Teaching for Change 2016 Summer Reading and Writing Challenge

Teaching for Change challenges young people to read as many books as they can over the summer – especially multicultural and social justice books. We also encourage young people and their caregivers to examine the representation of Native Americans and people of color in the Scholastic catalog, and then write a letter advocating for multicultural books. Only 14% of children’s books published in 2014 were by or about people of color. Scholastic’s catalog is no exception.

Share our resources for examining books through the lens of critical literacy, and this summer set a goal to submit a letter to the #StepUpScholastic campaign.

Teaching for Change Summer Reading List

There are many more titles in our Teaching for Change We’re the People Summer Reading List and #Lemonade for Girls: in Formation.

BOARD BOOKS

	Whose Knees Are These?		I Love My Hair!
	Shades of Black		I am Latino
	Global Babies		Please, Baby, Please

ELEMENTARY

	The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth, & Harlem’s Greatest Bookstore		Freedom on Congo Square
	Joelito’s Big Decision / La Gran Decisión de Joelito		Mama’s Nightingale
	Voice of Freedom Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement		Child of the Civil Rights Movement
	When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop		¡Si, Se Puede! / Yes, We Can!
	Those Shoes		The Name Jar

MIDDLE SCHOOL AND YOUNG ADULT FICTION

	Bayou Magic		Stella by Starlight
	Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal		All American Boys
	Caminar		The Porcupine Year
	A Little Piece of Ground		Sylvia & Aki
	Return to Sender		In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse
	The Glory Field		A Wish After Midnight

MIDDLE SCHOOL AND YOUNG ADULT NON-FICTION

	Passenger on the Pearl: The True Story of Emily Edmonson’s Flight from Slavery		Understanding Mass Incarceration
	Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom		The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World
	Rad Women A- Z		A Young People’s History of the United States
	A Different Mirror for Young People: A History of Multicultural America		Brown Girl Dreaming
	Selma, Lord, Selma: Girlhood Memories of the Civil Rights Days		Enrique’s Journey: The True Story of a Boy Determined to Reunite with His Mother

FOR EDUCATORS

	For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood… and the Rest of Y’All Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education		Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality
	This is Not a Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education		Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition
	More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing		Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development
	A People’s Curriculum for the Earth		Teach for America Counter-Narratives: Alumni Speak Up and Speak Out

CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

	The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks		This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible
	Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching: A Resource Guide for Classrooms and Communities		I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle
	Freedom’s Teacher: The Life of Septima Clark		Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC

ADULT FICTION AND NON-FICTION

	Between the World and Me		This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate
	Americanah		Claire of the Sea Light
	The Defender: How Chicago’s Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America		A People’s History of the United States
	The New Jim Crow		The Black History of the White House
	An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States		Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City

There are many more titles in our Teaching for Change recommended booklists. We also suggest the We’re the People Summer Reading List and #Lemonade for Girls: in Formation.