Elementary | Middle Grades |Young Adult | Teaching Guides
Here are selected books of poetry and books written in free verse for the classroom with a multicultural, social justice focus. Also included are books for children about poets.
To learn about more social justice poets, we highly recommend the organization Split This Rock, which hosts a bi-annual poetry festival and offers The Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database.
The best book on teaching poetry is Rhythm and Resistance: Teaching Poetry for Social Justice, edited by Linda Christensen and Dyan Watson of Rethinking Schools.
See more recommended titles here: Music, Culture and Language
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 Powells, an independent, union labor bookstore. Titles with reviews on this site are noted with an asterisk(*).
Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat
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)
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)
The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano
By Margarita Engle, Sean Qualls (Illustrator)
Walking on Earth & Touching the Sky: Poetry and Prose by Lakota Youth at Red Cloud Indian School
By Timothy P. McLaughlin (Editor), S. D. Nelson (Illustrator), Joseph Marshall (Foreword by)
Yes! We Are Latinos: Poems and Prose about the Latino Experience
By Alma Flor Ada, F. Isabel Campoy, David Diaz (Illustrator)
Beauty Is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability
By Sheila Black (Editor), Jennifer Bartlett (Editor), Michael Northen (Editor)
Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam
By Tony Medina (Editor), Louis Reyes Rivera (Editor), Sonia Sanchez (Foreword by)
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)
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)
