Social Justice Books
a list for teens
Arming yourself with knowledge will better protect your rights. Learning about others will help you treat people with the respect and dignity that they deserve no matter their religion, race, creed, or color.
Contemporary Fiction
These thought-provoking titles portray the many injustices and inequalities that continue to plague our society and will spark discussion and debate.
"The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does-or does not-say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.
“Thomas’ debut, both a searing indictment of injustice and a clear-eyed, dramatic examination of the complexities of race in America, invites deep thoughts about our social fabric, ethics, morality, and justice.” -- Booklist
Awards:
National Book Award Nominee for Young People's Literature (2017)
Odyssey Award (2018)
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Nominee for Young Adult Literature (2017)
Edgar Award Nominee for Best Young Adult (2018)
Coretta Scott King Award Nominee for Author Honor (2018)
Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction (2017)
Kirkus Prize Nominee for Young Readers' Literature (2017)
Goodreads Choice Award for Young Adult Fiction & for Debut Goodreads Author (2017) Carnegie Medal Nominee (2018)
NAACP Image Award Nominee for Youth/Teens (2018)
"Dear Martin" by Nic Stone
Justyce McAllister is top of his class and set for the Ivy League—but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. And despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can't escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates. Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out. Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up—way up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the cross hairs. In the media fallout, it's Justyce who is under attack.
“Stone’s debut confronts the reality of police brutality, misconduct, and fatal shootings in the U.S., using an authentic voice to accurately portray the struggle of self-exploration teens like Justyce experience every day.” -- Booklist
Award:
William C. Morris YA Debut Award Nominee (2018)
"Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass" by Meg Medina
When Piddy Sanchez hears that Yaqui Delgado wants to kick her ass. Her world start spiraling downward. Meg Medina tells a harrowing story of the evils of school bullying and how easy it is to go unnoticed. She sheds that light on a subject that is tormenting our young people across the world. This issue transcends race, class, and gender. This novel will make young readers see the frivolousness of bullying. Readers will either identify with Piddy or Yaqui but either way their eyes will be opened.
“With issues of ethnic identity, class conflict, body image, and domestic violence, this could have been an overstuffed problem novel; instead, it transcends with heartfelt, truthful writing that treats the complicated roots of bullying with respect.” -- Booklist
Award: Pura Belpré Award for Narrative (2014)
"All American Boys" by Jason Reynolds and Brenden Kiely
The story of two teens. Two different stories , two different lenses, one truth….This is the story of a terrible violent act that tears apart these young boys’ world. It is a quintessential read in our times when young black unarmed men and women are being gunned down and no one is being held accountable. What makes this story different from all the rest is that it is told by two different authors, one white, one black , just like the characters. The reader can see the situation from two different viewpoints. In today’s time, we need to look at situations from other viewpoints in order better understand.
“Police brutality and race relations in America are issues that demand debate and discussion, which this superb book powerfully enables.” -- Booklist
Awards:
Coretta Scott King Award Nominee for Author Honor (2016)
Walter Dean Myers Award (2016)
"Girl Mans Up" by M-E Girard
This book challenges the idea behind what is to be “real ” girl. Penelope aka Pen is having trouble identifying her gender. She doesn’t feel comfortable confining herself to labels and has a hard time trying to live up to everyone’s expectations. When her family and friends can’t help her, she has to come to terms with who she is in a complicated word. In today’s time when our LGBTQ community is fighting for their rights, this is a story that needs to be told, read, and listened to by all.
“Girard offers an original, impressively nuanced drama built on themes of identity, respect, and the desire to be recognized for who you are.” -- Horn Book Magazine
Awards:
William C. Morris YA Debut Award Nominee (2017)
Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Children’s/Young Adult (2017)
"How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon
When sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson dies from two gunshot wounds, his community is thrown into an uproar. Tariq was black. The shooter, Jack Franklin, is white. In the aftermath of Tariq’s death, everyone has something to say, but no two accounts of the events line up. Day by day, new twists further obscure the truth. Tariq’s friends, family, and community struggle to make sense of the tragedy, and to cope with the hole left behind when a life is cut short.
“Magoon masterfully captures the cycle of urban violence and the raw emotions of the young people who can't escape its impact.”
-- Publisher’s Weekly
Award:
Coretta Scott King Award for Author Honor (2015)
"Piecing Me Together" by Renée Watson
Jade believes she must get out of her neighborhood if she’s ever going to succeed.She accepted a scholarship to a mostly-white private school and even Saturday morning test prep opportunities. But some opportunities feel more demeaning than helpful. Like an invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for “at-risk” girls. Except really, it’s for black girls. From “bad” neighborhoods. Friendships, race, privilege, identity—this compelling and thoughtful story explores the issues young women face.
“This unique and thought-provoking title offers a nuanced meditation on race, privilege, and intersectionality.”
-- School Library Journal
Awards:
Newbery Medal Nominee (2018)
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Nominee for Young Adult Literature (2017)
Coretta Scott King Award for Author (2018)
"Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda" by Becky Albertalli
In this engaging page-turner, we meet Simon, a young man who has to juggle his high school life along with his secrets. Simon prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he's pushed out--without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he's never met.
“Albertalli’s sensitive, incisive novel expertly gets at the complexity of identity, the difficulty of change, and the importance of growth.” -- Booklist
Awards:
National Book Award Nominee for Young People's Literature (2015)
William C. Morris YA Debut Award (2016)
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Debut Author (2015)
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2015)
Historical Fiction
The titles in this section are not just rich in historical detail, but they also serve as a tool to help readers see the importance of empathy for the plight of others.
"The Librarian of Auschwitz" by Antonio Iturbe
Based on a true story, this story tells the tale of a the smallest library. Dita is a teenage prisoner of the Nazis at Auschwitz. Uprooted from her comfortable life, her family is forced from their home to Terezin and then the Auschwitz in Poland. While imprisoned she is granted the most sacred job of all, the librarian. She is in charge of 8 precious books that have been smuggled in by the prisoners. This is a story of the power of reading as an escape during one of the darkest periods in history. It is a story of how you can imprison a person’s body but not the spirit and the mind.
“An important novel that will stand with other powerful testaments from the Holocaust era.” -- Booklist
"Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Perez
New London, Texas. 1937. Naomi Vargas and Wash Fuller know about the lines in East Texas as well as anyone. They know the signs that mark them. “No Negroes, Mexicans, or dogs.” They know the people who enforce them. But sometimes the attraction between two people is so powerful it breaks through even the most entrenched color lines. And the consequences can be explosive.
“Elegant prose and gently escalating action will leave readers gasping for breath at the tragic climax and moving conclusion.”
-- Booklist
Awards:
Michael L. Printz Award Nominee (2016)
"The Rock and The River" by Kekla Magoon
The Time: 1968. The Place: Chicago. For thirteen-year-old Sam it’s not easy being the son of known civil rights activist Roland Childs. Sam wants to believe that his father is right: You can effect change without using violence. But as time goes on, Sam grows weary of standing by and watching as his friends and family suffer at the hands of racism in their own community. Sam beings to explore the Panthers with older brother, but soon he’s involved in something far more serious — and more dangerous — than he could have ever predicted. Sam is faced with a difficult decision. Will he follow his father or his brother? His mind or his heart? The rock or the river?
Sequel: Fire in the Streets
“Magoon is unflinching in her depictions of police brutality and racism. She offers readers a perspective that is rarely explored, showing that racial prejudices were not confined to the South and that the Civil Rights Movement was a truly national struggle.” -- Kirkus
Awards:
Audie Award for Teens (2011)
John Steptoe New Talent Author Award (2010)
"Dreamland Burning" by Jennifer Latham
Rowan wants to enjoy one day of summer before her internship begins, but that ends when contractors working on her house find a skeleton in an outbuilding. Suddenly she’s caught up in the mystery of who the dead man was, why he was killed almost a century before, and how his death relates to a brutal race riot that wiped out the black Tulsa neighborhood of Greenwood in 1921. Latham masterfully weaves together the story of two well-off, mixed-race teenagers—Rowan, in the present, and Will, who lived in Tulsa in 1921—in this fast-paced, tension-filled look at race, privilege, and violence in America.
“This timely story gives readers an unflinching look at the problem of racism, both past and present, while simultaneously offering the hope of overcoming that hatred.” -- Booklist
"The Miseducation of Cameron Post" by Emily M. Danforth
Orphaned Cameron Post is attracted to other girls, especially the beautiful Coley Taylor. But when a remorseful Coley discloses their encounter to their fundamentalist church, Cameron finds herself sent to God's Promise, a Christian reparative therapy school. Exquisite attention to detail and a situation that invites reader identification mark this thoughtful coming-of-age novel set in early 1990's Montana.
“This finely crafted, sophisticated coming-of-age debut novel is multilayered, finessing such issues as loss, first love, and friendship.” -- School Library Journal
Awards:
William C. Morris YA Debut Award Nominee (2013)
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Young Adult Fiction (2012)
"No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller" by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
In No Crystal Stair, author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson combines meticulous research with a storyteller's flair to document the life and times of her great-uncle Lewis Michaux, an extraordinary literacy pioneer of the Civil Rights era. Lewis Michaux was born to do things his own way. When a white banker told him to sell fried chicken, not books, because "Negroes don't read," Lewis took five books and one hundred dollars and built a bookstore. It soon became the intellectual center of Harlem, a refuge for everyone from Muhammad Ali to Malcolm X.
“The storytelling format, candid perspectives, supplemental images, and historic connections bring to life an unheralded individualist whose story will engage readers.”
-- School Library Journal
Awards:
Coretta Scott King Award for Author Honor (2013)
Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (2012)
Nonfiction
These books show how people individually or collectively have pushed for equal rights. They can be seen as a call to action and provide context for fights still happening abroad and at home.
"Flesh and Blood So Cheap" by Albert Marrin
On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City burst into flames. The factory was crowded. The doors were locked to ensure workers stay inside. One hundred forty-six people—mostly women—perished; it was one of the most lethal workplace fires in American history until September 11, 2001. It is the story of unimaginable, but avoidable, disaster. And it the story of the unquenchable pride and activism of fearless immigrants and women who stood up to business, got America on their side, and finally changed working conditions for our entire nation, initiating radical new laws we take for granted today.
“A concluding description of a Bangladeshi garment factory fire in 2010 offers contemporary parallels. Marrin's message that protecting human dignity is our shared responsibility is vitally resonant.” -- Publisher’s Weekly
Award:
National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature (2011)
"Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out" by Susan Kuklin
Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them thoughtfully and respectfully before, during, and after their personal acknowledgment of gender preference. Portraits, family photographs, and candid images grace the pages, augmenting the emotional and physical journey each youth has taken. Each honest discussion and disclosure, whether joyful or heartbreaking, is completely different from the other because of family dynamics, living situations, gender, and the transition these teens make in recognition of their true selves.
“There is much here that will resonate with and hearten the kids who need it and will foster understanding and support among those who live and work with transgender teens.”
-- School Library Journal
Award:
Stonewall Book Award Nominee for Children’s and Young Adult Literature (2015)
"Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice" by Phillip M. Hoose
On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her classmates and dismissed by community leaders. Undaunted, a year later she dared to challenge segregation again as a key plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle, the landmark case that struck down the segregation laws of Montgomery and swept away the legal underpinnings of the Jim Crow South.
“This inspiring title shows the incredible difference that a single young person can make, even as it demonstrates the multitude of interconnected lives that create and sustain a political movement.” -- Booklist
Awards:
Newbery Medal Nominee (2010)
National Book Award for Young People's Literature (2009)
Sibert Medal Nominee (2010),
YALSA Award Nominee for Excellence in Nonfiction (2010)
"Girl Rising: Changing The World One Girl At A Time" by Tanya Lee Stone
Girl Rising, a global campaign for girls’ education, created a film that chronicled the stories of nine girls in the developing world, allowing viewers the opportunity to witness how education can break the cycle of poverty. Now, award-winning author Tanya Lee Stone uses new research to illuminate the dramatic facts behind the film, focusing both on the girls captured on camera and many others. She examines barriers to education in depth—early child marriage and childbearing, slavery, sexual trafficking, gender discrimination, and poverty—and shows how removing these barriers means not only a better life for girls, but safer, healthier, and more prosperous communities.
“The closing chapter is a call to activism…. Readers may be moved to initiate projects of their own.” -- Booklist
"We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler" by Russell Freedman
In his signature eloquent prose, backed up by thorough research, Russell Freedman tells the story of Austrian-born Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie. They belonged to Hitler Youth as young children, but began to doubt the Nazi regime. As older students, the Scholls and a few friends formed the White Rose, a campaign of active resistance to Hitler and the Nazis. Risking imprisonment or even execution, the White Rose members distributed leaflets urging Germans to defy the Nazi government. Their belief that freedom was worth dying for will inspire young readers to stand up for what they believe in.
“A highly readable and well-documented overview of a fascinating aspect of World War II.” -- School Library Journal
Awards:
Sibert Medal Nominee (2017)
Kirkus Prize Nominee for Young Readers' Literature (2016)
"Racial Profiling: Everyday Inequality" by Alison Behnke
Not shying away from the historic legacies of U.S. racism and recent high-profile deaths of unarmed people of color, Behnke explores the roots, multiple manifestations, and consequences of this ongoing form of social injustice. The book considers not only disparities in policing and criminal justice, but more extensively how practices of racial profiling can be found in schools, businesses, and economic policies (such as redlining) as well as post–9/11 surges in Islamophobia and other immigration-related xenophobia.
“The final chapter addresses activism and offers realistic ways for young adults to become involved in change initiatives. This is a balanced introduction to a sometimes controversial and often emotional subject..” -- Booklist
"Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the: Triple Nickles, America’s First Black Paratroopers" by Tanya Lee Stone
It is 1943. Americans are overseas fighting World War II to help keep the world safe from Adolf Hitler's tyranny, safe from injustice, safe from discrimination. Yet right here at home, people with white skin have rights that people with black skin do not What is courage? What is strength? Perhaps it is being ready to fight for your nation even when your nation isn't ready to fight for you. “Courage Has No Color” is a powerful investigation and the true story of the Triple Nickels in the segregated U.S. military during World War II.
“Stone's richly layered narrative explores the cultural and institutional prejudices of the time as well as the history of African-Americans in the military. Her interviews with veterans of the unit provide groundbreaking insight.” -- Kirkus Reviews
Award:
YALSA Award Nominee for Excellence in Nonfiction (2014)
NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book (2014)
Memoir
These books tell tales of courage in the face of adversity.
March by John Lewis (series)
Congressman John Lewis is an American icon, one of the key figures of the civil rights movement. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper’s farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington, and from receiving beatings from state troopers to receiving the Medal of Freedom from the first African-American president. To share his remarkable story with new generations, Lewis presents March, a graphic novel trilogy, in collaboration with co-writer Andrew Aydin and New York Times best-selling artist Nate Powell. March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis’ personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement.
“A powerful tale of courage and principle igniting sweeping social change, told by a strong-minded, uniquely qualified eyewitness.”
-- Kirkus Reviews
Awards:
Coretta Scott King Award for Author Honor (2014)
Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Nominee for Best Publication for Teens (ages 13-17)
Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Special Recognition Honor (2014)
"Being Jazz: My Life As A Transgender Teen" by Jazz Jennings
Jazz Jennings is one of the youngest and most prominent voices in the national discussion about gender identity. At the age of five, Jazz transitioned to life as a girl, with the support of her parents. A year later, her parents allowed her to share her incredible journey in her first Barbara Walters interview, aired at a time when the public was much less knowledgeable or accepting of the transgender community. This groundbreaking interview was followed over the years by other high-profile interviews, a documentary, the launch of her YouTube channel, a picture book, and her own reality TV series—I Am Jazz—making her one of the most recognizable activists for transgender teens, children, and adults. In her remarkable memoir, Jazz reflects on these very public experiences and how they have helped shape the mainstream attitude toward the transgender community.
“Jazz’s is not an ordinary life, but it serves as a role model and inspiration for LGBT kids, who will recognize the kinds of problems she has encountered and overcome...She has survived them gracefully, as her well-written, informative, and accessible memoir evidences.” -- Booklist
"How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of A War Child" by Sandra Uwiringiyimana
At ten, after seeing her sister gunned down, Congolese refugee Uwiringiyimana's family began the long process of applying for asylum in the U.S. The narrative is a powerful look at the family's move to the United States, the challenges of adjusting to a different culture, Uwiringiyimana's painful recognition of her trauma from the massacre, and, finally, the healing she experienced as she took ownership of her emotional needs. She recounts her American adolescence, trying to make sense of how she fits in as an African but not an African American.
“This hard-hitting autobiography will have readers reeling as it shows one young woman’s challenging path to healing.”
-- Kirkus Reviews
Award:
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Memoir & Autobiography (2017)
SAGE Library at Newbury Park High School
Email: sheraper@conejousd.org
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/sagelibrary/
Twitter: @NPHS_library