Social Justice Books

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

When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop

Reviewed by Derrick Weston Brown Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: In most children’s books about the history of Hip-Hop, there’s often one figure who has continuously been relegated to the background, even though he’s the architect of the sound from which Hip-Hop was born. Clive Campbell, also known as DJ Kool Herc, finally […]

The Peace Book

Reviewed by Katie Seitz Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: “I’m colorblind. Yellow, brown, green, purple – I treat everyone the same.” “We’re all the same on the inside.” Most of us have heard people profess their ability to look past difference by saying that, deep down, humans are all the same. While the […]

The Mangrove Tree: Planting Trees to Feed Families

Reviewed by Deborah Menkart Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: The collage illustrations in The Mangrove Tree are stunning — each page invites the reader to take in the creativity and details created through the multicolored, textured cloth. The story itself is an important one, describing a community that was once ecologically devastated and poverty-stricken […]

Tea Cakes for Tosh

Reviewed by Amy Rothschild Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: An invaluable new resource/picture book: Tea Cakes for Tosh written by Kelly Starling Lyons, author of Ellen’s Broom, and illustrated by the masterful E.B. Lewis. Tosh, a young African-American boy, learns from his grandmother Honey how to make teacakes, a family recipe passed down from his great-great-great-great-grandmother Ida.  “Long […]

Stay Solid! A Radical Handbook for Youth

Reviewed by Shelly Wen, Teaching for Change Intern Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: Stay Solid! A Radical Handbook for Youth compiles testimonies, stories, advice, and more from over a hundred radical activists divided into content areas such as family, race, gender, school, friends, indigenous struggle, and more. This compilation offers an anti-bias perspective […]

Smoky Night: Misguided Effort to Help Kids Understand Rodney King Events

Reviewed by Beverly Slapin Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: On April 29, 1992, an almost all-white jury in the almost all-white suburb of Simi Valley acquitted four white Los Angeles Police Department officers of using assault and excessive force in the videotaped beating of a Black man named Rodney King. On the evening following […]