*
By Julia Alvarez

Revolution
By Deborah Wiles

Rite of Passage
By Richard Wright, David Diaz (Illustrator)
The Rock and the River
By Kekla Magoon

Sacred Leaf
By Deborah Ellis

Shadowshaper *
By Daniel Jose Older

Stella by Starlight
By Sharon M. Draper

Storm Warriors
By Elisa Carbone

Sunrise Over Fallujah
By Walter Dean Myers

Most of the books on these lists are linked for more information or purchase to Bookshop (an indie bookstore platform) and / or Powells.com (an independent, unionized bookstore). A small percentage from book sales through these links goes to Teaching for Change.

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