Titles that we recommend are featured below. The ones with reviews are noted with an asterisk (*). Some titles are recommended with a caveat.
Below are selected books of poetry for the classroom with a multicultural, social justice focus. Also included are books for children about poets.
See more recommended titles here: Music, Culture and Language, and Free Verse Titles.
Elementary | Middle Grades | Young Adult / Adult | Teaching Guides | Learn More
Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat
Edited by Nikki Giovanni, Alicia Vergel De Dios (Illustrator), Damian Ward (Illustrator)
Jump Back, Paul: The Life and Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar
By Sally Derby, Sean Qualls (Illustrator)
Laughing Out Loud, I Fly: Poems in English and Spanish
By Juan Felipe Herrera, Karen Barbour (Illustrator)
A Likkle Miss Lou: How Jamaican Poet Louise Bennett Coverley Found Her Voice
By Nadia Hohn and Eugenie Fernandes (Illustrator)
No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans Making History *
Edited by Lindsay H. Metcalf, Keila V. Dawson, and Jeanette Bradley
No World Too Big: Young People Fighting Global Climate Change
Edited by Lindsay H. Metcalf, Jeanette Bradley, and Keila V. Dawson
A Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart
By Zetta Elliott and Noa Denmon (Illustrator)
Seeing Into Tomorrow
By Richard Wright and Nina Crews (Illustrator)
Thanku: Poems of Gratitude *
By Miranda Paul and Marlena Myles (Illustrator)
There Was a Party for Langston
By Jason Reynolds, Jerome Pumphrey (Illustrator), and Jarrett Pumphrey (Illustrator)
Woke: A Young Poet's Call to Justice
By Mahogany L. Browne, Elizabeth Acevedo, Olivia Gatwood, Theodore Taylor, III (Illustrator), Jason Reynolds (Contributions by)
Angels Ride Bikes / Los Angeles Andan en Bicicleta
By Francisco X. Alarcon, Maya Christina Gonzalez (Illustrator)
Black Boys Dreaming: Virtual Verse & Pandemic Prose
By Khalil Barnes, Chase Cooper , and Tony White (Illustrator)
Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z
By Irene Latham, Charles Waters, and Mehrdokht Amini (Illustrator)
Niños: Poems for the Lost Children of Chile
By María José Ferrada and María Elena Valdez (Illustrator)
We Who Produce Pearls: An Anthem for Asian America
By Joanna Ho and Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya (Illustrator)
Yes! We Are Latinos: Poems and Prose about the Latino Experience
By Alma Flor Ada, F. Isabel Campoy, David Diaz (Illustrator)
Spanish version available: Si! Somos Latinos
Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness
Edited by Carolyn Forché
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)
Beauty Is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability
Edited by Sheila Black, Jennifer Bartlett, Michael Northen
Born Palestinian, Born Black & the Gaza Suite
By Suheir Hammad
Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam
By Tony Medina (Editor), Louis Reyes Rivera (Editor), Sonia Sanchez (Foreword by)
The Butterfly's Burden
By Mahmoud Darwish, Fady Joudah (Translator)
The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010
By Lucille Clifton, Kevin Young (Editor), Michael S. Glaser (Editor)
Flicker and Spark: A Contemporary Queer Anthology of Spoken Word and Poetry
By Regie Cabico, Brittany Fonte (With)
Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology
By Melissa Tuckey (Editor), Camille Dungy (Foreword by)
Grape Leaves: A Century of Arab-American Poetry
Edited by Gregory Orfalea and Sharif Elmusa
Historias y poemas de una lucha de clases / Stories and Poems of a Class Struggle
By Roque Dalton, translated by Jack Hirschman
I Don't Want This Poem to End: Early and Late Poems
By Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Mohammad Shaheen
If They Come for Us: Poems *
By Fatimah Asghar
Inheritance: A Visual Poem
By Elizabeth Acevedo and Andrea Pippins (Illustrator)
Of Poetry and Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin
By Phil Cushway (Compiled by), Victoria Smith (Photographer), Michael Warr (Editor)
Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak
By Marc Falkoff (Editor), Ariel Dorfman (Afterword by), Flagg Miller (Preface by)
Poetry Like Bread: Poets of the Political Imagination
By Martin Espada
Poetry of Resistance: Voices for Social Justice
Edited by Francisco X. Alarcón and Odilia Galván Rodríguez, forward by Juan Felipe Herrera
Raising King
By Joseph Ross
There Are Trans People Here
By H. Melt Download a study guide for There Are Trans People Here: Download.
The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States
Edited By Leticia Hernández-Linares, Rubén Martínez, & Héctor Tobar
When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through *
Edited by Jennifer Elise Foerster, et al.
Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution
By Alix Olson (Editor), Eve Ensler (Foreword by)
Learn More
The Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database, a database of social justice books and poetry, coordinated by Split This Rock.
Cultural Expressions: Spoken Connections and Poetry , an Afro-Puerto Rican workshop with free resources for middle and high school students.
Rhythm and Resistance: Teaching Poetry for Social Justice, a book on teaching poetry, edited by Linda Christensen and Dyan Watson of Rethinking Schools.
Learn about our criteria for selecting and reviewing titles at Social Justice Books. 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 Bookshop (an indie bookstore platform). A small percentage from book sales through these links goes to Teaching for Change.