Social Justice Books

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

I Am Not a Number

Reviewed by Debbie Reese Review Source: American Indians in Children’s Literature Book Author: I recommend Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer’s I Am Not A Number, illustrated by Gillian Newland. Dupuis is a member of the Nipissing First Nation. In 1928, Dupuis’s grandmother, Irene Couchie Dupuis, was taken to a residential school in Canada. “Residential” is […]

At the Mountain’s Base

Reviewed by Debbie Reese Review Source: American Indians in Children’s Literature Book Author: In February, 2018, Penguin announced it was launching a new imprint, Kokila, that would center “stories from the margins with books that add nuance and depth to the way children and young adults see the world and their place in it.” On September 17 of […]

This Land Is My Land

Reviewed by Debbie Reese Review Source: American Indians in Children’s Literature Book Author: Among my favorite books is George Littlechild’s This Land Is My Land, published in 1993 by Children’s Book Press. Written and illustrated by Littlechild, the book won the Jane Addams Peace Award. The title, of course, is familiar. Across the United States, in schools […]

Indian No More

Reviewed by Ashleigh, age 13 Review Source: Indigo’s Bookshelf: Voices of Native Youth Book Author: Indian No More, by Charlene Willing McManis with Traci Sorell, is one of the best books I’ve ever read. Thank you to Tu Books and Stacy L. Whitman for sending @ofglades the uncorrected proof to review. At first, I was sorry […]

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 […]

Ajijaak – Crane

Reviewed by Debbie Reese Review Source: American Indians in Children’s Literature Book Author: In 2018, Ajijaak – Crane was published by Waub Ajijaak Press, in Manistee, Michigan. Written by Cecilia Rose LaPointe, illustrated by Dolly Peltier, and translated into Anishinaabe by Margaret Noodin, it is one I am pleased to recommend. The story opens with […]