Social Justice Books

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

Dragons in a Bag

Reviewed by Deborah Menkart Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: See all the books in the Dragons in a Bag series. Set in gentrifying Brooklyn, Dragons in a Bag is about a young boy (Jax) who spends the day with an elderly neighbor (Ma) while his mother goes to court to challenge their eviction. To […]

Finding Langston

Reviewed by: Kathleen Nganga Review source: Independent Book Author:  Finding Langston is Lesa Cline-Ransome’s superb first novel. The book is about eleven-year-old Langston, a young boy from Alabama who moves with his father to Chicago in 1946 after the death of his mother. The move jars Langston as he is forced to grapple with a […]

La Frontera: El viaje con papá ~ My Journey with Papa

Reviewed by: Kathleen Nganga Review source: Teaching for change Authors: La Frontera: El viaje con papá ~ My Journey with Papa is the true story of Alfredo Alva and his family’s migration from La Ceja, Mexico to the United States. Written by Alva and his neighbor Deborah Mills, the bilingual story tells Alva’s family history […]

A True Book: President Donald Trump

VICTORY – Scholastic’s celebratory children’s books about Donald Trump are finally OUT OF PRINT. After thousands of letters in an action campaign from teachers, parents, and students across the U.S., Scholastic has stopped reprinting these two books. Update: More than 1,200 people have written to Scholastic to express their outrage about the 2017 children’s books, President Donald Trump […]

President Donald Trump

VICTORY – Scholastic’s celebratory children’s books about Donald Trump are finally OUT OF PRINT. After thousands of letters in an action campaign from teachers, parents, and students across the U.S., Scholastic has stopped reprinting these two books. Reviewed by Kathleen Nganga and Sarah Cornelius Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author:  “His buildings reached toward the sky. His […]

One Shadow on the Wall

Reviewed by Marame Gueye, Ph.D. Review Source:  Africa Access Book Author: Set in present day Senegal, One Shadow on the Wall is about an interrupted childhood, one’s resolve to keep promises in spite of temptations, as well as a community’s daily struggle to make life meaningful. Told in the third person point of view, Leah Henderson’s debut novel take […]