Rethinking Schools Archives - Social Justice Books

The Twenty-One: The True Story of the Youth Who Sued the U.S. Government Over Climate Change

Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: The 21 offers an inspiring example of young people who challenge the status quo. Based on the landmark court case Juliana v. United States, the book reads like a courtroom thriller and is a must-read for young people who want to act against climate change. Although the narrative includes dense legal details […]

Black Girl You Are Atlas

Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: Black Girl You Are Atlas is Renée Watson’s first book of poetry. Like her novels, Watson’s poems explore the intersection of race, class, and gender. And like her novels, this semi-autobiographical collection celebrates the joys and sorrows of growing up a Black girl in this country. Woven throughout the book are […]

Ida in the Middle

Reviewed by Deborah Menkart Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: Middle school student Ida tries to sit where she is “unnoticeable, like the dust on last year’s history books.” She seeks to avoid stereotypical insults hurled at her for being from a Palestinian immigrant family. The school’s silence aggravates the problem. Ida notes, “Nobody even says the […]

A Child’s View of Gaza: Palestinian Children’s Art and the Fight Against Censorship

Reviewed by Katharine Davies Samway Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: A Childs View of Gaza: Palestinian Children’s Art and the Fight Against Censorship is equally compelling for children, older students, and adults. The captioned illustrations were created by Palestinian children who lived through the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in 2008-09. The pictures were drawn as part […]

Finding Melody Sullivan

Reviewed by Linda Dittmar Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: Especially now, when support for Palestinians is being cast as anti-Semitism, it takes courage to write a YA novel about a U.S. teenager’s journey into Israel’s Occupied Territories of Palestine, and yet this is what Alice Rothchild does in Finding Melody Sullivan. It also takes […]

That Flag

Reviewed by Erin Green Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: I read the powerful picture book That Flag, written by Tameka Fryer Brown, aloud to my preservice teachers last week. (Thanks to the recommendation of Social Justice Books and the Zinn Education Project.) Our class session was about how to address race and racism in elementary social studies, and this […]