Social Justice Books

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

Slavery, Resistance, and Reparations

Below are books we recommend for the classroom and as background reading for parents and teachers on the history of slavery and resistance in the United States. Before sharing these books with children, read Considerations for Early Childhood and Early Elementary Educators on Slavery and Resistance.

Also see the Chicago Tribune article "Slavery in children's books: What works?."

We also offer lessons and other resources for teaching about slavery and resistance on our Zinn Education Project website.

Titles that we recommend are featured below with cover images. The ones with reviews are noted with an asterisk (*). Some titles are recommended with a caveat. At the end of this page, we provide a list of titles on this theme, with reviews, that we do not recommend.

See more recommended titles on these lists: Civil Rights Teaching, Black History, Reconstruction

Early-Mid Elementary | Upper Elementary | Middle | HS Fiction | HS Nonfiction | Adult | Not Recommended

Early-Mid Elementary

Almost to Freedom
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, Colin Bootman

Before She Was Harriet*
By Lesa Cline Ransome, James E. Ransome

Brick by Brick
By Charles R. Smith, Jr., Floyd Cooper (Illustrator)

Build a House
By Rhiannon Giddens and Monica Mikai (Illustrator)

Circle Unbroken: A Story of a Basket and Its People
By Margot Theis Raven, E. B. Lewis (Illustrator)

Ellen's Broom*
By Kelly Starling Lyons

The Emancipation of Grandpa Sandy Wills 
By Cheryl Wills and Randell Pearson (Illustrator)

The Escape of Robert Smalls
By Jehan Jones-Radgowski

Freedom Soup
By Tami Charles

Freedom's a-Callin Me
By Ntozake Shange, Rod Brown (Illustrator)

Freedom in Congo Square
By Carole Boston Weatherford, R. Gregory Christie (Illustrator)

Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad
By Ellen Levine, Kadir Nelson (Illustrator)

In the Time of the Drums
By Kim L. Siegelson, Brian Pinkney (Illustrator)

Love Twelve Miles Long
By Glenda Armand, Colin Bootman (Illustrator)

Mumbet's Declaration of Independence
By Gretchen Woelfle, Alix Delinois (Illustrator)

Night Boat to Freedom
By Margot Theis Raven and E.B. Lewis (Illustrator)

Pink and Say
By Patricia Polacco

The Price of Freedom: How One Town Stood Up to Slavery
By Dennis Brindell Fradin, Judith Bloom Fradin, Eric Velasquez (Illustrator)

The Red Comb
Pico, Fernando; Palacios, Argentina; Ordonez, Maria Antonia [Illustrator]

Show Way
By Jacqueline Woodson, Hudson Talbott (Illustrator)

Sojourner Truth's Step-Stomp Stride
By Andrea Davis Pinkney, Brian Pinkney (Illustrator)

So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth's Long Walk Toward Freedom
By Gary Schmidt, Daniel Mintor (Illustrator)

Stitch by Stitch: Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly Sews Her Way to Freedom
By Connie Schofield-Morrison and Elizabeth Zunon (Illustrator)

Tea Cakes for Tosh*
By Kelly Starling Lyons

Under the Freedom Tree
By Susan Vanhecke, London Ladd (Illustrator)

Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad
By Henry Cole and Henry Cole (Illustrator)

When Harriet Met Sojourner
By Catherine Clinton, Shane W. Evans (Illustrator)

Upper Elementary

The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch
By Chris Barton, Don Tate (Illustrator)

Biddy Mason Speaks Up*
By Arisa White, Laura Atkins, Laura Freeman (Illustrator)

BOX: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom
By Carole Boston Weatherford, Michele Wood (Illustrator)

Calico Girl
By Jerdine Nolen

Hammering for Freedom: The William Lewis Story
By Rita Lorraine Hubbard and John Holyfield (Illustrator)

I Lay My Stitches Down: Poems of American Slavery
By Cynthia Grady, Michele Wood (Illustrator)

Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters
By Andrea Davis Pinkney, Stephen Alcorn, Stephen Alcorn (Illustrator)

Nettie's Trip South
By Ann Turner, Ronald Himler (Illustrator)

Never Forgotten
By Patricia C. McKissack, Leo Dillon (Illustrator), Diane Dillon (Illustrator)

The Old African
By Julius Lester, Jerry Pinkney (Illustrator)

Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth
By Anne Rockwell, R. Gregory Gregory Christie (Illustrator)

Philip Reid Saves the Statue of Freedom
By Steven Sellers Lapham,  Eugene Walton, and  R. Gregory Christie (Illustrator)

Seven Miles to Freedom: The Robert Smalls Story
By Janet Halfmann, Duane Smith

The Story of Civil War Hero Robert Smalls
By Janet Halfmann and Duane Smith (Illustrator)

To Be a Slave
By Julius Lester, Tom Feelings (Illustrator)

The Women Who Caught The Babies*
By Eloise Greenfield

Middle School

Africa Is My Home: A Child of the Amistad *
By Monica Edinger, Robert Byrd (Illustrator)

Ashes
By Laurie Halse Anderson

Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage
By William Loren Katz

Chains
By Laurie Halse Anderson

Elijah of Buxton
By Christopher Paul Curtis

High School Historical Fiction

 

47
By Walter Mosley

Beloved
By Toni Morrison

Copper Sun
By Sharon M. Draper

Crossing Ebenezer Creek*
By Tonya Bolden

High School Nonfiction

Free at Last: A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom, and the Civil War
Edited by: Ira Berlin Barbara J. Fields Steven F. Miller Joseph P. Reidy Leslie S. Rowland

Growing Up in Slavery: Stories of Young Slaves as Told by Themselves
By Yuval Taylor (Editor), Kathleen Judge (Illustrator)
Maroon Comix: Origins and Destinies
Edited by Quincy Saul, Songe Riddle (Illustrator), Seth Tobocman (Illustrator), and Mac McGill (Illustrator)

The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano
By Margarita Engle, Sean Qualls (Illustrator)
Prophet Against Slavery: Benjamin Lay, a Graphic Novel
By Paul Buhle and David Lester (Illustrator)

Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk about Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation
By Ira Berlin (Editor), Marc Favreau (Editor), Steven F. Miller (Editor)

She Came to Slay
By Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Twelve Years a Slave
By Solomon Northup, Dolen Perkins-Valdez (Introduction by)

Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts
By Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martínez (Illustrator)

Adult

There is nothing more important than deepening our own knowledge on this topic before we figure out how to teach and read to children. Edith Campbell said, we need "authors [and teachers and parents] to ask themselves how well they know the information, which has to be 'over-learned' and then distilled for young readers." As the saying goes, you can't teach what you don't know. The titles below are recommended for our "over-learning."
 

Wench
By Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Not recommended

Read about a grassroots protest against a stereotypical children's book about slavery. (Find a compilation of articles about the protest at American Indians in Children's Literature.)

Learn about our criteria for selecting 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) 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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