Social Justice Books

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

Troublemaker for Justice

Reviewed by Conner Suddick Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Authors: Troublemaker for Justice illuminates readers on the life and legacy of Bayard Rustin. A notable civil rights leader, Rustin is often cast into the historical shadows of the civil rights movement because of his sexuality, his political engagement with the communist party during the […]

Kinda Like Brothers

Reviewed by Kaitlyn Plyley Review Source: Disability in Kids Lit Book Author: Kinda Like Brothers is New York novelist Coe Booth’s first book for middle-grade readers, and it is told from the point of view of an eleven-year-old boy who has asthma. Jarrett is struggling to keep up at school and to show the other boys that […]

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People

Reviewed by Jen Forbus Review Source: Shelf Awareness Book Author: Curriculum specialists Debbie Reese and Jean Mendoza have adapted Indigenous human rights activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s acclaimed academic text An Indigenous People’s History of the United States for young readers. This history of North America’s native tribal nations rebuts popular cultural beliefs and offers school-aged children a different perspective […]

The Jumbies

Reviewed by Edi Campbell Review Source: Cotton Quilts Book Author: Tracey Baptiste has been writing nonfiction and for quite a while. The Jumbies, her first book in this series, debuted in 2015. Rise of the Jumbies released in 2017 and The Jumbie God’s Revenge comes out this September. Baptise, a native of Trinidad, is quite familiar with the folklore that surrounds […]

Illegal

Reviewed by Beverly Slapin Review Source: De Colores Book Author: The Cover A teenage girl stands on dirt mixed with brambles, pieces of ragweed, and burned-out remnants of cypress roots. Nothing will ever grow where she stands. The girl faces away from the reader and away from her home. Her eyes are focused ahead, at […]

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 […]