Social Justice Books

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

Steamboat School

Reviewed by Kirkus Reviews Review Source: Kirkus Reviews Book Author: A passion for education and freedom brings subversive ingenuity to life in 1847 St. Louis. Hopkinson reveals Rev. John Barry Meachum’s true history through the stories he tells the children of being born a slave (in 1789 in Virginia) and working in the saltpeter mines […]

Piecing me Together

Reviewed by Crystal Brunelle Review Source: Rich in Color Book Author: Jade creates stunning collages. She’s an artist turning bits and pieces of color, texture and shapes together. Art has often been one of the ways people explore what they think about the world and sometimes it’s a way to find healing. Jade creates these […]

Unbound: A Novel in Verse

Reviewed by Deborah Menkart Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: When Grace, the enslaved protagonist of this beautiful novel-length poem, turns 9, she is sent to live and work in the big house, forcing a heart-wrenching separation from her family. Then Grace hears that her mother and younger brothers will be placed on the auction […]

Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation

Reviewed by Crystal Brunelle Review Source: Rich in Color Book Author: Kindred is not generally tagged as young adult, but it will likely be a cross-over title and it was one I wanted to read for our focus on women in graphic novels this month. Dana, the main character, has just turned twenty-six when the main […]

Rad Women Worldwide: Artists and Athletes, Pirates and Punks, and Other Revolutionaries Who Shaped History

Reviewed by Rethinking Schools Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: From the authors of Rad American Women A-Z, Rad Women Worldwide has a similarly defiant and playful approach, featuring a few women students may have heard of, but mostly introducing little-known “rad” women who are “passionate, purposeful, and totally powerful.” It’s hard not to fall in […]

Hidden Figures: Young Readers Edition

Reviewed by Tameka Brown Review Source: The Brown Bookshelf Book Author: The book pays homage to four trailblazing African American human computers–Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Christine Darden–who served as an integral part of NASA/NACA at the height of the Space Race between America and Russia. In November 2016, HarperCollins released the Young […]