Back to School with New Social Justice Books

This summer we’ve had a chance to check out some new titles for elementary, middle, and high school students. We share them here with you.

We also encourage you to join us in following the Reading While White (RWW) blog. In celebration of their first anniversary, RWW will review an #OwnVoices title each day for the month of September. They explained, “Rather than talking about what’s wrong in children’s and YA books, we’re going to talk about what’s right. We want to shine the spotlight on some of the amazing books that have been written by authors and artists of color and Native authors and illustrators.”

Elementary

One of a Kind Like Me / Único como yo By Laurin Mayeno

She Stood for Freedom: The Untold Story of a Civil Rights Hero, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Loki Mulholland, Angela Fairwell

Upper Elementary / Middle School

	Fannie Never Flinched: One Woman’s Courage in the Struggle for American Labor Union Rights Mary Cronk Farrell		Capital Days: Michael Shiner’s Journal and the Growth of Our Nation’s Capital  Tonya Bolden
	Jump Back, Paul: The Life and Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar Sally Derby		Sing It!: A Biography of Pete Seeger Meryl Danziger
	Lion Island: Cuba’s Warrior of Words Margarita Engle		The Boy in the Black Suit Jason Reynolds
	Makoons Louise Erdich		In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse Joseph Marshall III

High School / Adult

	Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man’s Education Mychal Denzel Smith		“All the Real Indians Died Off”: And 20 Other Myths about Native Americans Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Dina Gilio-Whitaker
	Counting Descent Clint Smith		Of Poetry and Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin Michael Warr and Philip Cushway
	So the Heffners Left McComb Hodding Carter II		Studs Terkel: Politics, Culture, But Mostly Conversation Alan Wieder
	The Door at the Crossroads Zetta Elliott		Out of Darkness Ashley Hope Perez
	Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy Heather Ann Thompson		The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race Jesmyn Ward

Let us know if there are new titles you’ve read and recommend.