Social Justice Books

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

We Are Water Protectors

Reviewed by Lara Saguisag Review Source: Climate Lit Book Author: “Water is alive. / Water remembers our ancestors / Who came before us, she said.” This Caldecott award winner highlights water not just an important natural resource but as a sacred, living element that sustains and binds all together plants, animals, and humans. When the construction […]

If They Come for Us: Poems

Reviewed by @mariaelenag96 Review Source: Brown Girl Bookshelf Book Author: “Poems of vulnerability, of anger, of love,” reflects guest reviewer @mariaelenag96 on Fatimah Asghar’s work. Asghar, a queer South Asian American Muslim writer and filmmaker, crosses the borders of countries, identities, communities, and histories in her beautiful and dynamic poems. Asghar’s “Land Where My Father Died” sat […]

The Bridge Home

Reviewed by Edi Campbell Review Source: Cotton Quilts Book Author: Padma Venkatraman has now published four books for young readers. She most often writes stories based in her Indian heritage and just as often reflects themes of social justice and activism. In The Bridge Home, her activism shifts in a more spiritual and inward direction. The Bridge […]

Hannah and the Ramadan Gift

Reviewed by Ariana Sani Hussain Review Source: Hijabi Librarians Book Author: At eight years old, Hannah’s family says she is too young to fast from dawn to sunset through the month of Ramadan, but Dada Jaan has an idea of how Hannah can help. He says that Ramadan is a reminder to Muslims to help those […]

Boys Dance!

Reviewed by Lila Chafe Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: Written by John Robert Allman and illustrated by Luciano Lozano, Boys Dance! follows a class of young boys as they are immersed into the world of ballet. The playful and simple illustrations are matched by rhyming verses narrating the routine of ballet class. Multiracial classmates […]

The Frog Mother

Reviewed by Jean Mendoza Review Source: American Indians in Children’s Literature Book Author: How I wish we could see a series like Mothers of Xsan for every part of the continent: local ecosystems from Indigenous perspectives! Hetxw’ms Gyetxw, Natasha Donovan, and Highwater Press have come up with a set of richly illustrated informational books about essential animal inhabitants of […]