Social Justice Books

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

Grandpa Cacao: A Tale of Chocolate, from Farm to Family

Review Source: Africa Access Book Author: Illustrator Elizabeth Zunon has illustrated more than 15 books, three of which have received Children’s Africana Book Awards, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba, One Plastic Bag: Isatou Seesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia by Miranda Paul and this book, Grandpa Cacao, A Tale of Chocolate, from Farm to […]

King Shaka

Reviewed by Fatima Barnes Review Source: Africa Access Book Author: The graphic novels – Shaka Rising and the sequel, King Shaka – are  imaginative, engaging, and innovative ways of narrating the legend of Shaka, the most renowned 19th century  monarch in Southern Africa. Comic book writer-illustrator Luke Molver, a South African born in Durban,  does an excellent job of telling […]

Shaka Rising

Reviewed by Fatima Barnes Review Source: Africa Access Book Author: The graphic novels – Shaka Rising and the sequel, King Shaka – are  imaginative, engaging, and innovative ways of narrating the legend of Shaka, the most renowned 19th century  monarch in Southern Africa. Comic book writer-illustrator Luke Molver, a South African born in Durban,  does an excellent job of telling […]

Orange for the Sunsets

Reviewed by Meena Khorana, Ph.D. Review Source: Africa Access Book Author: Set in 1972, Orange for the Sunsets is a welcome novel on the expulsion of Indians from Uganda under the regime of President Idi Amin, a topic that has been the subject of only one other adolescent novel about Africa in recent years (Shenaaz Nanji’s Child […]

Let’s Go Swimming on Doomsday

Reviewed by Lidwien Kapteijns, Ph.D. Wellesley College Review Source: Africa Access Book Author: This action novel is a page-turner from beginning to end. The story is set in near-contemporary Mogadishu, Somalia, where the armed Islamist movement called Al-Shabaab conducts terrorist attacks on civilian targets, while African peacekeeping troops and U.S. anti-terrorism units try to contain […]

Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted a Million Trees

Reviewed by Jane Irungu, Ph.D. Review Source: Africa Access Book Author: Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees by Franck Prévot and Aurélia Fronty (illus.) joins the list of picture books about The Green Belt Movement and its founder, Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai. Previous titles about Maathai include Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story […]