Social Justice Books

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

Missing Daddy

Reviewed by Rethinking Schools Staff Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: According to author Mariame Kaba, 2.7 million children under the age of 18 have an incarcerated parent. In an author’s note, Kaba says that she wrote Missing Daddy because of her frustration finding materials that can help children deal with the “loss, grief, and trauma” […]

Sometimes We Do

Reviewed by Kent Haines Review Source: Games for Young Minds Book Author: You probably don’t need a rant from me about the state of our country or our world. After all, you signed up to receive lighthearted math game recommendations. So I’ll be brief: I fully and wholeheartedly support the protesters, their political goals, and […]

The Cat Man of Aleppo

Reviewed by Pat Corekin Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: Based on the true story of Mohammad Alaa Aljaleel, The Cat Man of Aleppo provides a poignant account of one man’s struggle to save the lives of cats abandoned in the wake of the Syrian war, which started in 2011 and is still ongoing. […]

Greta and the Giants

  Reviewed by Deborah Menkart Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: NOT RECOMMENDED: So, we just got another picture book in the mail about Greta Thunberg. (This is at least the 4th children’s book about Greta.) Called Greta and the Giants, it implies that Greta was the first climate activist. The story is that […]

My Grandma and Me

Reviewed by Ariana Hussain Review Source: The Horn Book, Inc. Book Author: The unnamed narrator recalls her childhood growing up in Iran (where the author also grew up) with her beloved grandmother, who lives with the family. The child accompanies her grandma on her daily routines (“When she swept, I swept. When she cooked, I cooked. […]

Belle, the Last Mule at Gee’s Bend: A Civil Rights Story

Reviewed by: Rebecca Lehr Book Author: As Alex’s mother shops for a quilt in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, he sits outside and spots an old mule eating collard greens from a garden. An elderly woman, Miz Pettway, sits down next to him and begins to tell him why Belle, the mule, is allowed to eat all […]