Social Justice Books

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

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 […]

Build a House

Reviewed by Rethinking Schools Book Author: Build a House is based on the moving song that Rhiannon Giddens wrote and performed with cellist Yo-Yo Ma on the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth in 2020. Giddens’ lovely, poignant new book illustrates the song, telling the story of enslavement and freedom: “You brought me here/ To build your house/ To […]

The Coquíes Still Sing: A Story of Home, Hope, and Rebuilding

Reviewed by Rethinking Schools Book Author: This is a beautifully written and illustrated story of resilience and community, seen through the eyes of a young girl in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of devastating Hurricane María. The silence and return of the song of the native coquí threaded throughout shows a sacred connection to nature and […]