Social Justice Books

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

Ten Beautiful Things

Reviewed by Catherine Taunton Review Source: Reading Is Resistance Book Author:  None of this was easy. Maybe it would never be easy. But she belonged with Gram now. She belonged here now. This place wasn’t empty and neither was she. In Ten Beautiful Things by Molly Beth Griffin, the main character, Lily, goes through a […]

The Trailblazing Life of Viola Desmond: A Civil Rights Icon

Reviewed Aisha Kiani Review Source: I Dream Library Book Author: The story of Viola Desmond’s act of resistance against segregation in a Nova Scotia theater is one we’ve been teaching and including in lesson plans and book lists since we began our work with teachers in 2019. The book we’ve used is a kidlit picture […]

Just Like Grandma

Reviewed by Amy Buckelew-Foster Review Source: Reading Is Resistance Book Author:  Together they flutter like the most beautiful butterflies Grandpa has ever seen, until the sun dips below the tree line and he calls them in for fried chicken. Just Like Grandma is a beautiful story of a multigenerational Native American family in a contemporary […]

Saltypie: A Choctaw Journey from Darkness Into Light

Reviewed by Debbie Reese Review Source: American Indians in Children’s Literature Book Author: Before you read Tim Tingle’s Saltypie to your child or students in your classroom or library, spend some time studying what Tingle says at the end of the book, on the pages titled “How Much Can We Tell Them?” There, you’ll learn a little […]

Thanku: Poems of Gratitude

Reviewed by Debbie Reese Review Source: American Indians in Children’s Literature Book Author: I haven’t studied book covers for edited books of poems before. This observation, therefore, might not hold water. Here’s the cover for Thanku: Poems of Gratitude. As you see, Thanku: Poems of Gratitude is illustrated by Marlena Myles (Myles is Spirit Lake Dakota/Mohegan/Muscokee Creek) and […]

The World Needs More Purple Schools

Reviewed by Zapoura Newton-Calvert Review Source: Reading Is Resistance Book Author:  Much like its prequel, The World Needs More Purple People, The World Needs More Purple Schools by Kristen Bell, Benjamin Hart, and Daniel Wiseman celebrates a “purple world,” where “different people come together to mix their stories, their ideas, and their smarts to make […]