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Books Addressing Race and Social Justice

This list of titles on race, racism, and social justice was assembled from suggestions by library staff throughout Vermont.

Books for Ages 5-12

  • A Taste of Colored Water by Matt Faulkner (2008)
  • Antiracist Baby (board book) Ibram X. Kendi (2020)
  • Armstrong & Charlie by Steven Frank (2017)
  • Becoming Kareem by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (2017)
  • Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation by Andrea Davis Pinkney (2008)
  • Bud Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (1999)
  • Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (2014)
  • Can I Touch Your Hair? by Irene Latham (2018)
  • Chasing Freedom by Nikki Grimes (2015)
  • Color Me Dark by Pat McKissack (2000)
  • Daisy and the Doll by Angela Shelf Medearis (2000)
  • Diamond in the Desert by Kathryn Fitzmaurice (2012)
  • Freedom Over Me by Ashley Brian (2016)
  • Genesis begins again by Alicia D. Williams (2019)
  • Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson (2018)
  • Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson (2011)
  • It Ain’t so Awful Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas (2016)li>
  • Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester (2005)
  • Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport (2001)
  • Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop by Alice Faye Duncan (2018)
  • March Forward, Girl by Melba Beals (2018)
  • Mississippi Bridge by Mildred Taylor (1990)
  • Momma, Did you Hear the News? By Sanya Whittaker Gragg (2017)
  • Mr. Lincoln’s Way by Patricia Polacco (2001)
  • My Year in the Middle by Lila Quintero Weaver (2018)
  • New Kid by Jerry Craft (2019)
  • Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar (2017)
  • Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness by Anastasia Higginbotham (2018)
  • One Crazy Summer by Rita Garcia-Williams (2010)
  • Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga (2019)
  • Preaching to the Chickens by Jabari Asim (2016)
  • Racism by Jane Lacey (2018)
  • Remember: The Road to School Integration by Toni Morrison (2004)
  • Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor (1976)
  • Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Ramsey (2010)
  • Same Sun Here by Silas House (2012)
  • Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney (2010)
  • Some Places More than Others by Reene Watson (2019)
  • Something Happened in our Town by Marianne Celano, Maietta Collins and Ann Hazzard (2018)
  • Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stampedfrom the Beginning by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi (2020)
  • Teammates by Peter Golenbock (1990)
  • That is My Dream by Langston Hughes and Daniel Miyares (2017)
  • The Case for Loving by Selina Alko (2015)
  • The First Step by Susan Goodman (2016)
  • The Friendship by Mildred Taylor (1987)
  • The Journal of Biddy Owens by Walter Dean Myers (2001)
  • The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson (2001)
  • The Power Book by Claire Saunders, Georgia Amson-Bradshaw, Minna Salami, Mik Scarlet, Hazel Songhurst, and Joelle Avelino (2019)
  • The Promise of Change by Jo Ann Allen Boyce (2019)
  • The Season of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon (2018)
  • The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis (1995)
  • The Wind Called My Name by Mary Louise Sanchez (2018)
  • This Is The Dream by Diane ZuHone Shore (2005)
  • Two Friends by Dean Robbins (2016)
  • Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom by Lynda Blackmon Lowery (2015)
  • We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices by Wade Hudson (2008)
  • White Socks Only by Evelyn Coleman (1996)
  • Wishtree by K.A. Applegate (2017)

Books for Ages 12-18

  • Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée (2015)
  • Fire in the Streets by Kekla Magoon (2012)
  • Full Cicada Moon by Mary Hilton (2015)
  • Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker (2018)
  • March Graphic Novels by John Lewis (2015)
  • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (2017)
  • The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (2018)
  • The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon (2009)
  • We are Not Yet Equal by Carol Anderson, Tonya Bolden (2018)