Social Justice Books

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

We Are Here to Stay: Voices of Undocumented Young Adults

Reviewed by Beverly Slapin Review Source: De Colores Book Author: The original title of Kuklin’s book of interviews with undocumented young people was to be Out of the Shadows: Voices of Undocumented Young Adults. This was during the time of the Obama administration’s DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program, which allowed individuals who were brought to the […]

Front Desk

Reviewed by Edi Campbell Review Source: Cotton Quilts Book Author: Front Desk is based in Kelly Yang’s real-life experiences, making it an #ownvoices novel. In the Author’s Notes, she explains how situations in the story evolved from her growing up and helping her parents manage three hotels in California. She also provides background information on […]

They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid’s Poems

Review by Beverly Slapin Review Source: De Colores: The Raza Experience in Books for Children Book Author: Memories from the author’s own childhood experiences—as well as those of his son, his friends, and the young men he worked with as a middle-school teacher—inform this too-slim book of poetry from the perspective of a 12-year-old Chicano border […]

On the Other Side of the Garden

Reviewed by Beverly Slapin Review Source: De Colores: The Raza Experience in Books for Children Book Author: In the entire universe of graphic comics, is there any sillier way to appeal to the sensibilities of young readers than five pages of fart jokes? Than little kid mosquitos, flying through the air, “powered by pedos”? Pretending to […]

Dreamers

Reviewed by Debbie Reese Review Source: American Indians in Children’s Literature Book Author: The first library I knew as a child was a cardboard box full of books. You see, I went to a government day school on my reservation. We didn’t have a library. What we had was a librarian from the nearby public […]

La Frontera: El viaje con papá ~ My Journey with Papa

Reviewed by: Kathleen Nganga Review source: Teaching for change Authors: La Frontera: El viaje con papá ~ My Journey with Papa is the true story of Alfredo Alva and his family’s migration from La Ceja, Mexico to the United States. Written by Alva and his neighbor Deborah Mills, the bilingual story tells Alva’s family history […]