Social Justice Books

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

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Cause: Reconstruction America, 1863-1877

Reviewed by Adam Sanchez Review Source: Zinn Education Project Book Author: Tanya Bolden’s Cause: Reconstruction America, 1863-1877 is one of the few non-fiction texts on Reconstruction aimed at young readers. It is a strong alternative to the textbook treatment of the era. Like many textbooks, Cause focuses mainly on the battles between President Andrew Johnson and Congress, […]

Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule

Reviewed by: Adam Sanchez Review Source: Zinn Education Project Book Author: This chapter book of historical fiction by Harriette Gillem Robinet is one of the best resources available for elementary school classrooms on the Reconstruction era. 40 Acres and Maybe a Mule tells the story of Pascal, who is still enslaved at the end of the Civil War. When […]

The Parker Inheritance

Reviewed by Edith Campbell Review Source: Cotton Quilts Book Author: Candace Miller, a young African American girl, and her mother move into the home that once belonged to her grandmother while their own home is being renovated. Her parents have divorce and they need to prepare the house for sale. This temporary residence is in […]