Social Justice Books

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

The Door at the Crossroads

Reviewed by Lyn Miller Lachman Review Source: Pirate Tree Book Author: The novel from Zetta Elliott’s own imprint, Rosetta Press, begins on September 11, 2001, when 16-year-old Genna Colon witnesses the destruction of the Twin Towers from across the river in Brooklyn while her Jamaican-born boyfriend, Judah, remains in Brooklyn in 1863. Except that Judah is […]

Fred Korematsu Speaks Up

Book Review by Lyn Miller Lachman Review Source: Pirate Tree Book Author: At the time of the bombing, Fred Korematsu helped his Japanese immigrant parents and U.S. born brothers at the family nursery. He had fallen in love with an Italian American woman, and to keep from being sent to the camp and separated from her, […]

Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton

Reviewed by Lyn Miller Lachman Review Source: Pirate Tree Book Author: Don Tate’s biography Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton (Peachtree, 2015) achieves that balance. Drawing on Horton’s own writings, biographies and histories, and archival sources, this picture book for elementary-age readers begins with his listening to sermons and surreptitiously peeking over the […]

Wolf Mark

Reviewed by Beverly Slapin Review Source: American Indians in Children’s Literature Book Author: Joe Bruchac is not yet known for his YA werewolf/vampire/espionage novels, but this talented writer can sure pull off the genre(s). Middle readers who have the ability to suspend disbelief will relate to the teen protagonist, an Abenaki wolf-boy with multiple challenges. Such […]

When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop

Reviewed by Derrick Weston Brown Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: In most children’s books about the history of Hip-Hop, there’s often one figure who has continuously been relegated to the background, even though he’s the architect of the sound from which Hip-Hop was born. Clive Campbell, also known as DJ Kool Herc, finally […]

We Sang You Home

Reviewed by KT Horning Review Source: Reading While White Book Author: The same team who brought us Little You has created another beautiful board book that celebrates a new baby. Richard Van Camp, a member of the Dogrib (Tlicho) Nation, has a special gift for writing short but eloquent board book texts aimed at the very […]