Social Justice Books

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

The Story Circle / El círculo de cuentos

Reviewed by Linda Boyden Review Source: Pirate Tree Book Author: After a terrible storm flooded their school, most of the classroom books were destroyed and for the first time, the school’s bookshelves were empty. For three days school staff and volunteers helped to clean water damage and remove sludge from the school’s classrooms. The children returned […]

42 Is Not Just a Number

Reviewed by Don Allen Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: For many kids, sports can be a window into the injustices that have desecrated the American democratic experiment, since its beginnings. I was one of those kids. I loved sports and I lived in a town and attended a school that lacked diversity. I […]

One

Reviewed by Deborah Menkart Book Author: An engaging story for very young children based on colors and numbers about “blue, a quiet color,” who gets bullied by “hot head red.” The other colors feel sorry for blue, but never stand up to red. Then “One” comes along. He — would have been nice to have […]

Bronze and Sunflower

Reviewed by: Lyn Miller-Lachmann Review Source: The Pirate Tree Book Author: Seven-year-old Sunflower is the daughter of an artist forcibly relocated from the city to the countryside during China’s cultural revolution. By day, he works in the “Cadre School,” leaving the young child to explore the river and nearby village of Damaidi. There she sees […]

Ahimsa

Reviewed by: Lyn Miller-Lachmann Review Source: The Pirate Tree Book Author: During and immediately after the Second World War, India fought its own war for independence against Great Britain. Led by Mahatma Gandhi, this independence movement embraced civil disobedience and other forms of nonviolent resistance according to the principle of ahimsa. Supriya Kelkar’s great-grandmother was […]

The Story Circle/El Círculo de Cuentos

Reviewed by Linda Boyden Review Source: The Pirate Tree Book Author: After a terrible storm flooded their school, most of the classroom books were destroyed and for the first time, the school’s bookshelves were empty. For three days school staff and volunteers helped to clean water damage and remove sludge from the school’s classrooms. The […]