Social Justice Books

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

Julián Is a Mermaid

Reviewed by Beverly Slapin Review Source: De Colores: The Raza Experience Book Author: Dear Readers— Since I wrote and published our review of Julián Is a Mermaid (see it here), there has been much online discussion about this book. Dr. Laura Jiménez has just published a personal and profound essay — entitled Trans People Aren’t Mythical Creatures […]

We Are Here to Stay: Voices of Undocumented Young Adults

Reviewed by Beverly Slapin Review Source: De Colores Book Author: The original title of Kuklin’s book of interviews with undocumented young people was to be Out of the Shadows: Voices of Undocumented Young Adults. This was during the time of the Obama administration’s DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program, which allowed individuals who were brought to the […]

Front Desk

Reviewed by Edi Campbell Review Source: Cotton Quilts Book Author: Front Desk is based in Kelly Yang’s real-life experiences, making it an #ownvoices novel. In the Author’s Notes, she explains how situations in the story evolved from her growing up and helping her parents manage three hotels in California. She also provides background information on […]

The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rainforest

Reviewed by Jeanne White Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: Author and illustrator Lynne Cherry’s book The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rainforest (Gulliver Green, 1990) focuses on South America’s Amazon rainforest. Cherry visited the rainforest to create sketches and to develop her story. The inside covers of the book include a world map depicting […]

The Day You Begin

Reviewed by Rethinking Schools Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: This powerful, lyrical picture book speaks directly to the children who are its intended readers, describing those familiar moments when a child may be marked as an outsider among their peers because of their home language, or the color of their skin, or the “different” […]

Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots

Reviewed by Rethinking Schools Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: Every 20th-century U.S. history class covers World War II. However, the 1943 attack by white sailors on Mexican Americans, Filipinos, and African Americans in Los Angeles, known as the Zoot Suit Riots, gets little mention. Author Margarita Engle uses free verse to bring this history […]