Social Justice Books

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

A-Train Allen

Reviewed by Vanessa Williams Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author:  Quick! Hurry! Lickety-split! Dash over and read Lesley Younge’s A-Train Allen, a darling story that reads more like a hero’s errand and less like a hero’s journey because we’re not beleaguered with unwelcome visitors like devastating setbacks or insurmountable obstacles. Simultaneously imaginative and grounded, A-Train […]

Kapaemahu

Reviewed by Brad Manker Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author:  Kapaemahu is a centuries-old traditional Hawaiian story (mo’olelo) based on “The Healer Stones of Kapaemahu,” first published in 1907. The legend tells of four extraordinary Tahitians who traveled to the island of Oahu and taught local people the art of healing. The tall, gentle visitors […]

Bottle Tops: The Art of El Anatsui

Reviewed by Veronika Jenke Reviewed Source: Africa Access Book Author: The picture book Bottle Tops: The Art of El Anatsui introduces El, as he calls himself, and his innovative process of creating massive assemblages that are both textile-like and sculptural. A  living artist born in Ghana, West Africa,  El  lives, teaches and works as an […]

A Letter for Bob

Reviewed by Debbie Reese Review Source: American Indians in Children’s Literature Book Author: Several years ago, I was invited to a first grade classroom to talk with the children about Native Americans. One child met me at the school door and was intent on scanning the parking lot. Then he said, “Where’s your horse?” I […]

Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion

Reviewed by Brad Manker Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author:  If your ears can’t hear the strum, or hum, or thrum of a melody, can music still swirl and whirl? Talented Evelyn Glennie embraced music from a young age but gradually grew deaf. Her audiologist, and others around her, predicted that she would have to […]

Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers?

Reviewed by Kimberly Ellis Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author:  As Ruth Wilson Gilmore reminds us, “Abolition is not absence; it is presence. What the world will become already exists in fragments and pieces, experiments and possibilities.” Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers?,  written by Junauda Petrus and illustrated by Kristen […]