Social Justice Books

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

Stacey Abrams: Lift Every Voice

  Reviewed by Deborah Menkart Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: Stacey Abrams is one of the most strategic, visionary, and dedicated political leaders of this century, so we were delighted to learn that there was a picture book for young children about her life. Sadly, the book fails to do justice to her […]

My Powerful Hair

Reviewed by Elizabeth Blair Review Source: NPR Book Author: My Powerful Hair is a new picture book that turns a painful truth about racism into a celebration of Native culture. When Carole Lindstrom was a little girl growing up in Bellevue, Nebraska, she really wanted long hair. She would put the blanket she had as a baby on […]

How Do You Spell Unfair? MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee

Reviewed by Brad Manker Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author:  From the award-winning author of dozens of books, including Unspeakable — The Tulsa Race Massacre, Voice of Freedom — Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, and Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library, comes another inspiring episode in Black history. Weatherford and […]

Stayed on Freedom: The Long History of Black Power Through One Family’s Journey

Reviewed by Josh Davidson Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: Zinn Education Project communications associate Josh Davidson highly recommends this book. Historian Dan Berger has called the Black Power Movement “a love story,” and nothing illustrates this point more than his latest book, Stayed on Freedom: The Long History of Black Power Through One […]

That Flag

Reviewed by Erin Green Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: I read the powerful picture book That Flag, written by Tameka Fryer Brown, aloud to my preservice teachers last week. (Thanks to the recommendation of Social Justice Books and the Zinn Education Project.) Our class session was about how to address race and racism in elementary social studies, and this […]

Two Degrees

Reviewed by Rethinking Schools Book Author: The main characters in this novel are middle school students, threatened and harmed by very different climate events, including the warming tundra, hurricanes, and forest fires. The book’s narrative rotates among the characters, weaving in facts about climate change as the youngsters’ lives become more precarious. The fast-paced plot will […]