Social Justice Reading List by BCALA & ALSC (PreK-Gr. 8)

Created on March 15, 2021, 10:13 am

Last Updated October 9, 2021, 12:34 pm

BCALA and ALSC Social Justice Reading List : Community, Connecting, Cultivating & Constructing Conversations Through Literacy This list was a collaborative effort between the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) and the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). Titles on this list were compiled by members of BCALA and members of ALSC’s Quicklists Consulting Committee. Know your reader: Some titles may include mature content. Parents, caregivers and educators are encouraged to discuss these experiences with their children. https://www.ala.org/alsc/publications-resources/book-lists/socialjustice

1) Betty before X

Author

Shabazz, Ilyasah

Description

Raised by her aunt until she is six, Betty, who will later marry Malcolm X, joins her mother and stepfamily in 1940s Detroit, where she learns about the civil rights movement.

2) Black brother, black brother

Author

Rhodes, Jewell Parker

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle, Playaway

Description

Suspended unjustly from elite Middlefield Prep, Donte Ellison studies fencing with a former champion, hoping to put the racist fencing team captain in his place.

3) Black enough: stories of being young & black in America

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

A collection of short stories explore what it is like to be young and black, centering on the experiences of black teenagers and emphasizing that one person's experiences, reality, and personal identity are different than someone else.

4) Black is a rainbow color

Author

Description

"A child reflects on the meaning of being Black in this anthem about a people, a culture, a history, and a legacy that lives on"--

Author

Draper, Sharon M

Formats:

Book, eBook, Playaway

Description

Piano-prodigy Isabella, eleven, whose black father and white mother struggle to share custody, never feels whole, especially as racial tensions affect her school, her parents both become engaged, and she and her stepbrother are stopped by police.

6) Brave, black, first: 50+ African American women who changed the world

Author

Hudson, Cheryl Willis

Description

An illustrated biographical compilation of over fifty African American women from the 1700s through to the present day.

7) Brown girl dreaming

Author

Woodson, Jacqueline

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"The author shares her childhood memories and reveals the first sparks that ignited her writing career in free-verse poems about growing up in the North and South"--

8) Chocolate me!

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

A little African American boy is teased for his color difference and longs to be like everyone else. Read and find out how he learns to accept himself just as he is.

9) Clean getaway

Author

Formats:

Description

"For the life of him, William "Scoob" Lamar can't seem to stay out of trouble--and now the run-ins at school have led to lockdown at home. So when G'ma, Scoob's favorite person on Earth, asks him to go on an impromptu road trip, he's in the RV faster than he can say FREEDOM. With G'ma's old maps and a strange pamphlet called the 'Travelers' Green Book' at their side, the pair takes off on a journey down G'ma's memory lane. But adventure quickly turns...

10) Crown: an ode to the fresh cut

Author

Barnes, Derrick

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook

Description

Celebrates the feeling that comes from walking out of a barber shop with newly-cut hair.

11) crown an ode to the fresh cut

This entry no longer exists in the catalog

12) Dark sky rising: Reconstruction and the dawn of Jim Crow

Author

Gates, Henry Louis

Formats:

Description

"This is a story about America during and after Reconstruction, one of history's most pivotal and misunderstood chapters. In a stirring account of emancipation, the struggle for citizenship and national reunion, and the advent of racial segregation, the renowned Harvard scholar delivers a book that is illuminating and timely. Real-life accounts drive the narrative, spanning the half century between the Civil War and Birth of a Nation. Here, you will...

13) The day you begin

Author

Woodson, Jacqueline

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

Other students laugh when Rigoberto, an immigrant from Venezuela, introduces himself but later, he meets Angelina and discovers that he is not the only one who feels like an outsider.

14) El día en que descubres quién eres

Author

Woodson, Jacqueline

Description

Other students laugh when Rigoberto, an immigrant from Venezuela, introduces himself but later, he meets Angelina and discovers that he is not the only one who feels like an outsider.

15) Dictionary for a better world: poems, quotes, and anecdotes from A to Z

Author

Formats:

Description

"Organized as a dictionary, entries in this book for middle-grade readers present words related to creating a better, more inclusive world. Each word is explored via a poem, a quote from an inspiring person, and a short personal anecdote from one of the co-authors, a prompt for how to translate the word into action, and an illustration"--

16) Don't touch my hair!

Author

Description

Aria loves her soft and bouncy hair, but must go to extremes to avoid people who touch it without permission until, finally, she speaks up. Includes author's note.

17) Finding Langston

Author

Cline-Ransome, Lesa

Series

Finding Langston volume 1

Formats:

Description

Discovering a book of Langston Hughes' poetry in the library helps Langston cope with the loss of his mother, relocating from Alabama to Chicago as part of the Great Migration, and being bullied.

18) For black girls like me

Author

Lockington, Mariama

Formats:

Description

Eleven-year-old Makeda dreams of meeting her African American mother, while coping with serious problems in her white adopted family, a cross-country move, and being homeschooled.

19) From the desk of Zoe Washington

Author

Series

Zoe Washington stories volume 1

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle, Playaway

Description

"Avid baker Zoe Washington receives a letter on her twelfth birthday from her biological father, who is in prison for a terrible crime"--

20) Genesis begins again

Author

Williams, Alicia

Formats:

Description

This deeply sensitive and powerful debut novel tells the story of a thirteen-year-old who must overcome internalized racism and a verbally abusive family to finally learn to love herself. There are ninety-six things Genesis hates about herself. She knows the exact number because she keeps a list. Like #95: Because her skin is so dark, people call her charcoal and eggplant--even her own family. And #61: Because her family is always being put out of...