Social Justice Books

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

Mamie Tape Fights to Go to School

Reviewed by Deborah Menkart Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: This picture book tells the true story of a fight for access to public education by an 8-year-old Chinese American girl, Mamie Tape, and her parents. There were no public schools for Chinese Americans in 1884 in San Francisco when Mamie tried to attend the white […]

Black Girl You Are Atlas

Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: Black Girl You Are Atlas is Renée Watson’s first book of poetry. Like her novels, Watson’s poems explore the intersection of race, class, and gender. And like her novels, this semi-autobiographical collection celebrates the joys and sorrows of growing up a Black girl in this country. Woven throughout the book are […]

Ida in the Middle

Reviewed by Deborah Menkart Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: Middle school student Ida tries to sit where she is “unnoticeable, like the dust on last year’s history books.” She seeks to avoid stereotypical insults hurled at her for being from a Palestinian immigrant family. The school’s silence aggravates the problem. Ida notes, “Nobody even says the […]

Borderless

Reviewed by Marcy Campos Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author:  Borderless is an excellent novel for high school students and teachers that sheds light on the push factors that lead Central Americans to face the agonizing decision to leave their home country, and it explores the perilous journey and the horrific treatment by U.S. […]

Zion Learns to See: Opening Our Eyes to Homelessness

Reviewed by Keesha Ceran Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: Zion Learns to See is a new children’s book by father-daughter duo, Terence and Zion Lester. The book follows Zion as she spends a day with her father, Terence, in the community work he is doing around houselessness and economic justice.  Through the storytelling and […]

You Truly Assumed

Reviewed by Paige Pagan Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author:  SPOILER ALERT A powerful contemporary young adult novel that’s essential when having conversations about  challenging Islamophobia and encouraging teens to funnel their creative energies into advocacy. The course of three teenage Muslim girls’ lives virtually converge in the aftermath of a terrorist attack in Washington […]