Social Justice Books

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

The Stars Beneath Our Feet

Reviewed by Megan Schliesman Review Source: Reading While White Book Author: Offering hope, acknowledging hardship. Debut author David Barclay Moore writes with open eyes about the challenges of Lolly’s life as a Black boy in a poor neighborhood on the cusp of young adulthood, and with eyes just as wide he shows the many things Lolly […]

Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal

Reviewed by: Deborah Menkart Reviewed Source: Zinn Education Project Book Author: Using her trademark style—multiple voices in free verse to share untold historical events —Margarita Engle introduces young readers to the builders of the Panama Canal. The protagonist is Mateo, a young boy from the Caribbean, lured with promises of good pay and work. Instead, […]

Before We Were Free

Reviewed by Cindy L. Rodriguez Review Source: Latinxs in Kid Lit Book Author: Anyone who has read Julia Alvarez’s adult novels will enjoy the connections made in Before We Were Free to How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of the Butterflies. In Before We Were Free, Alvarez explores the Trujillo […]

Heroes of the Environment

Reviewed by Lila Quintero Weaver Review Source: Latinxs in Kids Lit Book Author: This nonfiction book for grades 4 and up celebrates the environmental triumphs achieved by a dozen unsung heroes of all ages located in various parts of the United States and Mexico. I’m giving it star billing because I feel it deserves wider attention. […]

Juan Pablo and the Butterflies

Reviewed by Beverly Slapin Review Source: De Colores Book Author: Unfortunately, Juan Pablo & the Butterflies is littered with, among other things, highly unlikely events; each signaled by the arrival of a butterfly, who guides JP, showing him where to go and what to do. (The butterflies, of course, embody the spirit of JP’s abuela, now residing with […]

The First Rule of Punk

Reviewed by Lettycia Terrones Review Source: Latinos in Kid Lit Book Author: There is a scene half-way through Celia C. Pérez’s brilliant middle-grade novel The First Rule of Punk that pulls so powerfully at the heartstrings of all those who have ever struggled with forming their identity as a minoritized person in the U.S. Having just wrapped up […]