Social Justice Books

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

Teaching About Immigration

Below are titles we recommend on immigration and the immigrant experience with a focus on the United States. To learn more about immigration and refugees from Central America, see our Central America booklist. See also resources for teaching about immigration on the Zinn Education Project website and the Rethinking Schools blog.

Elementary | Middle Grades | YA / Adult Fiction | YA / Adult Nonfiction | Teaching about Immigration

Elementary

Alfredito Flies Home *
By Jorge Argueta, Luis Garay (Illustrator)

Brothers in Hope
By Mary Williams, R. Gregory Christie (Illustrator)

Coming to America: A Muslim Family's Story
By Bernard Wolf, Wolf Bernard (Photographer)

Dreamers*
By Yuyi Morales

A Gift from Papa Diego: Un Regalo de Papa Diego
By Benjamin Alire Saenz, Geronimo Garcia (Illustrator)

Going Home
By Eve Bunting, David Diaz (Illustrator)

From North to South / Del Norte al Sur
By René Colato Laínez

Hiromi's Hands
By Lynne Barasch

Home at Last
By Susan Middleton Elya, Felipe Davalos (Illustrator)

I Hate English!
By Ellen Levine, Steve Bjorkman

Islandborn*
By Junot Diaz, Leo Espinosa (Illustrator)

Joseph's Big Ride
By Terry Farish

Kamal Goes to Trinidad
By Malcolm Frederick, Prodeepta Das (Illustrator)

Landed
By Milly Lee, Yangsook Choi (Illustrator)

La Frontera: El viaje con papa / My Journey with Papa*
By Deborah Mills, Alfredo Alva, Claudia Navarro (Illustrator)

Let's Go See Papa
By Lawrence Schimel, Alba Marina Rivera (Illustrator)

Malaika's Costume
By Nadia L. Hohn, Irene Luxbacher (Illustrator)

Mama's Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation
By Edwidge Danticat, Leslie Staub (Illustrator)

Mango, Abuela, and Me *
By Meg Medina, Angela Dominguez (Illustrator)

A Movie in My Pillow / Una Pelicula En Mi Almohada*
By Jorge Argueta, Elizabeth Gomez (Illustrator)

My Name Is Yoon
By Helen Recorvits, Gabi Swiatkowska (Illustrator)

The Name Jar
By Yangsook Choi

Nana's Cold Days
By Adwoa Badoe, Bushra Junaid (Illustrator)

Shanghai Messenger
By Andrea Cheng, Ed Young (Illustrator)

The Turtle of Oman
By Naomi Shihab Nye

Undocumented: A Worker's Fight
By Duncan Tonatiuh

Xochitl And The Flowers / Xochitl, la Nina de las Flores
By Jorge Argueta, Carl Angel (Illustrator)

Who Belongs Here?: An American Story
By Margy Burns Knight, Clarita Kohen (Translator)

Middle Grades

Journey of the Sparrows
By Fran Leeper Buss, Daisy Cubias

Journey of Dreams
By Marge Pellegrino

Kids Like Me: Voices of the Immigrant Experience
By Judith M. Blohm, Terri Lapinsky

La Linea *
By Ann Jaramillo

Moving North: Caribbean Connections
By Keith Warner, Catherine Sunshine

My Ocean
By Enrique Perez Diaz, Trudy Balch (Translator)

The Only Road*
By Alexandra Diaz

Papers: Stories of Undocumented Youth
Edited by José Manuel, Cesar Pineda, Anne Galisky, and Rebecca Shine

Return to Sender*
By Julia Alvarez

Somos Como Las Nubes / We Are Like the Clouds*
By Jorge Argueta, Alfonso Ruano (Illustrator), Elisa Amado

Tonight, by Sea
By Frances Temple, Tim O'brien (Illustrator)

Voces Sin Fronteras: Our Stories, Our Truth
By the Latino Youth Leadership Council of LAYC

YA / Adult Fiction

Across a Hundred Mountains
By Reyna Grande

Anna In-Between
By Elizabeth Nunez

Breath, Eyes, Memory
By Edwidge Danticat

Brown Girl, Brownstones
By Paule Marshall

Brick Lane
By Monica Ali

The Knife and the Butterfly*
By Ashley Hope Perez

El Salvador

Mother Tongue
By Demetria Martinez

The Radius of Us
By Marie Marquardt

SanTana's Fairy Tales*
By Sarah Rafael Garcia

Zeitoun
By Dave Eggers

YA / Adult Nonfiction

First Crossing: Stories about Teen Immigrants
By Donald R. Gallo (Editor)

Harbor Me
By Jacqueline Woodson

In the Darkness of the United States
By Peter Orner (Editor), Sandra Hernandez (Editor), Luis Alberto Urrea (Prologue by)

Teaching about Immigration

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