147 Evaluating Jewish Children’s Literature: A Toolkit for Elementary Educators
Emma Nicosia and Keitha-Gail Martin-Kerr
A practical toolkit helps elementary teachers evaluate and incorporate Jewish children’s literature that reflects diverse identities, fosters inclusion, and supports culturally responsive instruction.
154 Teaching (Counter) Stories Through a Museum Visit
Chenyu Li
The outlined protocol can guide students in critically analyzing museum exhibits, challenging Eurocentric narratives, and exploring non-Western societies through immersive learning experiences.
161 The 2025 Carter G. Woodson, Septima P. Clark, and Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray Book Awards
This year’s Carter G. Woodson and Septima P. Clark Awards honor books that address anti-Asian racism, the legacy of federal Indian boarding schools, and the contributions of pioneering women. The newly established Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray Book Award highlights titles that celebrate Black women in America and queer trailblazers.
Pullout center of magazine (after page 161) The Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People
The NCSS Book Committee and the Children’s Book Council proudly unveil this year’s list of 100+ must-read titles that bring social studies to life for students and educators alike.
May/June 2025 Volume 89, Number 3
DEPARTMENTS
134 Point of View
Letter from a U.S. Government Teacher
Monte F. Bourjaily, IV
An American Government teacher reflects on the challenges of teaching about a shifting political system and the importance of civic engagement in defending democracy.
136 Teaching the C3 Framework Teaching with an Ethos of Trust: Anatomy of an Inquiry Design Model Blueprint for English Learners
Meghan Hawkins, Kathy Swan, and Bárbara Cruz
144 Book Review
Former U.S. Congresswoman Bella Abzug: “Never a Sugar-and-Spice Gal”
Andrea S. Libresco
This dynamic picture book biography introduces students to trailblazing activist Bella Abzug and offers teachers a launch point for exploring gender, voice, and the challenges of social change.
ABOUT THE COVER: Installation of "Otobong Nkanga: Cadence" at The Museum of Modern Art, New York City, Oct. 2024 (Photo by Martin Rajdl / Unsplash)
169
Celebrating Black Brilliance Using Milo Imagines the World
Lisa Brown Buchanan and Ellie Cotton
An interactive read-aloud focused on the thoughtful Black protagonist in Milo Imagines the World provides elementary teachers with a rich opportunity to challenge stereotypes and explore identity through critical thinking and artistic expression.
175
Zines in the Social Studies Classroom: A Pedagogy of Teaching for Social Justice
Kimi
Waite
By combining creative expression and community engagement, zine-making offers a dynamic, student-driven approach to fostering civic activism, developing critical thinking, and amplifying marginalized voices in the classroom.
181
Intertextuality: Pairing Picture books and Poetry to Teach Social Studies
William P. Bintz
Pairing picture books with poetry invites rich classroom dialogue, strengthens literacy skills, and deepens understanding of historical content through emotionally resonant, multi-genre texts.
DEPARTMENTS
186
Teaching with Documents Safe for Kids?: How Parents Contributed to the Regulation of Risky Toys, c. 1965–1975
Alexander Parry
Historical letters from parents about unsafe toys offer a powerful way to teach students how ordinary citizens have helped shape policy, while strengthening primary source analysis, historical empathy, and civic reasoning. 193
Now online in MLL
Exploring the Kingdom of Aksum
Middle Level Learning, published three times a year online, features lessons and activities for middle school teachers. Access the current issue and back issues at www.socialstudies.org/middle-level-learning.
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Exploring the Kingdom of Aksum
Photo IStock.com / Richard Kim
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SOCIAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT EDITORS
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Tiffany Willey Middleton Lessons on the Law
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I am pleased to present the May/June 2025 issue of Social Education which explores the social studies through story and art and contains a rich array of articles and features that highlight contemporary challenges and innovative pedagogies. The issue weaves together themes of civic engagement, social justice, inclusive teaching, and critical historical inquiry, providing educators with both reflective insights and practical strategies to deepen students’ understanding of society and history. Also included are reviews of the Carter G. Woodson, Septima P. Clark, and Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray NCSS award winners, as well as our annual Notable Social Studies Books for Young People booklet, which features engaging titles that would be a valuable addition to any classroom.
The issue begins with a thoughtful “Letter from a U.S. Government Teacher” by Monte F. Bourjaily, IV, who reflects on the evolving nature of American government amidst increasing political polarization and assertions of executive power. He emphasizes the fragility of democracy and the necessity of active civic engagement by citizens, including students, to defend democratic norms and accountability. This reflection underscores the urgency of teaching about government structures not as static entities, but as living systems that require informed and participatory citizenship.
Next the Teaching the C3 Framework column focuses on designing inquiry-based social studies lessons for English Learners (ELs). Meghan Hawkins, Kathy Swan, and Bárbara Cruz present an Inquiry Design Model blueprint that centers on scaffolding, visual sources, and a classroom culture fostering language development and confidence. They illustrate these principles through an inquiry titled “Were the 1950s the decade of the American Dream?” that challenges romanticized narratives about the 1950s. The inquiry employs accessible visual sources and gradually introduces more complex texts, supporting ELs in developing claims and revising them in light of evidence.
The issue also features an insightful examination of Jewish children’s literature and its role in elementary education. Authors Emma Nicosia and
Editor’s Notebook
Keitha-Gail Martin-Kerr present a practical toolkit for evaluating Jewish children’s books, encouraging educators to select literature that goes beyond Holocaust narratives to include the diverse joys, identities, and histories of Jewish people. The toolkit offers educators a framework for fostering inclusion and countering stereotypes in early education.
In the realm of museum education, Chenyu Li discusses the potential of museum visits to disrupt Eurocentric narratives prevalent in U.S. world history curricula. Li shows how museums, such as the Asia Society’s exhibition on Iranian art, can introduce students to non-Western (counter) stories and deepen their understanding of complex societies like Iran beyond reductive portrayals. The article provides a protocol for preparing students before a museum visit, guiding observation and critical analysis of artifacts and captions, and facilitating post-visit reflection that connects new knowledge to prior understanding.
A pedagogical innovation highlighted in this issue is the use of zines as a tool for teaching social justice. Kimi Waite shares a five-step zine project process adaptable for K-12 settings. Students select public issues of personal importance, research them through community journalism outlets that offer counter-narratives, explore existing zines for design and content inspiration, create manifestos and calls to action, and distribute their zines within their communities. This project integrates reading, writing, research, and civic action, fostering student agency and authentic engagement with social issues. Waite notes that students find confidence, purpose, and healing in this process, viewing education as a platform for truth-telling and activism.
The issue further includes a valuable historical teaching resource focusing on consumer activism and the regulation of risky toys. Alexander Parry presents a teaching activity using historical letters from parents to the Consumer Research Bureau, illustrating how ordinary citizens influenced policy changes leading to the Child Protection and Toy Safety Act of 1969. The activity engages students
in analyzing primary sources, understanding the policymaking process, and reflecting on their role as informed citizen-consumers. It offers a powerful example of civic participation and historical empathy, underscoring how grassroots concerns can drive legislative reform.
Several book reviews complement the issue’s themes. For instance, a biography of former Congresswoman Bella Abzug highlights her role as a trailblazing activist who brought protest into politics, fighting for gender equality, civil rights, and anti-war causes despite facing harsh backlash for her outspoken nature. The review encourages educators to deepen students’ understanding of the complexities of social change and the costs of activism. Also, Milo Imagines the World is explored as a vehicle to teach black brilliance in light of the Historically Responsive Literacy Framework which centers identity, skills, intellect, criticality, and joy. Additionally, the issue explores instructional
with historical figures and themes. This approach promotes intertextuality, encouraging students to make connections across texts, thereby enhancing comprehension and fostering nuanced perspectives on social justice topics.
Concluding the issue is our member spotlight profiling Robert Shaffer, Professor of History Emeritus at Shippensburg University, as he discusses the value NCSS membership has brought to his career and classroom teaching, and the vital role Social Education has played in his methods classes.
As always, the editors of Social Education welcome the comments of readers on any of the contributions to this issue at socialed@ncss.org
SAVE THE DATE S
Summer Virtual Conference
Participants will:
Wednesday, June 25 Thursday, June 26, 2025
The Power of Civil Discourse: Fostering Empathy and Understanding in the Classroom
The National Council for the Social Studies invites educators to the third annual Virtual Summer Conference. This year's conference will explore diverse perspectives within the classroom.
◆ LEARN and practice effective strategies for guiding students in active listening, empathetic communication, and respectful disagreement that allows for civil dialogue to thrive.
◆ EXPLORE how to incorporate diverse narratives and perspectives into classroom deliberations to challenge biases and promote understanding.
◆ EXAMINE the role of technology and digital tools in facilitating meaningful and inclusive student engagement.
◆ GAIN valuable insights from experienced educators and researchers on the importance of civil discourse in cultivating informed and engaged citizens.
◆ NETWORK with colleagues and share best practices for fostering a culture of respect and understanding in the classroom.
https://www.socialstudies.org/svc2025
Point of View
Letter from a U.S. Government Teacher
Monte F. Bourjaily, IV
As a teacher of American government and America’s history, I find myself in the strange position of asking myself if our structure of government is changing unrecognizably as I try to teach my students about our political system. Those leading our country appear to be asserting powers to challenge norms that have defined our Constitutional Republic since before its actual founding. Clearly many Americans believe our political system is not serving them. Too many distrust government. Some see it as broken. Are the tsunami of actions at the start of the Trump administration’s second term (over 100 executive orders in the first month) necessary or appropriate responses? What role do we as citizens play in evaluating and responding to the actions of our elected officials and what can each of us do? My students and I are examining these questions together.
The second Trump administration is asserting extraordinary executive power under something called the unitary executive theory. Hamilton, in Federalist 70, was the first to refer to the unitary executive and to ascribe to it the important qualities of energy that gave its executing power force, but his key reason for a single executive was accountability. As he said, “multiplication of the Executive adds to the difficulty of detection … to determine on whom the blame or the punishment of a pernicious measure … ought really to fall.” As consequences of executive action mount, what role should accountability play in a study of our political system?
What I see is a government that seeks to overturn the constitutionally prescribed norms of our Republic, because it is impatient to change what was intentionally constructed through separation of powers and checks and balances to slow the government process. President Trump’s flood of executive orders appear to usurp Congress’s
power to make law, including the “Power of the Purse,” and allow him to create a “department” (DOGE), appoint an unofficial “secretary” not subject to Senate confirmation (Elon Musk), direct that “department” to freeze government spending appropriated by law passed by Congress, and dismantle USAID and other agencies without notice to Congress.
Ironically, this sounds like the very tyrannical exercise of power that the distribution of power among competing power centers was designed to prevent. Interest was to compete against interest, with legislators as jealous of their power as the president is of his. Instead, the executive branch is asserting powers over appropriations and the very creation and destruction of government that are constitutionally defined and have been understood to be reserved to the legislative branch.
Rather than assert their power, some in Congress have expressed their hopes that the courts will resolve these questions. My students’ inquiries lead me to ask ‘how do I teach this?’ Do I wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to certify that this new interpretation conforms to the Constitution, or reject it as executive overreach, or give the executive branch the win by saying it cannot decide because it is a political question? What happens if the Court rules against the president and he rejects or ignores the decision?
The foundations of our Republic were revealed long before the American Revolution with ideas like the legislature’s power of the purse and that truth was a defense against seditious libel. Popular sovereignty, or self-rule, was the underlying big idea. As a republic, we have always elected and worked through our representatives. In Federalist 51, Madison observed that Congress, with its legislative power, was the most powerful of the three branches and therefore needed to be further
divided into two competing houses to avoid dominating the government. I ask my students to consider whether Madison is still correct.
Americans complain that both parties are failing to govern and to “vote the bums out” each election cycle because they don’t feel relief. Instead, we remain narrowly divided by party and deeply distrustful of politicians, parties, and institutions. What we call polarization might instead be seen as the realization of Madison’s warning, in Federalist 10, about the tyranny of faction that became George Washington’s Farewell Address admonition against party in government, namely, that “The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism…. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.” Today, party, money, and media attention combine to redirect elected officials away from governance and toward actions and acquiescence in an appeal to those constituencies that threaten their prospects for reelection.
Polarization, distrust, and cynicism have allowed a dangerous idea to enter our discourse, one that rejects the tension inherent in our political system, a respect for both freedom and equality protected under the rule of law that facilitates both majority rule and the protection of minority rights. The new, dangerous idea suggests that only power is important and that the ends justify the means, displacing the rule of law. On February 15, President Trump tweeted, “He who saves his country does not violate the law.” The day before, at the Munich Security Conference, Vice President J.D. Vance attacked not only our European allies and the NATO Alliance, but also America’s values by asserting that all speech is equal.
As my students study, neither the rule of law generally nor our First Amendment protect libel, slander, incitement to violence, and other dangerous and valueless speech. The marketplace of ideas is easily corrupted when it is flooded by the disinformation of those who knowingly spread falsehood in the hope of confusing the listener. Do we Americans no longer find strength in the virtue of American values distilled as the American Creed
(“liberty, equality, individualism, democracy and the rule of law under a constitution”) by Samuel Huntington in his book American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony (1981)?
Ronald Reagan referred hopefully to the United States as a “City on a Hill,” drawing on the positive interpretation of John Winthrop’s warning to the Puritans. The other side of that coin was Winthrop’s admonition that the world was watching the Puritans. They could either be a “Model of Christian Charity” or a warning to the world of the tragedy that failure would bring. This leads me to an earlier, darker premonition from Reagan when he became California’s governor:
Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than a generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.
Teaching about our political system, our place in it and what we can do has never been more important. This is not just a classroom activity. Congress needs our help. So do our state and local elected officials and the communities in which we live. Democracy, our democracy, is organic and requires each of us to think about what we want and try our best to do something. President Trump, through the speed and volume of his executive orders, demonstrates the power of action. If we want Congress to act, our senators and representatives need to hear from us. More importantly, they need to see us acting.
Monte F. Bourjaily, IV, is a lawyer who teaches AP U.S. Government and Law & Society at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology in Fairfax County, Virginia. The views expressed are his own.
Contributors to this publication express their own perspectives, reflecting divergent opinions.
Teaching the C3 Framework
Teaching with an Ethos of Trust: Anatomy of an Inquiry Design Model Blueprint for English Learners
Meghan Hawkins, Kathy Swan, and Bárbara Cruz
The number of English Learners (ELs) is growing in the United States, as is the number of schools with a significant percentage of ELs.1 This comes as no surprise to social studies teachers: we see ELs in our classrooms every day. Researchers also note that ELs are a diverse group. Home languages, English language proficiency, previous education experiences, and familiarity with American culture all vary.2 Again, this is not surprising to classroom teachers who can also tell you that ELs are no different than native English-speaking teenagers. They are forming their identities, want to be accepted by their peers, and might need a few reminders to stay on task in class. What is less obvious is what secondary school social studies teachers can do to help ELs succeed in the classroom, particularly when it comes to inquiry-based instruction.
Far too often, EL instruction is viewed through a deficit mindset.3 Teachers often feel at a loss, and with the best of intentions try to just “make things easier” for EL students by adjusting academic expectations downward. But this is clearly not the answer. Cruz and Thornton noted, “It’s probably not surprising that much of the ‘best practice’ ESOL research conducted in the social studies corresponds with good teaching practice in the social studies as a whole.”4
With this guidance in mind, we have been tinkering with the Inquiry Design Model (IDM) blueprint, creating a schema for EL instruction that prioritizes the overlap between inquiry and EL instruction as Cruz and Thornton recommend.5
In this article, we share a set of guiding principles for designing inquiry experiences for EL students combining EL and inquiry scholarship. We apply those principles to an IDM blueprint for EL classroom instruction around an inquiry’s
questions, tasks, and sources. Finally, we conclude this article with a note of encouragement and an invitation for our fellow EL teachers.
Guiding Principles of Inquiry Design for ELs
A culturally and linguistically inclusive classroom can be a place where inquiry thrives. However, building a classroom community where all students feel welcome and safe enough to take intellectual risks requires intentional effort on the part of the teacher. As Nel Noddings explains, creating a climate of care is not something teachers do “‘on top’ of other things, it is underneath all we do as teachers. When that climate is established and maintained, everything else goes better.” 6 Swan, Grant, and Lee suggest that this kind of instructional care is expressed through trust. They write,
By allowing students space to think (deliberate ideas), talk (collaborate around ideas), and do (produce ideas), teachers build a culture of classroom trust with their students that engenders key attitudes of empathy, interdependence, and agency that can accelerate inquiry-based learning in the classroom.7
Inquiry teachers learn to trust their students through the inquiry process knowing that they will be challenged along the way. This is part of setting up a classroom culture of “we are in this together” as we work through thorny ideas and complex processes. Similarly, EL researchers suggest that teachers consider both what is taught and how it is taught.8 Designing a curriculum for EL students then means establishing a culture of care and trust by establishing a classroom culture that takes into account what we are learning and how we are learning it. The guiding principles that follow embrace the ethos of care and trust as it pertains to the elements of inquiry and are grounded in the literature of EL learning, social studies inquiry, and the ethos of care/trust. We begin with the premise that the content and skill expectations remain rigorous, but we modify how the content is presented so that it can be made accessible and attainable for EL students.
• Carefully curated sources: Lessons center on visual
sources that present complicated content in a format accessible to students with a broad range of English language proficiencies.
• Accessible formative performance tasks: Lessons employ intentional scaffolding, including graphic organizers to guide learning. Remove complicated rules or procedures in favor of clear and concise instructions. Repeat formative performance tasks with new content so that EL students can feel success by replicating skills. Carefully increase the complexity of formative performance tasks across the unit. Visual cues can help students know what to do and how to do it.
• Opportunities for participation: Give students frequent and sustained opportunities to participate that account for different levels of English proficiency. Students have a chance to think, talk with peers, and receive feedback before sharing with the class. Students are asked to speak, literally, in every lesson. Their voice is also valued at a deeper level: student observations and insights drive the lessons.
• Home language supports: The lessons exist in a multilingual environment. Slides include multiple languages, translations of
texts and worksheets are provided as needed, and students are encouraged to speak and write in their home languages if it facilitates deeper thinking.
• It’s about the thinking: Lessons use content as a vehicle to teach inquiry skills. The goal of the lessons is for students to think critically. Lessons do not rely on advanced reading skills, advanced English proficiency, or teacherdirected instruction.
These strategies are intended to remove common barriers to participation and increase student engagement. An inquiry designed around these principles builds students’ capacity and confidence, establishes trust, and sets a foundation for future inquiry work that might require fewer scaffolds. In the next section, we demonstrate the use of these principles by adapting an IDM blueprint for an EL classroom.
Applying Principles of EL Instruction to an IDM Blueprint
What does an inquiry intentionally designed for ELs actually look like? (See Figure 1 on p. 139.) At first glance, the Blueprint should look familiar. Structurally, there are compelling and supporting questions, formative and summative performance tasks, and featured sources. Conceptually, this inquiry examines the compelling
question, “Were the 1950s the decade of the American Dream?”, asking students to consider the concept of the American dream and the extent to which the often romanticized decade of the 1950s embodied this dream, and for whom. In other words, this is a hefty inquiry that asks students to do meaningful conceptual work around the hope of America and the barriers that exist for many who have been included and excluded from it. The content and concepts of this inquiry were not modified for EL students.
Take a closer look and you will note the addition of a Language Focus tucked under each of the formative performance tasks. We added the Language Focus to highlight key vocabulary that students need to successfully complete the formative performance tasks and to be customized to the specific needs of ELs in the classroom. This is just one of the accommodations made for the inquiry. Other modifications have been embedded within the questions, tasks, and sources. In the following sections, we walk through those adaptations and explain how they employ the outlined guiding principles.
Adaptations Around Questions
Effective EL inquiry design requires considerations at each step in the design process, starting with the compelling question. The inquiry’s
compelling question—Were the 1950s the decade of the American Dream?—gives students the opportunity to question a common narrative about American history. The topic of the American Dream may resonate with ELs as their own families might have been drawn to the United States by a promise of political freedom or economic prosperity.
The Staging the Compelling Question exercise is an opportunity for students to engage with the core ideas of the inquiry and to craft meaningful questions. We chose a Question Formulation Technique activity because we wanted to demonstrate our trust in students’ ability to collaborate and generate questions in an environment free from the
Housing in a 1950s Chicago Black neighborhood
Russell Lee / Library of Congress
Street in Levittown, Penn., a planned community aimed at World War II veterans, however, it excluded Black veterans.
Carol M. Highsmith /Library of Congress
Were the 1950s the decade of the American Dream? Illinois Standards
• SS.9-12.IS.5. Gather and evaluate information from multiple primary and secondary sources that reflect the perspectives and experiences of multiple groups, including marginalized groups.
• SS.9-12.IS.6. Analyze evidence and identify counter perspectives to revise or strengthen claims.
• SS.9-12.H.6. Analyze the concept and pursuit of the “American Dream” and identify the factors that could promote or present barriers to the pursuit of the “American Dream” for multiple groups or people.
Staging the Compelling Question
To stage the inquiry, students will participate in a building-block inquiry that utilizes the Question Formulation Technique.
What was the American Dream in the 1950s?
Define the American Dream. Make an initial claim that answers the compelling question.
What factors made the American Dream possible in the 1950s?
Analyze pop culture primary sources from the 1950s. Make an initial claim that answers the compelling question.
Did suburbanization promote the American Dream?
Find evidence to corroborate, and if needed, revise a claim.
What barriers prevented African Americans from accessing the American Dream?
Analyze photographs and then make a claim that answers the compelling question.
Contextual vocabulary development The “consumerism” word family The “suburbanization” word family and other words to describe migration patterns
Source A: Life in the 1950s Image Bank
Source A: Battleship advertisement from the 1950s
Source B: Leave it to Beaver video clip
Summative Performance Task
Source A: Levittown Image Bank
Source B: “At 50, Levittown Contends With Its Legacy of Bias” New York Times article
Adjectives used to compare and contrast the experiences of different groups
Source A: Gallery Walk Image Bank
ARGUMENT Analyze the photographs of 1950s popular culture and write three open-ended and level 3 questions that explore the compelling question.
EXTENSION If students are linguistically ready, construct an argument (e.g., detailed outline, poster, essay) that answers the compelling question using specific and relevant evidence from the sources while acknowledging competing views.
pressure students might feel to find the right answer.9 The staging sets the tone for the unit by trusting student voices and setting a precedent for high levels of student participation.
Supporting questions build coherence across the unit. Here, the first supporting question establishes a working definition of the American Dream in the 1950s. In Supporting Question 2, students learn about the factors that made the American Dream possible.
Supporting Question 3 asks students “Did suburbanization promote the American Dream?” and introduces students to evidence that challenges the traditional narrative of the American Dream. Supporting Question 4 pushes students to consider what they have learned from an alternative perspective as they explore “What barriers prevented African Americans from accessing the American Dream?” The question logic in the inquiry is purposeful: each supporting question prepares students for the next. Students repeatedly return to the compelling question, revising their claims as they are presented with new evidence.
Adaptations Around Sources
In designing for ELs, accessible sources open the door to complex thinking. The opposite is also true—if students cannot understand the sources, they never get to practice skills or think critically. To provide linguistically accessible sources, at each step in the design process, we asked the question: “Is there a visual source that can achieve the same goal?”
In most cases, the answer was yes. Accessible sources allowed for student-centered lessons with opportunities to practice inquiry skills.
Each lesson centers on visual sources that present complicated content in a format accessible to students with a broad range of English language proficiencies. When analyzing multi-faceted topics like the American Dream, it can be challenging to find one image that does it all. This inquiry takes a different approach: in several lessons, students analyze a curated set of images in a single class period. For example, a suburban family at home;10 a drive-in movie theater;11 a 1950s subdivision;12 and an image from a 1958 Wheaties cereal sweepstakes advertisement.13
The source logic has students first build a mental image of the stereotypical version of the American Dream in the 1950s: a middle-class, white, nuclear family, happily living in the suburbs. As the unit continues, students attempt to corroborate this version of the American Dream (sometimes the evidence does, sometimes it does not!) Several images used in the staging are featured again in context in the supporting questions. Hopefully, students think “Hey! I have seen that before!”—a feeling that is often confidence-building. The early lessons build a common class repertoire of knowledge that evolves throughout the inquiry. The first longer text-based source is introduced in Supporting Question 3, after students have gained confidence by developing a foundational understanding of the American Dream through visual sources. An article from the New York Times is excerpted and modified specifically to be read aloud— the paragraphs are numbered, short, and of similar length. This scaffolding allows the teacher to easily assign paragraphs, provide students with a few moments to preview their
From left to right: suburban family at home; drive-in theater; 1950s subdivision; and 1958 Wheaties cereal sweepstakes ad.
the teacher simply telling the class this fact, students uncover this contradiction through the experiences of African Americans interviewed in the second featured source. Provided with evidence for a counterclaim, students write a new claim that reflects the new evidence.
Students are gradually released within each supporting question and across the supporting questions. Supporting Question 4 gives students a chance to analyze primary sources and independently develop a sophisticated claim that takes into account everything they have learned. Students analyze a series of photographs that compare the white and African American experiences during the 1950s through a gallery walk. Inquiries provide ELs the chance to talk to other students and engage in sustained conversations about social studies topics.17 The gallery walk format offers opportunities for extended language production as students discuss the images with their peers. Having gained experience analyzing images, students are able to support each other. A graphic organizer prompts students to compare and contrast the images and hypothesize the long-term impacts of 1950s racial inequality.
Finally, this summative performance task was adapted not just for ELs, but for the EL students in a specific class. This inquiry was taught at the beginning of the semester with
a group of students who were inquiry novices. As many lacked confidence in their English proficiency and their ability to succeed in U.S. History class, we were committed to building trust through the summative performance task. Rather than constructing a formal argument, in the summative performance task, students craft questions related to the compelling question in response to four new visual prompts. Students were provided linguistic support in English and their home language to better assess their content knowledge and skill development.
Conclusion
At the conclusion of this inquiry, students collaborated while analyzing and interpreting primary and secondary sources. They deliberated ideas related to the American Dream in the 1950s, including suburbanization, consumerism, the GI Bill, and segregation. Students produced their own questions and claims while considering multiple perspectives. In the course of the inquiry, students received relevant language instruction through the “Language Focus,” and used this content-related vocabulary throughout the inquiry. The students who did all of this? They were ELs.
As Jerome Bruner once wrote, “Any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development.”18 These words are a mantra for those of us committed to inquiry and EL
instruction. In our classrooms, we daily bridge the gap between theory and practice. Expanding access to inquiry is no easy task, but the first step is trusting the inquiry process and then trusting that ELs can do it.
Note: Thank you to Ricky King, Megan Somers, and Hunter Watts, teachers at Normal High School who are equally committed to inquiry and to our emergent bilingual and multilingual students. The previously described inquiry is a testimony to the power of collaboration and the role teaching communities play in reinforcing good practice and encouraging ambitious teaching.
Notes
1. “English Learners in Public Schools: Condition of Education,” National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, last modified May 2024, https://nces. ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cgf/ english-learners-in-public-schools.
2. Ashley Taylor Jaffee and Cinthia Salinas, eds., Teaching Culturally and Linguistically Relevant Social Studies for Emergent Bilingual and Multilingual Youth (New York, NY: Teachers College Press, 2024).
3. Aída Walqui and George C. Bunch, “Reenvisioning Literacy Development for English Learners: Amplifying the Curriculum, Amplifying Leadership,” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 63, no 5. (2020): 577–582.
4. Bárbara C. Cruz and Stephen J. Thornton, Teaching Social Studies to English Language Learners, 3rd ed. (New York, NY, Routledge, 2025), 51.
5. Kathy Swan, John Lee, and S.G. Grant, Inquiry Design Model: Building Inquiries in Social Studies (Silver Spring, Md.: NCSS, 2018) and Kathy Swan, John Lee, and
S.G. Grant, Blueprinting an InquiryBased Social Studies Curriculum (Silver Spring, Md.: NCSS, 2019).
6. Nel Noddings, “The Caring Relation in Teaching,” Oxford Review of Education 38, no. 6 (2012), 777.
7. Kathy Swan, John Lee, and S.G. Grant, “Trusting Inquiry: Teaching with the Inquiry Design Model,” Social Education 87, no. 5 (2023): 328–331.
8. Paul J. Yoder and Ashley Taylor Jaffee, “Teaching Social Studies to English Language Learners: Current Research, Theories, and Pedagogical Practices,” in The Handbook of TESOL in K-12, ed. Luciana C. de Oliveira (Wiley-Blackwell, 2019), 307–321.
9. “What is the QFT?” Right Question Institute, 2025. https:// rightquestion.org/what-is-the-qft
10. Image from Erin Blakemore, “The Invention of the Family Room,” JStore Daily (Sept. 17, 2015), https:// daily.jstor.org/invention-familyroom.
11. Image from Ben Cosgrove, “Let’s Go to the Drive-in Movies!” Life Magazine, n.d., www.life.com/ lifestyle/drive-in-theaters-photosof-a-vanishing-american-pastime.
12. Image from Govind Bhutada, “Visualizing the World’s Growing Millionaire Population (2012-2022),” Visual Capitalist (Aug. 30, 2023).
13. “1958 Wheaties Ad ‘Sweepstakes’,” Vintage Adventures, www. vintage-adventures.com/vintagefood-beverage-ads/2192-1958wheaties-ad-sweepstakes.html.
14. Y.R. Dong, “Tapping into English Language Learners’ (ELLs) Prior Knowledge in Social Studies Instruction,” The Social Studies 108, no. 4 (2017): 143-151.
15. Aída Walqui, “Scaffolding Instruction for English Language Learners: A Conceptual Framework,” International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 9 (2008): 159–180.
16. Bruce Lambert, “At 50, Levittown Contends With Its Legacy of Bias,” The New York Times (Dec. 28, 1997).
17. Nielsen Pereira and Luciana C. de Oliveira, “Meeting the Linguistic
Teaching With a Global Perspective: Approaches and Strategies for Secondary Social Studies Teachers
As our world becomes increasingly connected, global issues become entangled with students’ daily lives. To prepare students as globally aware future leaders, social studies curricula must reflect the reality of these current global challenges. Drawing from theories and frameworks in global social studies education, Jing A. Williams, Bárbara C. Cruz, and Anatoli Rapoport provide practical, crosscurricular methods for secondary social studies teachers to incorporate global education into their daily teaching.
Needs of High-Potential English Language Learners: What Teachers Need to Know,” Teaching Exceptional Children 47, no. 4 (2015), 208-215.
18. Jerome S. Bruner, The Process of Education (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1960).
Meghan Hawkins is a high school social studies teacher and department chair at Normal High School in Illinois. She is also a doctoral student in social studies education at the University of Kentucky.
Kathy Swan is a professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Kentucky and a co-director of C3 Teachers.
Bárbara Cruz is a professor of social sciences at the University of South Florida specializing in teaching English Language Learners in the social studies classroom.
A. Williams, Bárbara C. Cruz, and Anatoli Rapoport
Book Review
Former U.S. Congresswoman Bella Abzug: “Never a Sugar-and-Spice Gal”
Abzuglutely! Battling, Bellowing Bella Abzug, by Sarah Aronson, illustrated by Andrea D’Aquino. Calkins Creek, 2024.
Andrea S. Libresco
Almost 40 years ago, when I was getting certified to be a school administrator, I had a professor who shared her philosophy about being a woman in what was then an overwhelmingly male profession. She told us not to worry about going over the line because, just by being women, we were already over the line. I took that advice to heart and, consequently, didn’t worry too much about speaking up at meetings, advocating for educational causes I believed in, or whether I looked feminine enough while doing so. Elementary students who read Abzuglutely! Battling, Bellowing Bella Abzug will meet a woman who never appeared to worry about crossing the line of socially accepted behavior for women.1 In the 2025 NCSS-CBC Notable Book, author Sarah Aronson and illustrator Andrea D’Aquino tell the story of an outspoken activist for peace, justice, and equality, who challenged convention from positions in and out of power, alienating some, carrying along others, and proving to be a role model for those who followed.
“Live and Let Live Meat Market”—a name that reflected their desire for peace but one that “did not boost business.” From their example, Abzug learned not to be afraid to speak out. And speak out she did, from age 11 on, starting with soliciting donations in the subway for a Jewish homeland. Abzug’s commitment to her religion didn’t stop her from defying its sexism. She resented that women and girls had to stand at the back of the synagogue and, at 13, after her father died, she joined the men at the front to chant the Kaddish daily for a year. Speculating on why no one challenged the defiance of religious rules, author Aronson writes: “Maybe, like Bella, they didn’t think those rules were fair. Maybe they felt sorry for her. Or maybe they could already see that there was no point trying to stop her.”
This biography of Bella Abzug—lawyer, activist, and congresswoman—traces her life from childhood to death, highlighting how her parents and religion shaped her early commitment to protesting injustice. Abzug’s parents were “no strangers to protest”; they named their butcher shop the
The book follows Abzug to Hunter College where she worked inside and outside of the system: as student body president, she led an all-woman model Congress and attended lobbying trips to Washington, D.C.; she also organized rallies for free education and against the war overseas. Although Aronson doesn’t use this wording (though I wish she had), she shows that for Abzug, the personal was political. In her marriage to Martin Abzug, he helped raise their children and did all her typing, since she “never bothered
to learn.” Because my own mother earned her J.D. from Columbia Law School, like Abzug, I couldn’t help but wonder if Abzug’s decision not to learn to type was motivated, as my mother’s was, by a desire not to be tasked with doing men’s typing at whatever law firm hired her.
Aronson highlights the wide range of issues Abzug challenged from outside the system— McCarthyism in the 1950s; the Vietnam War, nuclear weapons, racial justice, equal pay, childcare, and the environment in the 1960s—all of which led her to work within the system in the 1970s, running for and winning a seat in Congress. In her six years there, Abzug “brought the idea of protest to politics,” as shown by both the text and the illustrations, which depict people from diverse backgrounds holding signs listing her causes: women’s equality, civil rights, disability rights, equal pay, gay rights, and opposition to the Vietnam War.
While the book notes that Abzug and her “big, brazen voice” were called “polarizing” and “shrill,” and that she lost her runs for Senate and mayor, the negatives are largely downplayed. She’s portrayed as continuing the fight and ultimately writing “a whole new playbook.” The purpose of that playbook? “So your voices could be heard. And you could keep battling. With a hat. Or without.” This pithy language conveys that the fight for rights is ongoing—and that it requires both fortitude and loud voices.
The Author’s Note and the “Bella’s World” timeline emphasize the lasting impact of Abzug’s work as a woman in the House of Representatives, positioning her as a foremother to Geraldine Ferraro’s vice-presidential nomination, Nancy Pelosi’s speakership, Hillary Clinton’s presidential run as the Democratic nominee, and Kamala Harris’s vice presidency.
From the very first page, the untyped fonts in the biography emphasize Bella Abzug’s strength and her refusal to tone down her message to fit society’s expectations of how women should behave. Taken together, these untyped phrases and sentences almost form a poem within the story of her life:
“I wanted to be a lawyer ever since I was a little kid. I had no role models.
But I always thought if I could become a lawyer I COULD SET THINGS STRAIGHT!”
Bella Savitsky Abzug was never a sugar-and-spice gal.
SPEAK YOUR TRUTH!
This girl was born bellowing. The world better watch out!
ALL ISSUES are WOMEN’S ISSUES!
CHUTZPAH
This woman’s place is In the House… the HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES!
And she WON!
Give ‘em hella, Bella!
THOSE DAYS [of toning down her message] were OVER!
“Women will run the 21st century … and young people are going to be its leaders.”
ABZUGLUTELY!
This overall cheerleading for the outspoken Abzug left me wishing that students who read the book were given a more detailed and nuanced understanding of the era—and of Abzug’s role in it. Of course, in a picture book, it is difficult to give an expansive look at an activist who addressed multiple issues; yet, not to do so feels like some points are shortchanged. Happily, the sources in the bibliography can be the basis for activities, such as the following, in which students conduct research on some aspect of Abzug’s activism and share it with future readers of the book:
Activity: Examine the sources in the References page to find out more about the events in the book. Pick one event and add a Post-it Note to the book with the extended information that you wish had been included.
For example, the picture book lists several of Congresswoman Abzug’s accomplishments on one page, including that “she was a prominent voice against the Vietnam War.” When students examine her biographical reference in the History, Art, and Archives of the United States House of Representatives, they will find that Abzug did not merely add her voice to the chorus against the
war. Rather, “Despite her freshman status, Abzug made waves in Congress by supporting a variety of controversial causes. On the first day of the session, she introduced legislation demanding the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam.” The same source continues, “she authored a bill to end the draft, an institution she likened to ‘slavery’ motivated by ‘insane priorities.’”2
Abzug’s New York Times obituary (not included in the picture book’s references) contributes information that provides a fuller picture of her strong feelings and actions regarding the commander in chief at the time of the Vietnam War: “Invited to a reception at Richard Nixon’s White House, she accepted (while writing in her journal, ‘Who wants to listen to his pious idiocies?’), then announced to Nixon in the receiving line that her constituents demanded a withdrawal from Vietnam.”3
Knowing the fuller story of Abzug’s actions can prompt upper-level questions:
• Are there acceptable and unacceptable ways of raising issues about which you feel strongly?
• Does it matter what you look like while raising issues?
• What are arguments for and against introducing controversial legislation as your first act in Congress?
• What are arguments for and against raising the issue of the Vietnam War in a receiving line?
• Do you think Abzug’s “battling” was more helpful or harmful to the causes she cared about?
• Is there a greater range of what is deemed acceptable behavior for women today vs. when Bella Abzug was one of 12 women in Congress?
• What price did Abzug pay for being one of the few women in Congress? Did she pay a price for not toning down her personality?
• How many women are in the House of Representatives today? How many are in the Senate? How many women presidents have we had? How does this information contribute to your assessment of progress on equality and justice in the United States?
Returning to the words of my former professor about already being over the line as a woman, I am struck by how little emphasis this book gives to the cost of living one’s life over the line, of constantly engaging in activism and challenging authority. While the picture book tells us “the backlash was brutal. Her colleagues called her polarizing. Shrill. They implied that working with her cost them too many votes,” that one negative section downplays the effect on Abzug, concluding, “If it bothered her, it didn’t stop her.” The New York Times obituary, again, provides deeper information:
Ms. Abzug acknowledged loneliness in her years in Congress. ‘’Outside of Martin and the kids, I don’t feel very related to most people at this point,’’ she wrote in 1971. ‘’I feel detached in social situations. I’m always thinking about other things, about Congress, about the issues, about the political coalition I’m trying to organize. It never leaves me.’’4
It would seem that, despite the contributions Bella Abzug made to multiple causes, never being “a sugar-and-spice gal” had its price.
Notes
1. Sarah Aronson and Andrea D’Aquino, Abzuglutely!: Battling, bellowing Bella Abzug (New York: Calkins Creek, an imprint of Astra Books for Young Readers, 2024).
2. Office of the Historian, “Abzug, Bella Savizky.” History, Art & Archives, United States House of Representatives, https:// history.house.gov/People/Detail/8276
3. Laura Manserus, “Bella Abzug, 77, Congresswoman and a Founding Feminist, Is Dead,” New York Times (April 1, 1998).
4. Manserus, “Bella Abzug.”
Andrea S. Libresco is professor of social studies education and civic engagement at Hofstra University.
Evaluating Jewish Children’s Literature: A Toolkit for Elementary Educators
Emma Nicosia and Keitha-Gail Martin-Kerr
Children’s literature plays a vital role in helping students see their own experiences reflected in the classroom while also offering opportunities to learn about the stories of people from different backgrounds.
Jewish children’s literature makes up a very small percentage of the books found in elementary classroom libraries. This absence sends an implicit message that some groups are more valued than others.1 While the Israel/Hamas war has garnered significant attention, often casting unwanted light on the Jewish community outside of Israel, it remains crucial for elementary students—both Jewish and non-Jewish—to be exposed to culturally authentic Jewish children’s literature and to gain an understanding of Jewish lived experiences.2
When elementary students are exposed to Jewish children’s literature, it is often limited to stories about Hanukkah or the Holocaust.3 While learning about the Holocaust is essential, representing the Jewish experience solely through this lens flattens the diverse stories and lived experiences of Jewish people.4 Educators must not only teach about the Holocaust, but also choose literature that showcases the joys and everyday lives of Jewish children
Although Jews make up only 2.2% of the U.S. population, they are the most targeted group for religious hate crimes. 5 Since Hamas’s
October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the war that followed, antisemitism has surged globally. American Jews have reported feeling less safe, with incidents increasing by over 20% from the previous year. 6 Now more than ever, it is vital for elementary classrooms to highlight Jewish children’s literature, exposing young people to the rich possibilities of Jewish joy, culture, and history. This article outlines a toolkit for evaluating Jewish children’s literature and how elementary educators can use it.
Who Are We?
As educators, we come together with multiple identities and a desire to improve our praxis and share our practices with practitioners. Coming from different racial, religious, socio-economic, and sexual orientation backgrounds, we write this article as a testament to how people from other cultures can work as allies and co-conspirators to advance the education afforded to young learners.7 Author Emma Nicosia is Jewish and author Keitha-Gail Martin-Kerr is Christian. We saw the need to engage in this work because the Jewish experience was missing from the elementary curricula we experienced as students and educators.
What Does it Mean to Be Jewish?
First, it’s important to note that there is no singular Jewish experience. For nearly all Jews, however,
being Jewish is both an ethnic and religious identity. While Judaism refers to the spiritual practices of Jews, being Jewish doesn’t require belief in God or adherence to religious doctrine. Some Jews believe in God and worship daily, while others don’t believe in God and never practice Judaism. Secular Jews may still celebrate many of the same holidays as religious Jews, but they emphasize family traditions and cultural foods over religious rites. Jewish people live around the world and can belong to any racial or national identity. Our hope is that elementary educators will use our toolkit to expose students to a broad spectrum of global Jewish experiences, so that students can learn there is no one way to be Jewish.
Jewish Children’s Literature and Social Studies
Picture books and other children’s literature serve as effective tools to integrate social studies and English language arts through the C3 Framework and Common Core Standards.8 Children’s literature is especially powerful for social studies education in elementary classrooms because stories help young learners understand themselves and people who are different from them.9 Using Jewish children’s literature in elementary classrooms allows Jewish children to see their own experiences reflected and non-Jewish children to explore a culture they may know little about. Jewish children’s literature includes any book that authentically represents Jewish culture, history, religion, language, and the daily lives of Jewish people worldwide, through themes, characters, settings, plots, or content.10 Incorporating Jewish children’s literature into an integrated social studies and English language arts class can be a powerful way to engage students in social studies topics, both abstract and concrete, through storytelling.
Our Process
To help elementary educators access and use high-quality Jewish children’s literature, we’ve created a toolkit for evaluating texts and provide accompanying exemplar texts with corresponding standards. Heidi Rabinowitz pioneered an evaluation tool to assist librarians in selecting Jewish children’s literature.11 Our toolkit, tailored
for elementary teachers, builds on her model. We also drew inspiration from the National Museum of the American Indian’s toolkit for evaluating American Indian children’s literature; the Hijabi Librarian’s report on assessing Muslim children’s literature; and Social Justice Books’ guide for selecting anti-bias children’s books.12
Many resources we looked at for evaluating diverse children’s literature were lengthy and dense and would require a long time to parse. Teachers have limited time to assess the books in their collections and need a quick, simple tool.13 Our toolkit comprises two one-page checklists with yes/no questions, allowing teachers to quickly assess Jewish children’s literature for classroom use. While this tool aids teachers in incorporating Jewish stories into their curricula, coaching and professional development are also essential to deepen teachers’ understanding of Jewish culture and address potential challenges in discussing Jewishness. In our work with preservice elementary teachers, we taught about Jewish identity and literature, and they found our tool helpful for assessing the appropriateness of books.
Evaluating Individual Titles
Our individual title evaluation tool helps elementary educators determine whether a Jewish children’s book is a good fit for their classroom (Table 1 on p. 150). When designing the individual title evaluation tool, we considered the following:
• Are Jews represented authentically and accurately in this book?
• Are Jewish intellectual, cultural, and spiritual traditions written about from a Jewish perspective?
• Do the Jewish characters in the book have agency?
• Do the books avoid antisemitic stereotypes?
Educators should select books that depict contemporary Jewish life, reflecting diverse Jewish identities. While many Jewish children’s books continued on page 150
Table 1. Evaluating Individual Titles in Jewish Children’s Literature
Authority
Is this book written by a Jewish author?
If the book has illustrations, were they done by a Jewish illustrator?
If the book is not written by a Jewish author, does the author have the appropriate credentials or background to have written a book about Jewish people?
Is the author’s work recommended by scholars and organizations with expertise in Jewish literature?
Yes No
Representations of Jewishness Yes No
Does the work reflect an understanding of Jewish intellectual traditions? Are topics viewed from a Christian gaze of spirituality, cultural, or faith practices?
Are Jews of different cultural and racial backgrounds depicted (Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrahi, Jews of color)?
Accurate Representation
Is the text historically accurate? (Are specific dates and timeframes provided for historical events?)
Do the illustrations represent Jewish history and culture accurately?
Does the book include references to various sources, such as primary or secondary source documents or conversations with specific Jewish leaders and intellectuals?
Yes No
Jewish Agency Yes No
Are the characters and communities agentic, as opposed to being portrayed solely as victims?
If this story is about the Holocaust, does it center Jewish people and points of view and include stories of Jewish resistance and agency?
Are Jewish characters multi-dimensional?
The title is an authentic and appropriate choice if you answered mostly yeses to the above questions.
Avoiding Antisemitism: Avoid books that perpetuate any of the following stereotypes about antisemitism: Yes No
Jews are dangerously powerful and control the media, the weather, the government, and other ethnic groups.
Jews are loyal only to other Jews, and diaspora Jews are loyal to Israel over their home countries.
Jews are greedy, rich, and always in pursuit of more wealth.
Jews killed Jesus.
Jews sacrifice Christian children to use their blood in religious rituals (this lie is known as blood libel).
The Holocaust didn’t happen, or happened but was not a big deal.
If a title you are evaluating includes any of the above antisemitic myths, it is not appropriate to use.
When creating the collection tool, we considered the following:
• Does the collection of books show multiple ways of being Jewish?
• Does the collection of books showcase a diversity of Jewish holidays?
• Is the Holocaust appropriately represented in the collection without being the sole focal point?
• Does the collection have a fair and balanced representation of Israel and Israeli Jews?
We encourage elementary educators to build a diverse collection of Jewish children’s books for their classrooms. Jewish stories should be shared year-round, not just during Hanukkah or on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This can be achieved by including books that portray Black and Brown Jews, LGBTQ+ Jews, Jews from outside the U.S. and Europe (such as Israeli and Asian Jews), and Jews celebrating holidays like Passover and Rosh Hashanah. A well-rounded collection should highlight the diversity of Jewish experiences globally, allowing Jewish students to see their lives reflected and non-Jewish students to encounter different perspectives.
Practical Examples
To incorporate Jewish children’s literature effectively, teachers can use specific titles to explore themes like immigration, cultural diversity, and family dynamics. Here are a few examples of how these books can deepen students’ understanding of Jewish culture and experiences. One example is Shoham’s Bangle, which K-5 educators can use to teach about immigration and the movement of people.14 The story follows Shoham, an Iraqi-Jewish girl in the 1950s, whose family flees Iraq for Israel amid rising antisemitism. Shoham and her Nana must leave their gold
bangles behind, but Nana secretly hides Shoham’s bangle in a pita to smuggle it out.
Using the C3 standard D2.Geo.7.K-2 or D2.Geo.7.3-5 to explore cultural movement, educators can introduce Mizrahi (Middle Eastern Jewish) culture and expand students’ understanding of Jewish immigration.15
The Purim Superhero also highlights diversity within the Jewish community, featuring Nate, the main character, who has two dads.16 The story centers on Purim, a lesser-known Jewish holiday. While the other boys at Nate’s synagogue dress up as superheroes for the festive holiday, Nate dresses up as an alien. Nate’s two fathers, Abba and Daddy, help Nate make a unique costume that eventually inspires the other children to embrace their individuality. Teachers can use this book to teach about Purim, a holiday celebrating Queen Esther’s bravery in saving the Jewish people from Haman, and explore lessons about peer pressure, making choices, and LGBTQ+ families.
Table 3 (on page 152) lists five exemplar texts for elementary educators. Teachers looking to expand their Jewish children’s literature collections can consult resources like the PJ Library, the Association of Jewish Libraries, and the Sydney Taylor Book Award.17 We also encourage teachers to seek professional development on Jewishness through organizations like Facing History & Ourselves and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.18
Closing Thoughts
Jewish children’s literature offers Jewish students the opportunity to see themselves in the curriculum and helps non-Jewish students learn about Jewish experiences. Elementary educators should select books that authentically reflect diverse Jewish experiences, exposing children to a wide range of Jewish joy, agency, and cultural practices.
Notes
1. Nancy Larrick, “The All-White World of Children’s Books,” Saturday Review 48 (Sept. 11, 1965): 63–65, 84–85.
2. Rudine Sims Bishop, “Reframing the Debate about Cultural
Table 3. Jewish Children’s Literature Exemplar Texts
Title Theme/ Primary Representation of Jewishness
The Best Four Questions, by Rachelle Burk Passover (nonHanukkah holiday); Contemporary Jewish life
Chicken Soup, Chicken Soup, by Pamela Mayer Asian Jews; Interfaith and multicultural families; Contemporary Jewish life
and
Non-Holocaust Jewish history
Grade Levels Accompanying Questions or Lesson Extension Ideas
K-2
What is the Jewish holiday of Passover about?
How do Jewish children celebrate Passover?
Why is it important to ask questions?
K-2
What are family traditions?
Compare and contrast Sophie’s grandmas’ traditions.
How does Sophie fit into both of her cultures — Chinese and Jewish?
3-5 Who was Clara Lemlich?
What is a strike?
How did Clara’s group fight for what they believed in?
ELA Standards Social Studies Standards
CCSS. ELA. RI. 1.1
Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
D1.1.K-2 Explain why the compelling question is important to the student.
CCSS. ELA. RI.2.9
Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic.
CCSS.ELA. RI. 2.1.
Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
D2.Civ.10.K-2
Compare their own point of view with others’ perspectives.
D2.His.3.K-2. Generate questions about individuals and groups who have shaped a significant historical change.
The Language of Angels: A Story about the Reinvention of Hebrew, by
As Good as Anybody: Martin Luther King, Jr., and Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Amazing March Toward Freedom, by Richard Michelson
Non-Holocaust Jewish history
3-5 How did Ben Zion help teach people Hebrew?
Compare and contrast Hebrew and English.
How could people’s lives change if an old language was brought back to life?
CCSS. ELA. RI. 4.6
Compare and contrast a firsthand and secondhand account of the same event or topic; describe the differences in focus and the information provided.
D2.His.2.3-5. Compare life in specific historical time periods to life today.
3-5 How were Martin Luther King, Jr., and Abraham Joshua Heschel similar and different?
How did Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Jewish values lead him to join the civil rights movement?
How can friends work together to advocate for what they believe in?
CCSS. ELA. RI. 3.3
Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/ effect.
D2.Civ.14.3-5. Illustrate historical and contemporary means of changing society.
Brave Girl: Clara
the Shirtwaist Maker’s Strike of 1909, by Michelle Markel
Authenticity,” in Stories Matter: The Complexity of Cultural Authenticity in Children’s Literature, eds. Dana Fox and Kathy Short, 25–37 (National Council of Teachers in English, 2003).
3. Jodi Eichler-Levine, “The Curious Conflation of Hanukkah and the Holocaust in Jewish Children’s Literature,” Shofarv 28, no. 2 (2010): 92-115; Amy Allen, “More than Hanukkah and the Holocaust: Teaching about Judaism in Elementary School,” Social Studies and the Young Learner 36, no. 2 (NovDec 2023).
4. David Bloome, Evelyn B. Freeman, Rosemary Horowitz, and Laurie Katz, Enduring Questions: Using Jewish Children’s Literature in Classrooms (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2023), 3.
5. Federal Bureau of Investigation, “2019 Hate Crime Statistics: Incidents and Offenses” (2021), https://ucr.fbi.gov/hatecrime/2019/topic-pages/incidents-and-offenses.
6. Anti-Defamation League, “Americans Increasingly Aware of and Concerned About Antisemitism,” ADL (Nov. 3, 2023), www.adl.org/resources/report/americans-increasinglyaware-and-concerned-about-antisemitism.
7. Bettina Love, We Want to Do More than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom (Boston: Beacon Press, 2019).
8. Rachel K. Turner, Amanda Deliman, and Marla Robertson, “Curriculum Integration Using Picturebooks: Combining Language Arts and Social Studies Standards to Address Controversial Issues,” Social Studies and the Young Learner 36, no. 1 (2023).
9. Jeannette Balantic, Andrea S. Libresco, and Jonie C Kipling, Every Book Is a Social Studies Book: How to Meet Standards with Picture Books, K-6, 1st ed. (New York: Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2011)
10. Bloome et al., Enduring Questions, 9.
11. Heidi Rabinowitz, “Evaluating Jewish Representation in Children’s Literature: A Guide for Libraries,” The Association of Jewish Libraries (2022), https:// jewishlibraries.org/evaluating-jewish-representation-inchildrens-literature.
12. Native Knowledge 360°, “Worksheet for Selecting Native American Children’s Literature,” National Museum of the American Indian (Feb. 23, 2024), https://americanindian. si.edu/nk360/informational/native-american-literature-inyour-classroom; Hijabi Librarians, “Evaluating Muslims in KidLit: A Guide for Librarians, Educators, and Reviewers,” (Oct. 3, 2020), which can be accessed via: https://social justicebooks.org/booklists/muslims; Louise DermanSparks. “Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children’s Books,” Social Justice Books (2013). https://socialjusticebooks.org/ guide-for-selecting-anti-bias-childrens-books
13. Marisa Saunders, Jorge Ruiz-de-Velasco, and Jeannie Oakes, eds., Learning Time: In Pursuit of Educational Equity (Cambridge: Harvard Education Press, 2017).
14. Sarah Sassoon, Shoham’s Bangle (Minneapolis, MN: Kar-Ben Publishing, 2022).
15. The National Council for Social Studies, “College, Career and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies Standards,” 2013.
16. Elizabeth Kushner, The Purim Superhero (Minneapolis, MN: Kar-Ben Publishing, 2013).
17. PJ Library, https://pjlibrary.org/home; Association of Jewish Libraries, https://jewishlibraries.org; The Sydney Taylor Book Award, https://jewishlibraries.org/ sydney_taylor_book_award.
18. Facing History & Ourselves, “Antisemitism Resource Collection,” www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/ antisemitism-resource-collection; The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, “Professional Learning Opportunities,” www.ushmm.org/teach/opportunities-for-educators
References
David Huyck, Sarah Park Dahlen, Molly Beth Griffin, “Diversity in Children’s Books 2015 infographic,” Sarah Park blog (Sept. 16, 2016). https://readingspark.wordpress. com/2016/09/14/picture-this-reflecting-diversity-inchildrens-book-publishing
Emma Nicosia is a third-year PhD student in social studies education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on the impacts of Christian hegemony on education and understanding Jewish experiences in public schools. She also teaches and supervises social studies teacher candidates, drawing on her background as a secondary social studies teacher.
Keitha-Gail Martin-Kerr is the Associate Chair for Racial Justice and Equity in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Minnesota. She leads faculty development efforts grounded in equity-mindedness, antioppressive practices, and healing justice. Her research explores the intersections of collective memory work, feminist pedagogy, and teacher education.
West. Its website lists political leaders who testify to the Society’s role in connecting Asia and the United States. One could infer that Asia Society is a part of the larger diplomatic and cultural linkage between the United States and Asia. Its mission statement asserts its task to “[elevate] regional voices” and “[inform] and [educate] new audiences.…”7 Furthermore, its commitment to crosscultural understanding and diverse viewpoints aligns with National Council for the Social Studies theme 1, Culture: “Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of culture and cultural diversity.”8 From my research, I inferred that the Asia Society recognized the power imbalance between regional and global voices and aimed to help U.S. educators and students develop a more comprehensive understanding of Asian societies. However, I still questioned which regional voices were being elevated: the official narratives of Asian governments or the voices of Asian people? I visited the museum with this question in mind.
Critically Visiting the Exhibition
At the time I visited the Asia Society in New York, the main exhibition was Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians – The Mohammed Afkhami Collection, featuring the private art collection of a Swiss-born Iranian businessman whose family owned a “20,000-piece Islamic art collection” that had been mostly nationalized after the Iranian Revolution.9 Recognizing the importance of exhibition layout in shaping a narrative, I observed that the Persian exhibit’s entrance featured an introduction by guest curator Fereshteh Daftari, an experienced curator of Persian/Iranian art affiliated with the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The introduction occupied an entire wall between the stairs and the gallery. I noted the use of “Persia” rather than “Iran.” The change of the country’s name by Reza Shah in 1935 reflected his perception that “Persia” embodied a Eurocentric view of his country and its past hardship, while “Iran” represented a modern, forward-looking country.10 However, in her introduction, Daftari suggests that the Contemporary Persians title “evokes an ancient culture that is very much alive today,” thus refuting the Orientalist notion that the Persian past is lost in today’s Iran.11 An interview with Mohammed
Afkhami revealed that he believes Europeans use “Persia” to “denote a glorious past of Iran,” while the first part of the title (Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet) reflects “aspects of Iranian art itself.” Considering this contrast as an irony, Afkhami aimed to challenge the perception of “militant Islam with Arabic calligraphy” by emphasizing “creativity and versatility” of contemporary Iranian art.12 The exhibit’s introduction provided further historical context:
The narratives that emerge in the works have been mostly but not always informed by internal circumstances in Iran and by the role the country plays in the larger world, where it has faced military threat and political demonization, aggravated by a cold war with a hostile superpower and its allies.
However, the “internal circumstances” were not specifically mentioned, and viewers might expect to understand those internal circumstances from the exhibition. In addition, the curator avoided explicitly mentioning the United States in describing Iran’s external circumstances. I pondered whether the context of the Asia Society as a cultural linkage between the United States and Asian countries was a factor in this decision.
The artworks from the Contemporary Persians exhibition presented a nuanced narrative of diverse Iranian experiences, challenging a simplistic narrative of Iran that focuses on militarism and Islamic fundamentalism. The artworks focus on a variety of issues in Iranian society, including gender, religion, politics, war, identity, and wealth. The artworks also varied in formats and materials, refuting misconceptions that figural representation is banned in Islamic art.13 Becoming (see p. 156) is an artwork that consists of a sphere and video clips. The video clips show how the emblems of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all morphed into the same sphere. In contradiction to the perception that Iran is dominated by Islamic fundamentalism with no space for other religions, the work highlights the shared roots of the Abrahamic religions and a commitment to religious harmony.
Miss Hybrid 3 (on p. 156) by Shirin Aliabadi is a print of a young Iranian woman with peroxide blonde hair and a nose-job plaster blowing a
very custodians assigned to safeguard it” helped me make sense of the artwork; however, I was unclear about how the refugee camps or the United Nations threatened lives. This wondering presented a valuable learning opportunity. I searched the artwork online and found a more in-depth interview with Amighi in which she reveals she intended to “recreate scenes where peace and conflict reign side by side.” The artist also refused to prescribe “clarity” or “heroic answer” to the artwork.15
Amighi’s work does not specifically represent the Iranian experiences or criticize the United Nations; it welcomes diverse interpretations that juxtapose peace and conflict. One could interpret it through the lens of “morality police” in Iran or through the lens of police brutality in the United States. Amighi’s artwork decenters Iran as the sole focus of Iranian art and draws attention to issues that concern people worldwide.
Supporting Students’ Critical Museum Visits
After my Asia Society visit, I reflected upon my experience both as a learner of Iranian society and as a social studies educator seeking to bring (counter) stories to his students. As a learner, the Contemporary Persians exhibition offered a rich narrative of Iran from
Iranian artists’ perspectives. Afkhami’s desire was that viewers of the exhibition “walk away thinking Iran is a country of contradictions […] with a more optimistic, alternative view of Iran.”16 With an array of art forms, the artists portrayed different aspects of Iranian society and expressed their beliefs in equality, peace, and justice. Even the materials selected tell stories on their own. The captions provided necessary historical and social context. At the same time, the captions were positioned along the side, in small font so that they would not intrude with individual interpretations. The exhibition conveyed a vibrant and complex Iran without shying away from issues of social injustice within Iran.
These artworks can help social studies teachers enrich classroom discussion of Iran from Iranian perspectives, explore how those perspectives differ from popular U.S. narratives, and engage in broader discussion challenging the dominance of Eurocentric understanding of the world.
While the Contemporary Persians exhibit has ended the museum now has a permanent virtual exhibition at: https://iii. art/intro. Appropriate lessons for building students’ knowledge of Iran before any such museum visit would need to include
Hassanzadeh, Khosrow. Terrorist: Khosrow. 2004. Courtesy of Mohammed Afkhami Foundation. Exhibited at Asia Society, NY. (Photograph by author.)
Amighi, Afruz. Angels in Combat I. 2010. Courtesy of Mohammed Afkhami Foundation. Exhibited at Asia Society, NY. (Photograph by author.)
Pre-Visit Considerations (Teacher-Facing)
1. Establish the enduring understanding you expect students to achieve by the end of their visit. Consider how this enduring understanding fits into your unit and your curriculum? (If possible, visit the museum beforehand and identify artifacts that you want your students to focus on.)
2. Emphasize the concept of storytelling and counterstories in your class. Prepare your students to independently examine art using the gradual release model.*
3. Provide your students with the historical context of the society on display at a museum exhibition. Problematize the popular narratives of that society found in media and/or the textbook.**
4. Prepare your students to see the subjective nature of a museum, its exhibitions, and its curators. Provide your students with the opportunity to research the museum, its founders, and its sponsors.
5. Situate the museum exhibition within the contemporary social and political contexts, such as the relationship between the United States and the society on display.
6. Contact the museum regarding its photography and other visiting policies. Consider accessibility for students with disabilities. Prepare your students to visit a museum in a respectful and orderly manner.
* A lesson that shifts responsibility from teacher to students, moving from instruction to collaboration to independent work.
** E.g., critically examine a narrative’s assumptions, limitations, and biases rather than accepting it at face value.
Visiting Protocols (Student-Facing)
Before Visiting
1. What do I already know about the society on display at the museum? What are the sources of my knowledge? If applicable, who are the authors of these sources?
2. What questions do I have about this society? What do I hope to learn from visiting the museum?
3. Where is the museum? What is the history of the museum? Who are some of the key figures in establishing and running the museum?
During the Visit
1. Describe the space: What do I see/hear/smell when I enter the museum? How do I feel? What draws my attention when I enter an exhibition room? How are the artifacts displayed?
2. Do I see the curator’s message at the entrance? If so, who is the curator? Why do they want to organize this exhibition?
3. Describe several artifacts that catch my attention. For each artifact:
a. Try to view an artifact before reading its caption: Why do I select this artifact? How do I describe the artifact? What material(s) do I think it is made of? How old do I think it is? What story is it telling? Whose story is it telling?
b. Read its caption: What is the title of the artifact? Who was the creator of this artifact? When was it made? Based on the author of the caption, what was/is the significance of the artifact? How is the caption’s description similar to and different from my interpretation of the artifact?
c. How does this artifact enrich my knowledge of this society? What is the relationship between this artifact and other artifacts in the exhibition? What questions do I have about this artifact?
After Visiting
1. What new knowledge have I learned? How does this new knowledge relate to my prior knowledge of this society?
2. How do the artifacts reflect the concept of storytelling and counterstories?
3. What other questions do I have about this society?
Guiding Questions for a Museum Visit
1. What is a museum? Why is a museum established?
2. What can we learn about a society from a museum exhibition? What can’t we learn about a society?
3. What stories/narratives are told by a museum exhibition? Whose voices are represented?
4. How do the stories/narratives of a museum exhibition of a society compare to our preconceived notion of this society? How do the stories/narratives compare to the dominant narrative (or the textbook narrative)?
5. What new narratives can we create based on the knowledge we gained from the visit? What questions remain unanswered?
Post-Visit Considerations (Teacher-Facing)
1. Provide structured class time for students to share observations and takeaways with peers.
2. Let students connect their learning from the museum to prior class learnings of the dominant narratives of the society found in media/textbook: discuss connections and contradictions between the two.
3. Let students raise any remaining questions. Provide opportunities for students to research answers to those questions.
4. As a form of summative assessment, allow students to write narratives of the society based on their learning from the museum visit.
the history of Persia, the Cold War, Iran after the 1979 Revolution, and the current Iranian society. However, it is unrealistic for a teacher to provide all background information on a society before a field trip. McCully et al. argue that allowing time for students to process and discuss their visit to a museum is important, since the value of a museum visit also lies in its potential to challenge own biases, inspire interest, and raise new questions.17 If students read captions at museums that they do not fully understand, teachers should provide opportunities for them to investigate after the visit. Students should not take a caption’s explanation as an objective or “correct” explanation; rather, they need to understand that the caption belongs to a larger subjective narrative that connects the artwork to the theme of the exhibition or the museum. Before and after a visit, students can conduct research on the museum website and look up information about the artists and the curators. The goal is for students to apply their critical thinking into a museum setting and deconstruct a museum exhibition, prompting
students eventually to discuss and draft a new narrative based on the knowledge they acquired.
Even though a field trip to a museum can provide non-Western (counter)stories for students, a museum can also reinforce students’ preconceived biases or perpetuate dominant narratives.18 Thus, it is important for teachers to introduce the subjectivity of a museum to their students. Like all cultural institutions, museums are created by individuals and organizations with agendas. The curators and the owner of Contemporary Persians are explicit about their agenda in the introduction and in interviews, but other museums or exhibitions may not be so explicit.
Some educators, particularly those who teach in rural areas, may not have easy access to museums. Since many world-class museums provide openaccess online archives of their exhibits, educators can still take their students on virtual visits. For example, to further understand Iranian women’s experiences, Mozaik offers an interactive online exhibition (https://mozaikphilanthropy.org/ woman-life-freedom). The Los Angeles County
Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2025
About the List and Criteria for Selection
The books that appear in this annotated list were evaluated and selected by a Book Review Committee appointed by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and assembled in cooperation with the Children’s Book Council (CBC). NCSS and CBC have cooperated on this annual bibliography since 1972. Books selected for this bibliography were published in 2024 and were written for children in grades K-12. The Book Review Committee looks for books that emphasize human relations, represent a diversity of groups and are sensitive to a broad range of cultural experiences, present an original theme or a fresh slant on a traditional topic, are easily readable and of high literary quality, have a pleasing format, and, where appropriate, include illustrations that enrich the text. Each book is read by several reviewers, and books are included on the list by committee assent; the annotations do not necessarily reflect the judgment of the entire committee.
Publishers’ addresses are available in standard reference works such as Children’s Books in Print (R.R. Bowker) and Literary Market Place (R.R. Bowker), and from CBC. CBC’s Members List may be downloaded at www.cbcbooks.org/ publishers/our-members.
Titles are arranged by broad subject categories. Although many are appropriate for more than one category, they have been placed where their usefulness in social studies education appears greatest. Annotators have also indicated the thematic strands (shown below) from National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, to which the book relates.
Thematic Strands of the NCSS Curriculum Standards for Social Studies
CULTURE
TIME, CONTINUITY, AND CHANGE
PEOPLE, PLACES, AND ENVIRONMENTS
INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY
INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS, AND INSTITUTIONS
POWER, AUTHORITY, AND GOVERNANCE
PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, AND CONSUMPTION
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY
GLOBAL CONNECTIONS
CIVIC IDEALS AND PRACTICES
Key to a Notable Listing
1. The titles marked with an asterisk are Selectors’ Choices—books that individual committee members responded to with particular enthusiasm. 2. Title: Subtitle 3
Author(s) 4. Illustrator 5. Publisher. 6. Number of pages 7. International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) 8. Price as of January 2025 9. Reading levels: P: Primary (K-2), I: Intermediate (3-5), M: Middle (6-8), H: High (9-12). They are intended as guidelines and are not meant to limit the potential use of titles. 10. Brief descriptive annotation, plus notations about additional textual materials, if any. 11 Initials indicating the reviewer responsible for the annotation (see list at right). 12. Thematic strands of the curriculum standards for social studies (see above).
Book Review Committee Members
• Elaine Alvey, Assistant Professor of Education, University of Alaska Southeast, Juneau, AK (EA)
• Mary Brennan, Student Achievement Coordinator, Fountain Fort Carson School District 8, Fountain, CO (MB)
• Karen L. B. Burgard, Associate Professor, Texas A&M University, San Antonio, TX (KB)
• Dessilyn Chappell, Assistant Professor of Elementary Education, University of West Alabama, Livingston, AL (DC)
• David J. Childs, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY (DJC)
• Seunghoon Han, Ph.D. Candidate, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA (SA)
• Ivory K. Johnson, Supervising History Teacher, University High School, Memphis, TN (IKJ)
• Patty Kim, educational consultant, Long Island, NY (PK)
• Andrea M. Martinez, K-6 Social Studies Instructional Support, Alief Independent School District, Houston, TX (AMM)
• Magdalena Mata, Professional Learning Facilitator, Texas National Board Coalition for Teaching, Boerne, TX (MM)
• Taylor Mayer, Talent Development and Learning Director, Think Together, San Diego, CA (TM)
• Stefanie Wager, Past President (2020-2021), National Council for the Social Studies, Grimes, IA (SW)
• Valerie Struthers Walker, Lind Professor of Education, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN (VSW)
This book explores the essence of being American through diverse voices.
Darshana Khiani
Illustrated by Laura Freeman
Penguin Random House / Viking
(P)
BIOGRAPHY
Abzuglutely! Battling, Bellowing Bella Abzug. Sharon Aronson. Illustrated by Andrea D’Aquino. Astra Books for Young Readers / Calkins Creek. 40pp. ISBN 9781635928075. $18.99. (I, M) This is the inspiring story of Bella Abzug, activist, lawyer, and eventual U.S. congresswomen. The informational picture book chronicles Abzug’s life, tireless fight for justice, and impact on the modern women’s rights movement. Author’s Note, Timeline, Bibliography. (KB)
The Ballerina of Auschwitz (Young Adult Edition of The Choice). Edith Eva Eger. Simon & Schuster / Atheneum Books For Young Readers. 192pp. ISBN 9781665952552. $18.99. (M, H) This deeply moving memoir by dancer and Holocaust survivor Dr. Edith Eva Eger recounts Eger’s experiences as a teenager during World War II. A story of courage, love, and sisterhood in the face of unimaginable horror. (EA)
Astra Books for Young Readers / Calkins Creek. 40pp. ISBN 9781635928112. $18.99. (I) Call Me, Roberto! will not solely appeal to sports enthusiasts, this is a book for everyone. Roberto Clemente’s journey to become the first Latin American baseball player inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame is a compelling story that many young readers will enjoy. Author’s Note, Glossary, Timeline, and Bibliography. (KB)
Chadwick Boseman: King of Wakanda (Black History Heroes). Chris Singleton with Ryan G. Van Cleave. Illustrated by Adriana Pérez Perales. Bushel & Peck Books. 104pp. ISBN 9781638191773. $12.99. (I) Chadwick Boseman, best known for his cinematic role as the Black Panther, was committed to using acting to share stories of “Black culture, power and strength.” Chapters include “Words to Know,” “the World at the Time,” and “What do you think?” discussion questions. Timeline and Bibliography. (VSW)
Bea Breaks Barriers! How Florence Beatrice Price’s Music Triumphed Over Prejudice. Caitlin DeLems. Illustrated by Tonya Engel. Astra Books for Young Readers / Calkins Creek. 48pp. ISBN 9781635924275. $18.99. (I) In this illuminating biography about 20th-centurycomposer Florence Beatrice Price, readers learn about Price’s love of music and persistence in a lifelong fight for equality as a Black female composer. (TM)
Bridges Instead of Walls: The Story of Mavis Staples. Mavis Staples and Carole Boston Weatherford. Illustrated by Steffi Walthall. PYR / Rocky Pond Books. 48pp. ISBN 9780593624692. $19.99. (P, I) Legendary musician Mavis Staples, known for her powerful vocals and civil rights advocacy, highlights the influence of her faith, family, and community in this lyrical picture book. Timeline, Recommended Listening. (EA)
Call Me Roberto! Roberto Clemente Goes to Bat for Latinos. Nathalie Alonso. Illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez.
Claudette Colvin: I Want Freedom Now! Claudette Colvin and Phillip Hoose. Illustrated by Bea Jackson. Macmillan Children’s Group / Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR). 40pp. ISBN 9780374389734. $19.99. (I, M) Few people recognize that Rosa Parks’s renowned act of resistance was inspired by teenager Claudette Colvin. This story of Colvin’s fight for constitutional rights is an important and inspiring civil rights story. (TM)
A Crown of Stories: The Life and Language of Beloved Writer Toni Morrison . Carole Boston Weatherford. Illustrated by Khalif Thompson. HarperCollins / Quill Tree Books. 48pp. ISBN 9780062911032. $19.99. (P, I) This picture book biography introduces young readers to Toni Morrison’s journey from bright young Ohio girl to literary icon. This book highlights the power of storytelling, perseverance, and the enduring impact of words. Author’s Note, Timeline. (SH)
explores his deep love for stories, music, and family. Author’s Note, Timeline. (DJC)
Let’s Fly! Barrington Irving’s Record-Breaking Flight Around the World. Barrington Irving and Chana Stiefel. Illustrated by Shamar Knight-Justice. PYR / Dial Books. 40pp. ISBN 9780593532133. $18.99. (P) In this inspiring book coauthored by Barrington Irving, readers explore themes of resilience and determination as they learn about his record-breaking solo flight around the world, where he became both the youngest and the first Black man to accomplish this feat. (TM)
Mae Jemison: Shooting for the Stars: The First Black Woman in Space. (Black History Heroes). Chris Singleton and Ryan G. Van Cleave. Illustrated by Adriana Pérez Perales. Bushel & Peck Books. 104pp. ISBN 9781638191780. $12.99. (I) Mae Jemison has dedicated her life to science and healthcare. After obtaining degrees in chemical engineering and medicine, she became the first Black female astronaut to go into space. Quotes, Biographical Information, and Contextual Connections. (TM)
She Spoke Too: 14 More Women Who Raised Their Voices and Changed the World. Kathy MacMillan and Manuela Bernardi. Illustrated by Becky Thorns. Familius. 32pp. ISBN 9781641707510. $24.99. (P, I, M) This interactive book enables readers to push a button to hear inspiring words from catalysts of change like Mother Jones, Greta Thunberg, LaDonna Harris, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Afterword, Further Reading, About the Author, About the Illustrator, About the Publisher. (AMM)
Outspoken: Paul Robeson, Ahead of His Time: A One-Man Show. Carole Boston Weatherford. Illustrated by Eric Velasquez. Candlewick Press. 48pp. ISBN 9781536212976. $18.99. (I) A poetic biography that highlights Robeson’s journey from scholar and athlete to renowned singer, actor, and civil rights activist. Timeline, Bibliography. (MB)
A Plate of Hope: The Inspiring Story of Chef José Andrés and World Central Kitchen. Erin Frankel. Illustrated by Paola Escobar. RHCB / Random House Studio. 48pp. ISBN 9780593380574. $18.99. (P, I) This moving picture book tells the unique story of Spanish chef José Andrés and his blending of culture, food, and community service. His work with World Central Kitchen inspires kids to help those in need. Author’s Note and Bibliography. (MM)
Skybound!: Starring Mary Myers as Carlotta, Daredevil Aeronaut and Scientist. Sue Ganz-Schmitt. Illustrated by Lacopo Bruno. Astra Books for Young Readers / Calkins Creek. 48pp. ISBN 9781635928150. $18.99 (I) Mary Myers, a scientist and inventor, was among the earliest American women to pilot a balloon alone. Her work on balloon technology and design advanced scientific understanding of flight and weather patterns. Excellent book for integrating science and social studies. (DJC)
The Sole Man: Jan Matzeliger’s Lasting Invention. Shana Keller. Illustrated by Stephen Costanza. Cherry Lake Publishing Group / Sleeping Bear Press. 40pp. ISBN 9781534113008. $18.99. (P, I) In 1873, Jan Matzeliger immigrated to the United States from South America filled with dreams. At first struggling to find work because he didn’t speak English, he finally lands a job in a shoe factory. After learning the craft, he eventually develops a machine that revolutionizes the shoe industry. (DC)
Swinging into History. Karen Swanson. Illustrated by Laura Freeman. Astra Books for Young Readers / Calkins Creek. 40pp. ISBN 9781635928136. $18.99. (I) This compelling story depicts the adversities Toni Stone faced as a Black woman trying to break into a male-dominated sport, along with her triumph as the first woman to play in the major leagues—a story that will resonate with many sudents. Timeline, Bibliography. (KB)
We Are Golden: 27 Groundbreakers Who Changed the World. Eva Chen. Illustrated by Sophie Diao. Macmillan Publishing Group / Feiwel and Friends. 22pp. ISBN 9781259879912. $10.99. (P, I) This book profiles over two dozen Asian and Asian Americans, accompanied by vibrant, digitally-created illustrations. It concludes with an empowering affirmation: “These groundbreakers lit the way for YOU, my precious child.” (IKJ)
CONTEMPORARY CONCERNS
All the Pieces: When a Loved One Dies From Substance Use. Hallie Riggs. Illustrated by Adriana Predoi. American Psychological Association (APA) / Magination Press. 32pp. ISBN 9781433842184. $19.99. (P, I) This book tells the story of a child’s experience of losing a parent to substance use, sharing both the cherished and painful memories of their late father. (TM)
Amil and the After. Veera Hiranandani. PYR / Kokila. 272pp. ISBN 9780525555063. $17.99. (I, M) Told from an adolescent’s perspective, this story explores life after India’s partition, the journey of fleeing, and the challenge of starting anew. Despite the loss, the strength of family bonds offers hope in this childfriendly historical narrative. Glossary, Author’s Note. (MM)
challenges of learning English in a refugee camp in 1975 Pennsylvania. Author’s Note, Glossary. (VSW)
Border Patrol. Joseph Bruchac. Benchmark Education / Reycraft Books. 23s2pp. ISBN 9781478887768. $17.95. (I, M) Lily lives on the Akwesasne Mohawk Reservation, where she rescues a young refugee from Myanmar at the river. Determined to reunite the girl with her family, Lily faces challenges and risks along the way. Includes About the Author. (AMM)
Buffalo Dreamer. Violet Duncan. PYR / Nancy Paulsen Books. 128pp. ISBN 9780593624814. $17.99. (M) Summer spends time with her family on a Cree reservation in Canada, where she learns about the painful history of residential schools through her dreams and the stories of elders. Author’s Note, Glossary. (VSW)
Crowning Glory: A Celebration of Black Hair. Carole Boston Weatherford. Illustrated by Ekua Holmes. Candlewick Press. 32pp. ISBN 9780763697945. $18.99. (P, I) Crowning Glory challenges societal prejudices by celebrating a variety of natural Black hairstyles. Beautiful illustrations bring these styles and the people who wear them to life. Glossary. (IKJ)
And Then, Boom! Lisa Fipps. PYR / Nancy Paulsen Books. 256pp. ISBN 9780593406328. $17.99. (M) In this novel written in verse, Joe is inspired by the resilience of superheroes as he faces a number of challenges, including hunger and the death of his grandmother. (VSW)
Ánh’s New Word. Hanh Bui. Illustrated by Bao Luu. Macmillan Children’s Group / Feiwel & Friends. 32pp. ISBN 9781250842138. $18.99. (P) Áhn, with the support of his teacher and grandmother, navigates the
Fake Chinese Sounds. Written and illustrated by Jing Jing Tsong. PYR / Kokila. 208pp. ISBN 9780525553434. $23.99. (M) When Mēi Ying’s grandmother visits from Taiwan, they bond over cooking, language lessons, and Tai Chi. This shared experience helps Mēi Ying find the strength to confront racism at school, as depicted in this graphic novel. (VSW)
Finding Normal. Stephanie Faris. Simon & Schuster / Aladdin. 288pp. ISBN 9781665938907. $17.99. (I, M) Temple’s world is turned upside down when a flood destroys her home. As she plans a fundraiser to help her community rebuild, she learns valuable lessons about what truly matters. About the Author. (AMM)
Hooray for She, He, Ze, and They!: What Are Your Pronouns Today? Lindz Amer. Illustrated by Kip Alizadeh. Simon & Schuster / S&S Books For Young Readers. 32pp. ISBN 9781665931144. $18.99. (P, I) This introductory children’s book about personal pronouns helps readers understand the variety of pronouns and explores the emotions that arise when one’s pronouns are validated and affirmed. (TM)
A Kids Book About Juneteenth Garrison Hayes. DK. 64pp. ISBN 9780744098877. $19.99. (P, I) Dive into the history of Juneteenth and its significance in America’s story. Explore the meaning behind this important celebration, which marks the end of the enslavement of Black people in the United States. (TM)
Free to Learn: How Alfredo Lopez Fought for the Right to Go to School
Loch Ness Uncovered: Media, Misinformation, and the Greatest Monster Hoax of All Time. Rebecca Siegel. Astra Books for Young Readers / Astra Young Readers. 192pp. ISBN 9781662620232. $19.99. (M) A cautionary tale about misinformation and media literacy, presented in the context of a lighthearted and engaging topic. This unfamiliar story about the Loch Ness Monster may inspire a new generation of Mythbusters and spark curiosity in young readers. (PK)
Cynthia Levinson. Illustrated by Mirelle Ortega. Simon & Schuster / Atheneum Books For Young Readers. 48pp. ISBN 9781665904278. $18.99. (P, I) An innovative picture book that tells the true story of an undocumented boy fighting for his right to an education in public schools. A powerful resource for discussions on immigration. Historical Background, Author’s Note. (DJC)
Future Tense: How We Made Artificial Intelligence – And How It Will Change Everything. Martha Brockenbrough. Macmillan Children’s Group / Feiwel & Friends. 288pp. ISBN 9781250765925. $22.99. (M, H) Well-researched and thoughtfully presented, this book explores the history, future, and both the pros and cons of artificial intelligence. It’s sure to spark discussions on the role of technology and the strengths of humanity. Bibliography, Index. (IKJ)
How the Boogeyman Became a Poet. Tony Keith Jr. HarperCollins / Katherine Tegen Books. 352pp. ISBN 9780063296008. $15.99. (H) Written in verse, this powerful coming-of-age memoir delves into themes of race, identity, liberation, and the power of poetry. It is both beautifully written and boldly transformative. (EA)
Not Another Banned Book . Dana Alison Levy. RHCB / Delacorte Press. 320pp. ISBN 9780593649053. $17.99. (I, M) This timely novel explores the power of books, free speech, and activism as a group of middle school students stand up against censorship in their town. Author’s Note, About the Author. (BNB)
Not Far From Here. Nydia ArmendiaSanchez. Illustrated by Devon Holzwarth. Candlewick Press. 40pp. ISBN 9781536227062. $18.99. (P) Mamá tells the story of how family members learned from one another and worked hard as they journeyed to el norte. The characters seamlessly switch between English and Spanish, reflecting the richness of their experience. Glossary of Spanish Phrases. (VSW)
Poemhood: Our Black Revival . Edited by Amber McBride, Erica Martin, and Taylor Byas. HarperCollins / HarperTeen. 160pp. ISBN 9780063225282. $15.99. (M, H) This edited anthology features both wellknown and emerging Black poets, exploring themes of race, resilience, culture, joy, heritage, and faith. (EA)
Quiet Night, My Astronaut: The First Days (and Nights) of the War in Ukraine. Oksana Lushchevska. Illustrated by Kateryna Stepanishcheva. Cherry Lake Publishing Group / Tilbury House Publishers. 40pp. ISBN 9781668936818. $18.99. (P, I) This poignant picture book captures the early days of the war in Ukraine from a child’s perspective. Blending fear with hope, it
Saturdays at Harlem Grown: How One Big Idea Transformed a Neighborhood. Tony Hillery. Illustrated by Jessie Hartland. Simon & Schuster / Paula Wiseman Books. 48pp. ISBN 9781665929783. $18.99. (P, I) The inspiring true story of how a community garden brought neighbors together and improved the community through gardening, food sovereignty, and collaboration. Author’s Note, Steps for Creating Urban Gardens, Recipes, Additional Resources. (EA)
When Beavers Flew. Kristen Tracy. Illustrated by Luisa Uribe. RHCB / Random House Studio. 40pp. ISBN 9780593647523. $18.99. (P, I) In 1948, Elmer Heder used parachutes to relocate beavers from a crowded area in Idaho to a protected forest, allowing them to live without disruption. Afterword makes connections with conservation terms. Author’s Note. (VSW)
Wild at Heart: The Story of Olaus and Mardy Murie, Defenders of Nature. Evan Griffith. Illustrated by Anna Bron. Cherry Lake Publishing Group / Sleeping Bear Press. 40pp. ISBN 9781534112919. $18.99. (P, I) This inspiring picture book follows Mardy and Olaus Murie’s journey through the Arctic, where they championed conservation and helped establish the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Biographical Information. A Note on the Study of Historical Figures, A Note on Land Conservation, A Note on the Native People of Canada and Alaska. (SH)
/ Orchard Books. 40pp. ISBN 9781338849974. $18.99. (P) Beautiful prose and illustrations vividly depict the early roots of Black history. This much-needed book celebrates Black excellence and ensures that all students recognize that Black history doesn’t begin with slavery. Author’s Note. (SW)
Bite by Bite: American History through Feasts, Foods, and Side Dishes. Marc Aronson. Illustrated by Toni Chambers. Simon & Schuster / Atheneum Books For Young Readers. 176pp. ISBN 9781665935500. $17.99. (I, M, H) Through 12 dishes, this researchbased book explores the diverse peoples and foodways that have shaped the United States. Featuring multiple authors, it provides a cross-curricular look at history, culture, identity, and traditions. Author’s Notes, Index. (MM)
Blue Stars: Mission One: The Vice Principal Problem. A Graphic Novel. Kekla Magoon and Cynthia Leitich Smith. Illustrated by Molly Murakami. Candlewick Press. 176pp. ISBN 9781536204995. $22.99. (I, M) Cousins Maya and Riley have little in common, but eventually, they unite to tackle a powerful adversary threatening their school. Through shared challenges, they bridge their cultural and familial divide. (PK)
GEOGRAPHY/PEOPLES/PLACES
Back Home: Story Time with My Father. Arlène Elizabeth Casimir. Illustrated by Ken Daley. Candlewick Press. 40pp. ISBN 9781536223200. $18.99. (I) This story highlights the special bond between a father and his child and offers readers a glimpse into Haitian culture. With breathtaking artwork, it makes a wonderful addition to any classroom library. Author’s Note to Children. (DJC)
Before the Ships: The Birth of Black Excellence Maisha Oso. Illustrated by Candice Bradley. Scholastic
Born Naughty: My Childhood in China. Jin Wang and Tony Johnston. Illustrated by Anisi Baigude. RHCB / Anne Schwartz Books. 112p. ISBN 9780593563618. $16.99. (I) Set on the other side of the world, the author’s charming tales of life in Inner Mongolia offer readers a surprising sense of connection and universal themes. (PK)
Continental Drifter. Kathy MacLeod. Illustrated by Kathy MacLeod. Macmillan Children’s Group / First Second. 224pp. ISBN 9781250813749. $14.99. (I, M) Kathy, torn between the cultures of her Thai mother and her American father, spends most of the year in Bangkok eagerly awaiting summer in Maine, where she
struggles to fit in. This funny, honest graphic memoir explores navigating between cultures, personal growth, and unexpected adventures. (PK)
Finding Home: Words From Kids Seeking Sanctuary.
Gwen Agna and Shelley Rotner. Photographs by Shelley Rotner. HarperCollins / Clarion Books. 32pp. ISBN 9780063304178. $19.99. (P, I) Families from around the world seek new homes in search of safety and sanctuary. The authors capture the voices of displaced children, sharing their emotional journeys to elevate their stories. Additional Resources, Author’s Note, Glossary (DC)
A Flicker of Hope. Cynthia Harmony. Illustrated by Devon Holzwarth. PYR / Viking Books for Young Readers. 32pp. ISBN 9780593525760. $18.99. (P) Lucia loves the annual migration of monarch butterflies, but this year, her heart is with her papi’s migration. This touching story explores the emotional journey children and families face when considering migration and its impact on their lives. Glossary, Author’s Note. (KB)
A Map for Falasteen. Maysa Odeh. Illustrated by Aliaa Betawi. Macmillan Children’s Group / Henry Holt and Co. (BYR). 40pp. ISBN 9781250896704. $19.99. (P, I) A heartfelt picture book about young Falasteen, a Palestinian girl, searching for her homeland on a map and grappling with its erasure. Through her family’s stories and memories, she discovers that her homeland lives on in her heart and heritage, offering a powerful reminder of identity and belonging. Author’s Note. (MB)
Home in a Lunchbox. Written and illustrated by Cherry Mo. PYR / Penguin Workshop. 40pp. ISBN 9780593661345. $18.99. (P) A powerful story about adjusting to life in a new place, where something as simple as a lunchbox can help make us feel at home. Glossary. (SW)
Lost at Windy River: A True Story of Survival. Trina Rathgeber. Illustrated by Alina Pete; coloring by Jillian Dolan. Orca Book Publishers. 96pp. ISBN 9781459832268. $19.95. (I, M) This riveting true story follows 13-year-old Ilse as she survives a blizzard in the Canadian North using her Indigenous knowledge. This graphic novel retells a story popularized by Farley Mowat, with Ilse asserting that it was not his story to tell. Author’s Note, Archival Photographs. (EA)
My Block Looks Like. Janelle Harper. Illustrated by Frank Morrison. PYR / Viking Books for Young Readers. 40pp. ISBN 9780593526309. $18.99. (P) This poetic, culturally and linguistically responsive book tells the story of a young girl in her neighborhood, celebrating the pride and joy of living in an urban community that’s all her own. (TM)
Pedal, Balance, Steer: Annie Londonderry, the First Woman to Cycle Around the World. Vivian Kirkfield. Illustrated by Alison Jay. Astra Books for Young Readers / Calkins Creek. 40pp. ISBN 9781635926828. $18.99. (P, I) A beautifully written story about a woman who defied societal expectations to cycle around the world in 15 months. From the challenges of providing for her children to the impractical long dresses of the era, she overcame numerous obstacles in her pursuit of adventure in the late 1800s. (PK)
Race to the Truth: Exclusion and the Chinese American Story. Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn. RHCB / Crown BFYR. 288pp. ISBN 9780593567630. $8.99. (I, M) An eye-opening history lesson spanning over 1,500 years, this book highlights Chinese American history as an integral part of American history. A timely and important read. (PK)
Saudade: Our Longing for Brazil. Ana Crespo. Illustrated by André Ceolin. Holiday House / Neal Porter Books. 32pp. ISBN 9780823452293. $18.99. (P) Saudade, a
Portuguese word and Galician word with no direct English translation, describes an intense longing. This beautifully written book captures that feeling—a universal experience we can all relate to. Author’s Note, Glossary. (SW)
Solstice: Around the World on the Longest, Shortest Day. Jen Breach. Illustrated by 14 Global Artists. What on Earth! 64pp. ISBN 9781913750787. $21.99. (P, I) This engaging informational book explores the solstice through science and culture, showing how children worldwide experience the longest day and night. With rich illustrations and infographics, it connects astronomy, geography, and diverse global traditions. Includes Meet the Illustrators, Glossary (SH)
GLOBAL CONNECTIONS
beautifully told story weaves together experiences across generations and countries. Author’s Note about the use of incarcerated labor in fire emergencies. (EA)
Wanjikũ, Child of Mine. Ciiku Ndung’u-Case. Illustrated by Karen Vermeulen. Catalyst Press. 32pp. ISBN 9781960803016. $17.99. (P, I) A beautifully illustrated picture book that follows a young Kenyan girl through various stages of childhood, highlighting the importance of heritage and cultural identity, with translingual elements that celebrate language and communication across cultures.
Dear Muslim Child. Rahma Rodaah. Illustrated by Aya Ghanameh. HarperCollins / Balzer + Bray. 32pp. ISBN 9780063091993. $19.99. (P, I) This picture book celebrates Islam for Muslim children, written as a heartfelt letter that highlights various aspects of the religion and encourages pride in their faith. (DC)
Kindred Spirits: Shilombish Ittibachvffa. Leslie Stall Widener. Illustrated by Johnson Yazzie. Charlesbridge. 32pp. ISBN 9781623543969. $17.99. (I) This nonfiction picture book tells the true story of a pay-it-forward act that spans 175 years and two continents, connecting Ireland, the Choctaw and Navajo Nations, and the Hopi Tribe through the Trail of Tears, the Potato Famine, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Author’s Note, Illustrator’s Note, Timeline, Glossary, and Resources. (EA)
Simone. Viet Thanh Nguyen. Illustrated by Minnie Phan. Astra Books for Young Readers / Minerva. 48pp. ISBN 9781662651199. $18.99. (P, I) Simone and her Ma must quickly evacuate as a wildfire approaches, prompting Ma to reflect on her childhood and fleeing Vietnam. This
Author’s Note, Glossary, Introduction to the Creation Story, What Can You Find at the End Papers? (MB)
Wings to Soar. Tina Athaide. Charlesbridge / Charlesbridge Moves. 352pp. ISBN 9781623544317. $17.99. (M) Wings to Soar is an interesting book about being a refugee in the 70s and how one student fought to maintain her identity in a new and foreign place. This is a story about resilience, strength, and finding courage and one that many adolescent readers could relate to. (KB)
HISTORY/LIFE & CULTURE IN THE AMERICAS
America’s Dreaming. Bob McKinnon. Illustrated by Thai My Phuong. PYR / Penguin Workshop. 48pp. ISBN 9780593658796. $19.99. (P) The story follows a child named America, who, after a tough first day at school, finds inspiration in the stories of historical figures who overcame adversity. It highlights themes of acceptance and the power of second chances. Author’s Note, Additional Information About the Historical Figures. (MB)
American Wings. Sherri L. Smith and Elizabeth Wein. PYR / G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers. 384pp. ISBN 9780593323984. $12.99. (H) American Wings tells the biography of a group of Black Americans
who founded a flying club and built their own airfield south of Chicago. They established a pilot training school for both Black and white students, challenging the racial segregation of the time. Each chapter features primary source photographs. Resources and educational materials for students. (KB)
Barrio Rising: The Protest that Built Chicano Park . María Dolores Águila. Illustrated by Magdalena Mora. PYR / Dial Books. 40pp. ISBN 9780593462072. $18.99.
(I) An important historical fiction book that explores Latino history, culture, and visual arts while highlighting youth activism. With vibrant illustrations, it serves as a valuable resource for social studies classrooms. Historical Background, Author’s Note. (DJC)
Beam Of Light: The Story of the First White House Menorah . Elisa Boxer. Illustrated by Sofia Moore. PYR / Rocky Pond Books. 32pp. ISBN 9780593698174. $18.99. (P) This picture book tells the story of the 2022 White House menorah, crafted from reclaimed wood of the original 1800 White House and retrieved during a 1948 reconstruction. A symbol of resilience, Jewish heritage, and the enduring light of tradition in the United States. Author’s Note, Bibliography. (SH)
found on the island’s walls, featuring some explicit language. Includes Resources, Historical Note, Bibliography. (VSW)
The Color of a Lie . Kim Johnson. RHCB / Random House BFYR. 336pp. ISBN 9780593118801. $19.99. (M, H) In 1955, a Black family, perceived as white, moves to a predominantly white suburb, where teen Calvin uncovers deeply rooted racist secrets. This powerful social justice thriller explores identity, deception, and hidden truths in a racially divided society. Additional Resources. (MB)
The Day Madear Voted . Wade Hudson. Illustrated by Don Tate. PYR / Nancy Paulsen Books. 32pp. ISBN 9780593615744. $18.99. (P) Set in 1969, this inspiring story follows a Black family as the mother votes for the first time. Told through a child’s eyes, it highlights resilience, hard-won rights, and the power of democracy. (SH)
Do you Know Them? Families
Black Star . Kwame Alexander. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. 384pp. ISBN 9780316442596. $17.99. (M) Charley Cuffey, a determined Black girl with dreams of becoming a pro baseball pitcher, is at the heart of Black Star . Through poetic storytelling, the book explores themes of resilience, family, and the power of understanding one’s history. (BNB)
Bridge Across the Sky . Freeman Ng. Simon & Schuster / Atheneum Books For Young Readers. 368pp. ISBN 9781665948593. $19.99. (H) In 1924, Tai Go and his father immigrate to the U.S. from China and are detained at Angel Island. This novel in verse incorporates poetry
Lost and Found After the Civil War . Shana Keller. Illustrated by Laura Freeman. Simon & Schuster / Atheneum Books For Young Readers. 40pp. ISBN 9781665913072. $18.99. (P, I) A powerful story about a girl separated from her family due to slavery and the Civil War. She was not alone—many people saved up money to post “lost” ads in newspapers in hopes of reuniting with loved ones after the war. Author’s Note (DC)
Eloísa’s Musical Window . Margarita Engle. Illustrated by John Parra. Simon & Schuster / Atheneum Books For Young Readers. 40pp. ISBN 9781665935289. $18.99. (P, I) Eloísa’s family can’t afford a radio, but they listen to music drifting up from the street. When her mother falls ill, the joy and craft of Cuban music help lift her spirits and aid in her recovery. Author’s Note, Glossary of Cuban Instruments. (EA)
Mine Wars: The Bloody Fight for Workers’ Rights in the West Virginia Coalfields. Steve Watkins. Bloomsbury Children’s Books. 272pp. ISBN 9781547612185. $19.99. (M) This book uncovers the often-overlooked history of the labor movement in West Virginia coal mines, a story not commonly found in U.S. history textbooks. It explores key themes like the fight for workers’ rights, harsh working conditions, and the cultural bonds of families and communities in the Appalachian region. (KB)
My Lost Freedom: A Japanese American WWII Story. George Takei. Illustrated by Michelle Lee. RHCB / Crown BFYR. 48pp. ISBN 9780593566350. $19.99. (P, I) Told through the eyes of young George Takei, this story introduces children to the injustice of Japanese American incarceration during World War II. Vivid illustrations and personal memories highlight resilience, family strength, and the fight for civil rights. Glossary / Pronunciation Guide, Author’s Note. (SH)
Main Press / HighWater Press. 64pp. ISBN 9781553799245.
$20.95. (M, H) The Rez Doctor is a graphic novel about a young Indigenous student who dreams of becoming a doctor. Based on a true story, it addresses common adolescent struggles, such as overcoming obstacles and working toward future goals. Themes include social issues, cultural identity, and exploring personal history. (KB)
Rollin’ on Down the Line: Lady Bird Johnson’s 1964 Whistle-Stop Tour for Civil Rights. Helen Kampion and Reneé Critcher Lyons. Illustrated by Erin McGuire. Cherry Lake Publishing Group / Sleeping Bear Press. 40pp. ISBN 9781534113015. $18.99. (I) An informative and powerful exploration of First Lady Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson’s campaign for civil rights, examining its context, causes, and lasting effects. Whistle-Stop Facts, Whistle-Stop Timeline, Author’s Note. (IKJ)
On All Other Nights: A Passover Celebration in 14 Stories. Editor Chris Baron, Joshua S. Levy, and Naomi Milliner. Illustrated by Shannon Hochman. ABRAMS / Amulet Books. 304pp. ISBN 9781419767296. $18.99. (I, M) This short story anthology is structured around the 14 elements of the Passover Seder. Each chapter features an informational description followed by a creative story that illustrates the theme. Foreword, Recipes. (VSW)
Borderlands and the Mexican American Story (Race to the Truth) David Dorado Romo. RHCB / Crown BFYR. 352pp. ISBN 9780593567753. $8.99. (M, H) This essential book provides a concise overview of Mexican American history, covering a wide range of topics in brief, accessible chapters. Questions, Bibliography, Resources. (MM)
The Rez Doctor. Gitz Crazyboy. Illustrated by Veronika Barinova, Azby Whitecalf, and Toben Racicot. Portage &
Samba! The Heartbeat of a Community: Ailton Nuñes’s Musical Journey. Philip Hoelzel. Illustrated by Andre Ceolin. Cherry Lake Publishing Group / Sleeping Bear Press. 40pp. ISBN 9781534112957. $19.99. (P, I) This tale of passion and dreams highlights Brazil’s music history, community, and socio-economic diversity, telling the true story of samba director Mestre Ailton Nunes. Author’s Note, Instrument Descriptions, Glossary. (MM)
The Sculptors of Light. Margarita Engle. Illustrated by Cecilia Puglesi. Benchmark Education / Reycraft Books. 32pp. ISBN 9781478879602. $19.95. (I, M) A great resource for teaching the value of diversity, this poetry collection highlights the lives and legacies of eight unsung Cuban women artists who have redefined art in their communities. (DJC)
Stealing Little Moon: The Legacy of the American Indian Boarding Schools. Dan Sasuweh Jones. Scholastic / Scholastic Focus. 304pp. ISBN 9781338889475. $19.99
(M, H) This research-based narrative blends American and family history to address Native American boarding schools. It explores the mistreatment of Indigenous children, celebrating their strength, courage, and determination in the face of efforts to erase their culture. Bibliography. (MM)
Stitches of Tradition (Gashkigwaaso Tradition) Marcie Rendon. Illustrated by Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley. HarperCollins / Heartdrum. 40pp. ISBN 9780063218680. $19.99. (P, I) An Ojibwe grandmother makes ribbon skirts for her granddaughter to honor significant events, including a naming ceremony, the gift of wild rice in the fall, Auntie becoming a district judge, and the granddaughter’s comingof-age ceremony. Glossary, Author’s Note. (VSW)
They Call Me Teach: Lesson in Freedom Lesa Cline-Ransome. Illustrated by James E. Ransome. Candlewick Press. 40pp. ISBN 9780763681555. $18.99. (I) This picture book tells the story of a young enslaved Black man who secretly learns to read and write. Known as “Teach” by those around him, he keeps his abilities hidden in order to help others. Author’s Note (DC)
Warrior on the Mound. Sandra W. Headen. Holiday House. 272pp. ISBN 9780823453788. $18.99. (M) Warrior on the Mound will captivate middle-grade students, particularly those interested in sports. Twelve-yearold Cato dreams of playing baseball but must confront segregation, social injustice, and the violence of the 1930s South. The book explores complex social issues through the lens of sports. Author’s Note, a History in the News, Timeline of Black Americans in Baseball, Resources. (KB)
Toypurina: Japchivit Leader, Medicine Woman, Tongva Rebel. Cheyenne M. Stone and Glenda Armand. Illustrated by Katie Dorame. Little Bee Books. 40pp. ISBN 9781499814668. $18.99. (P) This book tells the story of Toypurina, a courageous Tongva medicine woman who led a revolt against Spanish colonization in 1785 California. It celebrates her bravery and resistance, offering readers a deeper understanding of Indigenous history and strength. Afterwords, Authors’ Note, Illustrator’s Note, Resources. (MB)
A Voice of Hope: The Myrlie Evers-Williams Story Nadia Solomon. Illustrated by London Ladd. PYR / Philomel Books 40pp. ISBN 9780593525913. $18.99. (P, I) The untold story of Myrlie Evers-Williams, wife of Medgar Evers, and the profound impact of her role in the civil rights movement. (SW)
Whose Right Is It? The Fourteenth Amendment and the Fight for Equality. Hana Bajramovic. Macmillan Children’s Group / Henry Holt and Co. (BYR). 240pp. ISBN 9781250225276. $24.99. (H) This informational text explores the Fourteenth Amendment, using primary sources to examine its impact on the past, present, and future. Resources, Bibliography, Index (AMM)
Why We Dance: A Story of Hope and Healing. Deidre Havrelock. Illustrated by Aly McKnight. ABRAMS / Abrams Books for Young Readers. 40pp. ISBN 9781419756672. $18.99. (M) This Indigenous story highlights the cultural significance of dance, family, and community, with vibrant artwork that deepens the understanding of history. Includes Background Information. (MM)
SOCIAL INTERACTIONS/RELATIONSHIPS
Asking for a Friend. Ronnie Riley. Scholastic / Scholastic Press. 272pp. ISBN 9781339027647. $19.99. (M, H) A heartwarming and hilarious tale of good intentions overcoming anxiety and fear, this story encourages and appeals to the scared kid inside us all. Includes Author’s Note, Queer Glossary. (IKJ)
Born A Girl: It Takes Courage. Written and illustrated by Alice Dussutour. Translated by David Warriner. Orca Book Publishers. 176pp. ISBN 9781459838987. $29.95. (M) This compelling collection presents diverse stories
of gender inequality from a global perspective. Unique characters share varied experiences of girlhood, while stunning artwork and powerful text deepen the emotional impact of each narrative. Resources. (MM)
Codebreaker Charlotte. Written and illustrated by Cedar Wang. Clavis. 32pp. ISBN 9781605379999. $19.95. (P) The love between a grandmother and granddaughter is woven throughout this powerful story about codebreaking and women’s empowerment. (SW)
Hair Like Obama’s, Hands Like Lebron’s. Carole Boston Weatherford. Illustrated by Savanna Durr. ABRAMS / Abrams Appleseed. 40pp. ISBN 9781419771484. $18.99. (P) A lively picture book inspired by a moment when a child touches President Obama’s hair, celebrating themes of identity, strength, and the power of representation in shaping young minds. Author’s Notes, About the Notable Figures in the Book. (MB)
highlighting themes of resilience and identity. Author’s Note. (MM)
Lupita’s Brown Ballet Slippers . Steena Hernandez. Illustrated by Melissa Castillo. 1517 Media / Beaming Books. 40pp. ISBN 9781506495767. $19.99. (P) This is a heartwarming story that challenges the notion that ballet is only for certain groups. Lupita loves to dance but needs ballet slippers that match her skin tone. The story follows her struggle to make this happen, illustrating how race, class, and financial resources intersect with the complexities of this art form. Author’s Note, Ballet is for Everyone. (KB)
I Am Both: A Vietnamese Refugee Story. Kerisa Greene. Macmillan Children’s Group / Feiwel & Friends. 48pp. ISBN 9781250865021. $18.99. (P, I) Full of vibrant imagery and vivid descriptions of life in Vietnam, this book tells the story of building a new life while cherishing memories of the old one. Author’s Note. (SW)
I’m from Here Too. Kashmira Sheth. Peachtree. 288pp. ISBN 9781682636060. $17.99. (M) This verse novel, told from an Indian American adolescent’s perspective, explores bullying, cultural identity, and Sikh history. With accessible text, it fills a gap in literature, offering valuable insight into cultural and religious backgrounds. (MM)
Kareem Between. Shifa Saltagi Safadi. PYR / G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers. 336pp. ISBN 9780593699263. $18.99. (M) This heartfelt comingof-age novel in verse follows a seventh-grade Syrian American boy navigating middle school challenges. It offers a family’s perspective on the Syrian refugee crisis,
My Name Is Long as a River . Suma Subramaniam. Illustrated by Tara Anand. PYR/ Penguin Workshop. 48pp. ISBN 9780593522936. $19.99. (P) This beautifully illustrated book explores the significance of names and identity through the story of a young girl whose long name holds profound cultural meaning. It is a heartfelt celebration of self-identity, the power of storytelling, and the importance of cultural traditions. Glossary, Author’s Note, Getting Names Right, About the Kaveri River, Poems. (BNB)
On the Block: Stories of Home . Ellen Oh. RHCB / Crown BFYR. 208pp. ISBN 9780593648445. $17.99. (I, M) This collection of stories portrays the lives of diverse families living in the Entrada, a New York apartment complex. Through its range of characters, the book offers students a variety of perspectives and lived experiences, helping broaden their worldview. It also explores important themes such as culture, identity, and language, providing a multifaceted look at the complexities of modern life. (KB)
Papa and Pearl: A Tale About Divorce, New Beginnings, and Love That Never Changes. Annette M. Clayton. Illustrated by Kimberley Barnes. Free Spirit Publishing. 36pp. ISBN 9798885544511. $18.99. (P, I) This poignant
story explores the complex relationship between a father and daughter, strained by the challenges of divorce. The book delves into the emotional intricacies of family dynamics and the impact of separation. It also includes a helpful note for children navigating similar experiences. (DJC)
Remember My Story: A Girl, a Holocaust Survivor, and a Friendship That Made History. Claire Sarnowski with Sarah Durand. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. 256pp. ISBN 9780316592895. $17.99. (I, M) This memoir tells the story of a Holocaust survivor turned speaker and a teenage girl who advocated for mandatory Holocaust education before the Oregon State Senate. Their unlikely friendship highlights the importance of combating hate and bridging generational divide. Author’s Note, Resources, Recommended Readings. (MB)
diverse neighborhood, community members come together to build a thriving, interconnected space. This book encourages children to reflect on their own roles in shaping and contributing to their communities. Author’s Notes, Discussion Questions. (AMM)
What Makes Us Human. Victor D.O. Santos. Illustrated by Anna Forlati. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company / Eerdmans Books for Young Readers & UNESCO. 48pp. ISBN 9780802856258. $18.99. (P, I) This book explores the integral role of language in society and history through a captivating riddle that highlights how words have shaped human development. Co-published by UNESCO, it includes illustrations that represent diverse cultures. Includes The Theme of This Book, A Note from UNESCO. (IKJ)
Tamales For Christmas. Stephen Briseño. Illustrated by Sonia Sánchez. RHCB / Random House Studio. 40pp. ISBN 9780593647813. $18.99. (P, I) Based on the true story of Briseño’s grandmother, this heartwarming book follows Grandma as she makes thousands of tamales to buy Christmas gifts for her family. It weaves themes of sacrifice, persistence, and the importance of family, capturing the spirit of holiday togetherness. Author’s Note, Recipe. (MM)
This Opening Sky. Kelly Hollman and Charlotte Watson Sherman. Bushel & Peck Books / Milk + Cookies. 160pp. ISBN 9781638192152. $14.99. (I, M) After the Civil War, Aurelia and Halle, unlikely companions, travel north in search of freedom for different reasons. As they journey together, they realize that true freedom requires standing united. Historical Notes, Publisher’s Notes, About the Author, About the Publisher. (AMM)
We are the Builders! Deepa Iyer. Illustrated by Romina Galotta. Simon & Schuster / S&S Books For Young Readers. 40pp. ISBN 9781665932431. $18.99. (P) In a
With Twice the Love, Dessie Mei. Justina Chen. HarperCollins / Katherine Tegen Books. 336pp. ISBN 9780063306523. $19.99. (I, M) Sixth grader Dessie Mei, adopted from China as a baby and raised in the United States, starts at a new school and unexpectedly discovers she has an identical twin sister. This heartfelt story explores themes of identity, family, and the forces that shape who we are. Resources, Further Reading. (IKJ)
WORLD HISTORY & CULTURE
Across So Many Seas . Ruth Behar. PYR / Nancy Paulsen Books. 272pp. ISBN 9780593323403. $17.99. (M) Spanning multiple generations, this book tells the stories of four girls from a Jewish family, each facing persecution and discrimination. Their experiences highlight how anti-Semitism has persisted across time, demonstrating that it is not just a modern-day phenomenon. Author’s Note. (SW)
A Crane Among Wolves. June Hur. Macmillan Children’s Group / Feiwel & Friends. 368pp. ISBN 9781250858092. $19.99. (M, H) A captivating blend of history,
studies story highlights the Muslim holiday of Ramadan and the Eid celebrations, filling a gap in holiday narratives. With family-centered themes and vibrant illustrations, the book fosters cultural understanding and brings the story’s themes to life. Glossary. (MM)
Pearl: A Graphic Novel. Sherri L. Smith. Illustrated by Christine Norrie. Scholastic / Graphix. 144pp. ISBN 9781338029420. $12.99. (M) Amy, a Japanese American girl, is stranded in Hiroshima during World War II. As she navigates shifting identities and allegiances, she struggles with loyalty, survival, and belonging in a world torn apart by conflict. (SH)
The Ramadan Drummer . Sahtinay Abaza. Illustrated by Dinara Mirtalipova. Benchmark Education / Reycraft Books. 40pp. ISBN 9781478879145. $17.95. (P, I) On a memorable night during Ramadan, Adam hears the rhythmic call of the Ramadan Drummer, who awakens the neighborhood for the pre-dawn meal. As Adam follows the drummer through the streets, he learns that community and generosity are at the heart of the holiday’s spirit. Author’s Note, Illustrator’s Note. (IKJ)
War II. The tree, symbolizing hope and resilience, has 600 descendants flourishing around the world today. Author’s Notes (MB)
Tricky Chopsticks. Sylvia Chen. Illustrated by Fanny Liem. Simon & Schuster / Atheneum Books For Young Readers. 40pp. ISBN 9781665921497. $18.99. (P, I) Inspired by the author’s childhood, this playful story follows a girl determined to master her family’s chopsticks challenge. Through STEAM-based problem-solving, she learns perseverance, creativity, and the joy of trial-and-error learning. Author’s Note, How to Make DIY Chopsticks Tongs Using an Origami Lucky Star. (SH)
Ukraine: Remember Also Me: Testimonies from the War. Written and illustrated by George Butler. Candlewick Press / Candlewick Studio. 168pp. ISBN 9781536240436. $27.66. (M) George Butler offers a collection of detailed and powerful first-account stories from the war in Ukraine. The text includes breathtaking illustrations that greatly enhance the volume. A great resource for a World History classroom. (DJC)
Seeker of Truth: Kailash Satyarthi’s Fight
to End
Child Labor. Srividhya Venkat. Illustrated by Danica da Silva Pereira. Little Bee Books. 40pp. ISBN 9781499815696. $18.99. (P) Kailash Satyarthi devoted his life to improving the conditions of children living in poverty. A central theme of this story is how one person has the power to create change and make a difference. Author’s Note. (SW)
The Tree of Life: How a Holocaust Sapling Inspired the World. Elisa Boxer. Illustrated by Alianna Rozentsveig. PYR / Rocky Pond Books. 40pp. ISBN 9780593617120. $18.99. (P) This poignant picture book recounts the true story of Jewish children in the Terezin concentration camp who secretly planted a maple sapling during World
What Happened on Thursday?: A Nigerian Civil War Story. Ayo Oyeku. Illustrated by Lydia Mba. Amazon Publishing / Amazon Crossing Kids. 40pp. ISBN 9781662504020. $17.99. (I) Told from the perspective of a young Nigerian boy, this age-appropriate story explores the consequences of war. Beautiful, textured illustrations enhance the storytelling, with an added explanation to deepen understanding. (MM)
When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary. Alice Hoffman. Scholastic / Scholastic Press. 304pp. ISBN 9781338856941. $19.99. (I, M) This retelling of Anne Frank’s life during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, before her family went into hiding, provides a powerful perspective. It’s an excellent ELA companion to a social studies unit on the topic. (PK)
REFERENCE
The History of Information
Written and illustrated by Chris Haughton. DK. 144pp. ISBN 9780744091915. $24.99. (I) This book explores human intelligence through problem-solving, highlighting how our species has dominated the globe by continuously advancing technology, from simple stone tools to the modern era. It covers the evolution of innovations, from early writing to the internet, and examines how each revolutionized human progress. Index (DC)
The Children’s Book Council
The Children’s Book Council is the nonprofit trade association of children’s book publishers in North America. The CBC offers children’s publishers the opportunity to work together on issues important to the industry at large, including educational programming, literacy advocacy, and collaborations with other national organizations, including NCSS. The CBC has established Every Child a Reader, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by donations and grants, that administers three major national programs: Children’s Book Week since 1919; Get Caught Reading; and the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Learn more at www. everychildareader.net. Other bibliographies on which the CBC cooperates:
• Outstanding Science Trade Books
Printed in the June issues of Science and Children, Science Scope, and The Science Teacher, a joint project of the National Science Teachers Association and the CBC. For information on how to obtain a copy of this booklet, contact the Children’s Book Council at cbc.info@cbcbooks.org. Or go to www.cbcbooks.org/ outstanding-science.
• Best STEM Books for K-12 Students
Published in the March issues of NSTA’s K-12 journals and online, a joint project of the National Science Teachers Association and the CBC. For information, contact CBC at cbc.info@cbcbooks.org. Or go to www.cbcbooks.org/best-stem.
National Council for the Social Studies
NCSS is a professional, non-profit association for social studies teachers and educators at all levels, from early childhood through college. It engages and supports teachers in strengthening and advocating social studies.
NCSS publishes two major journals. Social Education addresses all levels of the profession, offering articles whose subjects range from the latest research to practical classroom ideas. Social Studies and the Young Learner is devoted to K-5 social studies education, meeting teachers’ needs for new information and effective teaching activities. Middle Level Learning, which provides ideas and activities for the middle grades, is an online supplement published three times a year.
NCSS members receive a subscription to either Social Education or Social Studies and the Young Learner. All members can access the online NCSS newsletter, The Social Studies Professional, with professional news, opportunities, resources for teachers, workshops, travel and study programs, and NCSS activities.
NCSS developed and published the national social studies standards, National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, which are used nationally as a basis for curriculum planning and student performance assessment. The annotations in this list include references to the thematic strands of the social studies standards to which the book relates (see page 2).
This list of Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People is an NCSS member benefit, published in the May/June issue of Social Education, which is sent to all members. The list is available to members at www.socialstudies.org/ notable-trade-books.
For information on membership and services, e-mail membership@ncss.org, call 301-588-1800, or visit www.socialstudies.org/membership. NCSS is located at 8555 Sixteenth Street, Suite 500, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910. Visit NCSS online at www. socialstudies.org.
This list is a joint project of NCSS and the Children’s Book Council.
NCSS Publications: Jennifer Bauduy, Editor • Nancy Driver, Director of Publications • Rich Palmer, Art Manager
Carter G. Woodson Book Awards, 2025
The Carter G. Woodson Book Award, established in 1974, honors exceptional nonfiction and informational trade books that highlight the diverse cultural experiences of ethnic groups in the United States. Named for Dr. Carter G. Woodson, historian, educator, and father of Black History Month, this award reflects his commitment to amplifying underrepresented voices and providing engaging narratives that deepen historical empathy and understanding. This year ’s honorees uphold the award’s values, offering accurate, authentic stories that enrich classrooms and libraries while promoting awareness and appreciation of our shared heritage.
Sydney G. Beauchamp, Chair, Carter G. Woodson, Septima Clark Women in Literature, & the Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray Book Awards Committee
Elementary Winner
The Rock in My Throat, by Kao Kalia Yang, illustrated by Jiemei Lin. Carolrhoda Books, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group. Reviewed by Elizabeth Sturm, Associate Professor, Department of Education, Lewis University, Romeoville, Illinois.
What can a young child do when they see loved ones face discrimination? In The Rock in My Throat, Kao Kalia Yang portrays how, after arriving in America as a refugee, she watched her Hmong-speaking mother face linguistic intolerance. In first grade, Yang responds by stopping her speech altogether, reflecting in the Author ’s Note, “It was my great revolution against a world I knew was not listening to [my mother].”
While the Author ’s Note details how Yang eventually finds her voice, the main story focuses
on her experience with selective mutism and her sense of isolation as a child in an environment unwelcoming to difference. Illustrator Jiemei Lin’s subdued color palette visually represents Yang’s loneliness, transforming into brighter hues toward the end as she finds a potential friend, offering a glimmer of hope.
Social Studies Themes: CULTURE; TIME, CONTINUITY, AND CHANGE; PEOPLE, PLACES, AND ENVIRONMENTS; INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY; INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS, AND INSTITUTIONS; POWER, AUTHORITY, AND GOVERNANCE.
Elementary Honor
A Map for Falasteen: A Palestinian Child’s Search for Home, by Maysa Odeh, illustrated by Aliaa Betawi. Henry Holt and Co. Reviewed by Jennifer Gallagher, Associate Professor in Social Studies Education, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina.
In A Map for Falasteen, author Maysa Odeh narrates the journey of Falasteen, a young Palestinian American girl who struggles with the absence of her homeland on her classroom map. When her teacher dismissively claims, “I think there’s no such place,” Falasteen turns to her family for understanding. Her grandfather draws a
personal map of cherished Palestinian locations, her grandmother recounts the heart-wrenching story of fleeing their village while clutching the family’s house key, and her mother shares the wisdom that “Palestine lives in you and me.” Through these intimate stories, the book highlights the profound impact of displacement and the enduring significance of homeland preserved in memories, traditions, and familial bonds. It also encourages young readers to recognize that maps are not neutral; they reflect power dynamics and often erase entire communities through political and historical forces. Aliaa Betawi’s evocative illustrations amplify the narrative, capturing both the sorrow of loss and the resilience of cultural identity. This heartfelt picture book is a vital resource for understanding the complexities of the refugee experience and the deep connection between identity and place.
Social Studies Themes: CULTURE; PEOPLE, PLACES, AND ENVIRONMENT; INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY.
Middle Level Winner
The Doll Test: Choosing Equality, by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by David Elmo Cooper Carolrhoda Books. Reviewed by Valencia Abbott, History Teacher, Rockingham Early College High School, Wentworth, North Carolina.
makes this complex history accessible to young readers while engaging adults. The book highlights the emotional and scientific significance of Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark’s doll test. In the experiment, young Black children presented with Black and white dolls overwhelmingly chose the white doll, revealing the devastating impact of segregation and systemic racism on children’s self-esteem. David Elmo Cooper ’s evocative illustrations complement the text, deepening its emotional resonance. Through its narrative and artwork, the book emphasizes the power of science, empathy, and courage in the fight for equality, inspiring action.
Social Studies Themes: CULTURE; TIME, CONTINUITY, AND CHANGE; PEOPLE, PLACES, AND ENVIRONMENTS; INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY; INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS, AND INSTITUTIONS; POWER, AUTHORITY, AND GOVERNANCE.
Middle Level Honor
We Sing from the Heart: How the Slants® Took Their Fight for Free Speech to the Supreme Court, by Mia Wenjen, illustrated by Victor Bizar Gómez. Red Comet Press. Reviewed by Sarah Segal, Seventh Grade Teacher, Hood River Middle School, Hood River, Oregon.
In this book, Carole Boston Weatherford explores the landmark psychological experiment that reshaped the fight for racial equality in America. Weatherford’s graceful writing
When Simon Tam, lead singer of The Slants® , petitioned to trademark the band’s name in 2010, the U.S. government denied his request, deeming it racist. This began the band’s legal fight to reappropriate the slur as a term of pride for Asian Americans. In We Sing from the Heart, Mia Wenjen chronicles Tam’s life from defining experiences as the child of Chinese immigrants through to his 2017 Supreme Court free speech victory. The book features powerful illustrations, lyrics from the band’s anthem “From the Heart,” and text boxes offering definitions and context for middle-grade readers. Backmatter include sources, a list of other anti-
Septima P. Clark Women in Literature Book Award, 2025
The Septima Clark Women in Literature Award, established in 2019, honors exceptional nonfiction and informational trade books that highlight the stories, perspectives, and achievements of women. Named for Septima Poinsette Clark, a trailblazing educator and civil rights activist, this award celebrates her legacy of using education to advance justice and equality. This award recognizes well-crafted, original, and undertold stories of women who shaped history. This year ’s honorees embody resilience and courage, showcasing diverse experiences across time and cultures. These powerful books inspire, educate, and enrich classrooms and libraries with transformative narratives.
Sydney G. Beauchamp, Chair, Carter G. Woodson, Septima Clark Women in Literature, & the Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray Book Awards Committee
Elementary Winner
Swinging into History: Toni Stone: Big-League Baseball’s First Woman Player, by Karen L. Swanson, illustrated by Laura Freeman. Calkins Cree. Reviewed by Rachel K. Turner, Assistant Professor of Elementary Education, Utah State University, Price, Utah.
Toni “Tomboy” Stone was the first woman— and first Black woman—to play professional baseball.
Swinging Into History tells her story, beginning with her childhood love for baseball. Despite her parents’ attempts to steer her toward other activities, Toni’s passion for the game prevailed. With the help of her priest, she joined her church baseball team, hiding her hair to blend in with the boys.
When a baseball camp for white boys came to town, Toni catches the eye of a former professional player and gains the confidence to try out for the Negro League at just 15. She made the
team and leveraged her gender to attract fans, all while navigating racism and Jim Crow laws. Filled with quotes from Toni and newspaper articles, the book highlights her perseverance and impact on the game.
Social Studies Themes: CULTURE; PEOPLE, PLACES AND ENVIRONMENTS; INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY.
Elementary Honor
Introducing Sandwina: The Strongest Woman in the World!, by Vicki Conrad, illustrated by Jeremy Holmes. Calkins Creek, An Imprint of Astra Books for Young Readers. Reviewed by Sydney G. Beauchamp, Teaching Professor, Indiana University South Bend, South Bend, Indiana.
This wonderful biography introduces Katie Brumbach, known as Sandwina, a remarkable woman born into a German family circus. With her incredible strength, Katie defied gender norms, outperforming even her
father in their family’s act. After marrying a fellow performer and starting a family, Katie continued to awe audiences, balancing motherhood and career. Her talent caught the attention of John Ringling, propelling her to international fame.
What sets this book apart is how it links Sandwina’s story to the women’s suffrage movement, highlighting her advocacy for women’s rights as part of the “circus suffragists.” Jeremy Holmes’s illustrations and photos vividly complement the narrative.
Backmatter includes additional photos, a timeline, insights into her family life, and an exploration of the circus suffragists, enriching Sandwina’s story and offering readers a broader understanding of her impact. Author Vicki Conrad shares her inspiration, offering a deeper connection to Katie’s extraordinary life.
Social Studies Themes: TIME, CONTINUITY AND CHANGE; PEOPLE, PLACES, AND ENVIRONMENTS; INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY.
Middle Level Winner
Go Forth and Tell: The Life of Augusta Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller, by Breanna J. McDaniel, illustrated by April Harrison. Reviewed by Ann Adkins, Fifth Grade Teacher, Omaha, Nebraska.
In Go Forth and Tell, McDaniel highlights the life and legacy of Augusta Baker, a pioneering storyteller and activist. Born in 1911, Augusta always loved stories. She was drawn to books and became a librarian in the New York Public Library system. Early in her career, noticing the absence of books representing the Black children with whom she worked at the library branch in Harlem, she advocated for stories that authentically reflected the lives of African American children. Her work, however, didn’t stop there. As her career progressed, her impact extended through radio, as a consultant for the
Sesame Street television series, as a writer, and as an educator at Columbia University. This beautifully told story honors a woman who positively influenced literature. Harrison’s bright, colorful illustrations capture the joy Augusta Baker brought through her storytelling and activism.
Social Studies Themes: CULTURE; INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY.
Middle Level Honor
Miles of Style: Eunice W. Johnson and the Ebony Fashion Fair, by Lisa D. Brathwaite, illustrated by Lynn Gaines. Lee and Low Books. Jennifer Welch, History Teacher, Passaic Academy for Science and Engineering, Passaic, New Jersey.
Students who enjoy art and fashion will be intrigued by Eunice Johnson’s use of fashion to uplift individuals and communities. Johnson, who believed “beauty and dignity were things everyone should experience,” began sewing for herself and others as a child. In 1945, she and her husband founded Ebony magazine to provide positive depictions of African Americans. In 1963, she launched the “Ebony Fashion Fair,” a fashion show that raised funds for scholarships and charities while promoting Black models and designers, even amidst the challenges of traveling through the Jim Crow South. The book also includes two pages of historical background for adults and sourcing notes.
Social Studies Themes: (1) CULTURE; (4) INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY
Secondary Winner
Mamie Phipps Clark: Champion for Children, by Lynette Mawhinney, illustrated by Neil Evans. Magination Press. Jennifer Welch, History Teacher, Passaic Academy for Science and Engineering, Passaic, New Jersey
Mamie Phipps Clark is a work of graphic non-fiction that highlights the contributions of
psychologist Mamie Phipps Clark, whose work was overshadowed by her husband, Dr. Kenneth Clark. The book covers their courtship at Howard University and their achievements as the first African Americans to earn doctorates in psychology from Columbia University.
Mamie Clark’s research on Black children’s racial identity led to the “doll test,” which became key evidence in the Brown v. Board of Education case. The book also explores Mamie’s work beyond the 1950s, including her role in designing Head Start. The book opens with a note explaining its use of historically appropriate terms for African Americans and includes additional historical context at the end of most chapters, along with an invitation to action. It also features an extensive timeline, bibliography, and glossary of key terms Social Studies Themes: CULTURE; TIME, CONTINUITY, AND CHANGE; INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY.
Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray Book Award, 2025
The Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray Book Award, established in 2024, honors outstanding nonfiction trade books that illuminate diverse gender expressions, identities, and pivotal historical events. Inspired by Pauli Murray’s legacy as a Black, queer legal scholar, activist, and educator, this award reflects their fight for racial and gender equity. This award was created with support from The Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice and recognizes books that embody Murray’s compassionate spirit, authenticity, and truth-telling. This year ’s honorees exemplify these values, offering powerful narratives that support understanding, equity, and historical awareness that will enrich classrooms and libraries.
Sydney G. Beauchamp, Chair, Carter G. Woodson, Septima Clark Women in Literature, & the Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray Book Awards Committee
Elementary Winner
Guts for Glory: The Story of Civil War Soldier
Rosetta Wakeman, by Joanna Lapati. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. Reviewed by Ann Adkins, Fifth Grade Teacher, Omaha, Nebraska.
Though their stories are rarely told or their service acknowledged, many women are believed to have served as soldiers in the
Civil War. Author Joanna Lapati tells the story of Rosetta Wakeman, who left home at 19 disguised as a man and took the name Lyons Wakeman. Wakeman worked for a time on the Chenango Canal, and upon reaching Canajoharie, New York, joined a regiment that was forming. Thus began Wakeman’s military career, documented in letters sent home and later published. Sadly, like many soldiers in the war, Lyons died of dysentery after about two years of service.
What immediately stands out about this book are the illustrations—detailed scratchboard images that capture the setting of the story’s events. Careful study of the art reveals much; Rosetta Wakeman’s own letters provide background for
some illustrations. Endnotes, including a discussion of her artwork, offer further insight into the extensive research Lapati invested in telling this story.
Social Studies Themes: CULTURE; TIME, CONTINUITY, AND CHANGE; INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY; INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS, AND INSTITUTIONS.
Middle Level Winner
Glenn Burke, Game Changer: The Man Who Invented the High Five, by Phil Bildner, illustrated by Daniel J. O’Brien. Farrar Straus Giroux. Reviewed by Elizabeth Sturm, Associate Professor, Department of Education, Lewis University, Romeoville, Illinois.
In 1972, Glenn Burke, a talented 19-year-old athlete from California, signed with Utah’s Ogden Dodgers and later became an outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers. This biography highlights Burke’s remarkable talent and passion for sports. Unfortunately, despite his abilities, Burke faced discrimination when team managers discovered he was gay. Before being forced out of the game he loved, he made a mark as the first to use a high-five hand gesture to congratulate a teammate. As author Phil Bildner writes, Burke was a game changer, paving the way for future players to live authentic lives. Daniel J. O’Brien’s illustrations deepen the emotional impact, capturing the highs and lows of Burke’s too-short life.
Social Studies Themes: CULTURE; TIME, CONTINUITY, AND CHANGE; INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY; (5) INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS, AND INSTITUTIONS; POWER, AUTHORITY, AND GOVERNANCE.
Middle Level Honor
Queer and Fearless: Poems Celebrating the Lives of LGBTQ+ Heroes, by Rob Sanders, illustrated by Harry Woodgate. Penguin Workshop. Reviewed by Sarah Segal, Seventh Grade Teacher, Hood River Middle School, Hood River, Oregon.
Queer and Fearless Queer and Fearless celebrates 17 heroes who advocated for LGBTQ+ rights. Each vibrantly illustrated page features an iconic, stylized poem by author Rob Sanders, alongside a biographical sidebar highlighting the individual’s life and contributions to the LGBTQ+ movement. Action verbs in the page titles spotlight their contributions:
“Jose Ran for Office,” “Bayard Planned a March,” “Jeff and Aditi Lit a Rainbow.”
A versatile resource for educating middle-level learners about Queer pioneers’ experiences and history, while providing teachers with poetic genre examples. Backmatter includes “About the Poems,” which lists the types of poems Sanders used. For example, a Diamante poem (a seven-line poem that forms the shape of a diamond) honors Cleve Jones’ creation of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, while an abecedarian poem (organized around the alphabet) commemorates Marsha P. Johnson’s involvement in the Stonewall Uprising Social Studies Themes: TIME, CONTINUITY, AND CHANGE; PEOPLE, PLACES, AND ENVIRONMENTS; INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY; INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS, AND INSTITUTIONS; POWER, AUTHORITY, AND GOVERNANCE; CIVIC IDEALS AND PRACTICES.
Secondary Winner
Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I’d Known, by George M. Johnson, illustrated by Charly Palmer. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR). Reviewed by Kimi Waite, Assistant Professor of Child and Family Studies, California State University, Los Angeles.
Dedicated “to the people who choose to live in their unapologetic truths, despite a world that continues to try to dim their light,” this book celebrates writers, activists, and musicians from the queer Harlem Renaissance who continue to shape American culture today. Fourteen biographies of Black and queer trailblazers, including notable figures like Langston Hughes and Josephine
Celebrating Black Brilliance Using Milo Imagines the World
Lisa Brown Buchanan and Ellie Cotton
Decades of research confirm the persistent underrepresentation of Black children in picture books. 1 Recent data from UW-Madison’s Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) shows only a slight increase in books with Black characters, despite calls for more accurate representation of today’s children. In 2022, books with White protagonists nearly doubled those featuring characters of color, and nonhuman characters appeared more often than any BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or People of Color) group. This disparity is compounded by the overuse of folktales to represent cultures. Scholar Louise Derman-Sparks argues that folktales offer a monolithic view and fail to depict how people live today. 2
Beyond the low number of books with BIPOC characters, authorship is also an issue, especially when White authors write Black characters. 3 The CCBC notes that BIPOC-authored titles remain significantly fewer than those by majority-group authors, continuing a history of outsiders telling diverse stories. 4 This lack of Black representation affects all children, as an overrepresentation of one group can distort self-perception and limit perspectives. Many children have intersecting identities, yet most books present single stories of race. 5 The lack of intersectional representation reinforces a monolithic view and further marginalizes books with Black characters.
Picture books that explore intersectionality alongside everyday experiences offer valuable
classroom opportunities.They highlight identity’s fluidity and help students see themselves in stories. Such books are essential at home and in school. As educators move beyond a multicultural lens, scholar Bettina Love urges them to center Blackness and Black joy. 6 We believe that Milo Imagines the World , by Matt De La Peña, is a powerful starting point for early elementary classroom encounters around identity and children’s daily lives.
Book selection is a key instructional decision, as texts convey powerful messages to young learners. Thoughtful selection ensures authentic representation of race, family, and social structures, shaping identity and attitudes toward difference.
Black Brilliance
Recent books highlight notable Black figures and celebrate Black lives ( e.g., B is for Black Brilliance ), addressing representation gaps in areas like STEM. However, children also need stories of Black brilliance in everyday life. 7 Black brilliance encompasses the vast skills, intellect, and talents of Black people—artistic, scientific, mathematical, social, and more. 8 In short, Black brilliance is the vast array of skills and dispositions of Black people. Centering Black brilliance in picture books challenges incomplete narratives of Blackness and fosters deeper understanding. 9 Moreover, depicting Black children’s brilliance in daily life disrupts stereotypes of both childhood and Black identity. 10
thought-provoking read that invites interactive engagement with Social Studies Standard INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY. We use it as a mentor text in an interactive read-aloud workshop, where teachers pause with students to discuss and respond to the story. First, we outline how to conduct an interactive read-aloud, then introduce a guided writing activity in an interview format, and finally, share a curated set of picture books.18
Teacher Facilitated Think Aloud
Milo offers at least two ongoing opportunities for a think aloud. First, an ongoing think aloud predicting where Milo is heading on the bus through the city. As students read, they can infer and predict based on settings and stops along the way. Once Milo arrives to see his mother, students can discuss their predictions and how they are alike or different from the storyline. Second, the teacher can facilitate an ongoing think aloud of examples of joy. Whether it is Milo experiencing joy or the secondary characters, De La Peña and Robinson thoughtfully walk readers through numerous depictions of joy in the book. Teachers can join students in a focused think aloud of the two-page spread where the author asks, “What do people imagine about his face?” Additional think aloud opportunities include: contemplate the process that Milo went through from his original drawings to his revised drawings; discuss noticings and
wonderings along the bus route; identify the phrases and figurative language that illustrate Milo’s emotions and share when you have had similar feelings; identify the ways Milo is brilliant; and formulate endings to sentence starters such as “this made me think of” and “this was interesting to me because.”
Suggested Discussion Questions
Teacher thinking aloud is a fantastic strategy for whole group discussion, but at times, students need more time and space to allow everyone to share. Using a triad model of think, pair, share is one solution to creating more time and space for young learners. Prepared discussion questions can support student facilitated triad discussions and also serve as a summative assessment. The discussion questions provided below for Milo are grounded in Muhammad’s historically responsive literacy.
Exploring Identity and Joy Using Student Led Interviews
A culminating activity for young learners using Milo Imagines the World is student-led interviews. The interview format for research and recording is a wonderful application of guided writing. Teachers can offer at least three options for publishing the described student-led interviews: written, audio, or video format.
Pursuit Questions
Identity
Skills
Intellect
Criticality
If you were to draw a picture to represent yourself, what would you include?
What do we know about Milo’s family through the drawings in the book? What things can we not know about Milo and the other characters from reading the book? Were there parts of the text or drawings that affirmed a part of you? Would you like to share?
How do you think Milo would describe himself? How might others describe Milo? What details from the story help you to learn more about Milo? Discuss how Milo’s drawings expand your understanding of the story.
What are you thinking about after reading Milo Imagines the World? We can learn a good amount of information from a picture walk, but picture walks are not complete. What information do we not know from a picture walk of Milo? What do you hope people imagine about you when they look at you?
How many of Milo’s experiences and identities are similar and different from your own? If you were to redraw Milo’s original pictures, what might they look like? Discuss scene by scene in a triad.
How does this book help us to think about families? About our own experiences and others’ experiences with joy?
Joy
Select 1-2 drawings in Milo Imagines the World that illustrate joy. Describe to your triad how you see joy illustrated in the drawing. In this story, Milo drew out some of the many stories of his life. Sometimes those stories were examples of joy and sometimes he experienced other emotions. If you were to select 1-2 stories to share through drawings, what stories would you share?
1. What surprised you about this book? Were you able to predict what happened next?
2. How is Milo’s family similar/different to the family in this book?
Imagines the World offers strong promise for engaging the concepts of Black brilliance, identity and joy with young children.
Notes
1. Wayne Au, Anthony Brown, and Dolores Calderon, Reclaiming the Multicultural Roots of U.S. Curriculum (New York: Teachers College Press, 2016); Nancy Larrick, “The All-White World of Children’s Books,” Saturday Review 11, 63, (1965): 84–85.
3. What are the things you cannot know from a single interaction or observation of someone? Of a family?
4. Can you think of a time that you thought something about someone you met, and realized later you were wrong? What made you reconsider your thinking?
2. Louise Derman-Sparks, “Guide for Selecting Anti-bias Children’s Books,” Social Justice Books: A Teaching for Change project,” (2024), https://socialjusticebooks.org/ guide-for-selecting-anti-bias-childrens-books
3. Roberta Gardner,“The Present Past: Black Authors and the Anti-Black Selective Tradition in Children’s Literature,” Journal of Children’s Literature 46, 2 (2020): 8-18.
4. Kayla Whaley, “#OwnVoices: Why We Need Diverse Authors in Children’s Literature,” Read Brightly (2024), www.readbrightly.com/why-we-need-diverse-authors-inkids-ya-lit/#0
5. Kimberle Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color,” Stanford Law Review 43, no. 6 (1991): 1241-1299; Crenshaw, “The Urgency of Intersectionality,” TED (2016), www.youtube.com/watch?v=akOe5-UsQ2o
A Resource for High School Educators
Visit the Humanities and Opera Education Hub to discover free lesson plans and supporting materials about literary works adapted into operas.
In these lessons, students explore the interpretive choices creators have made and are then prompted to make their own. These flexible lessons meet dozens of learning standards in creative, participatory ways to help students better understand these literary works.
No prior opera or music knowledge necessary!
6. Bettina Love, We Want to do More than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom (New York: Beacon Press, 2018).
7. Jonda McNair and Rudine Bishop, “‘To be Great, Heroic or Beautiful’: The Enduring Legacy of The Brownies’ Book,” The Horn Book Magazine 94, no. 3 (2018): 28–34.
8. Brian Wright and Shelly Counsell, The Brilliance of Black Boys: Cultivating School Success in the Early Grades (New York: Teachers College Press, 2018).
9. Gardner, “The Present Past,” 8; Wright and Counsell.
10. Rudine Sims Bishop, “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors,” Perspectives 6, no. 3 (1990): ix-xi; Rudine Sims Bishop, “Reflections on the Development of African American Children’s Literature,” Journal of Children’s Literature 38, no. 2 (2021): 5–13; Wright and Counsell.
11. Gholdy Muhammad and LaTasha Mosley, “Why We Need Identity and Equity Learning in Literacy Practices: Moving Research, Practice, and Policy Forward,” The Language Arts 98, no. 4 (2021): 189–196.
12. Gholdy Muhammad, Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy (New York: Scholastic, 2020); Gholdy Muhammad, Unearthing Joy: A Guide to Culturally and Historically Responsive Curriculum and Instruction (New York: Scholastic Professional, 2023).
13. Muhammad, Cultivating Genius
14. Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins.”
15. Bishop, “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors”; “Reflections on the Development of African American Children’s Literature.”
16. Rhiannon Maton, Breeanna Dexter, Nicolette McKeon, Emily Urias-Velasquez, and Breanna Washington, “Far Apart, Close in Heart: Exploring Representations of Familial Incarceration in Children’s Picturebooks,” Journal of Children’s Literature 48, no. 2 (2022): 23–32.
17. Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell, “What is Interactive Read Aloud?” Fountas and Pinnell Literacy, (Jan. 25, 2019), https://fpblog.fountasandpinnell.com/what-is-interactiveread-aloud.
18. Christina Tschida and Lisa Buchanan, “Tackling Controversial Topics: Developing Thematic Text Sets for Elementary Social Studies,” Social Studies Research and Practice 10, no. 3 (2015): 40-56; Tschida and Buchanan, “What Makes a Family? Sharing Multiple Perspectives Using an Inclusive Text Set,” Social Studies and the Young Learner 30, no. 2 (2017): 3–7.
References
Buchanan, Lisa, Cara Ward, and Amy Senta. “Teaching for Black Joy in Elementary Teacher Education.” In Teaching Diverse Youth Literature to Pre-Service Professionals, ed. Danielle Hartsfield, 360-377. Charlotte: IGI Global, 2021.
Cooperative Children’s Book Center. “Data on books by and about Blacks, Indigenous and People of Color published for children and teens compiled by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, School of Education,” University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2023. https://ccbc.education.wisc. edu/literature-resources/ccbc-diversity-statistics/booksby-about-poc-fnn
Davis, Jill Nicole Pearce, and Mychaelon Mullins. “Missing Boys: The Limited Representation of Black Males in Caldecott Books.” Journal of Children’s Literature 47, no. 1 (2021): 10–20.
Khiantani, Nidhi and Lisa Buchanan. “Disrupting Dominant Narratives of Asian Americans in the United States using Yang’s Front Desk.” Social Studies and the Young Learner 35, no. 1 (2022): 11–18.
Pauker, Kristen, Ambady, Nalini, and Evan Apfelbaum. “Race Salience and Essentialist Thinking in Racial Stereotype Development.” Child Development 81, no. 6 (2010): 1799–1813.
Rodriguez, Noreen and Amanda Vickery. “Much Bigger Than a Hamburger: Disrupting Problematic Picturebook Depictions of the Civil Rights Movement.” International Journal of Multicultural Education 22, no. 2 (2020): 109–128.
Sensoy, Özlem and Robin DiAngelo. Is Everyone Really Equal? An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education, 2nd ed (New York: Teachers College Press, 2017).
Willoughby, Vanessa. “37 Picture Books That Celebrate #BlackJoy” School Library Journal (2020).
Lisa Brown Buchanan is an Associate Professor of Education in the Dr. Jo Watts Williams School of Education. Prior to entering teacher education, she taught elementary grades in North Carolina’s Piedmont region. Her scholarship focuses on teacher candidates’ and inservice teachers’ beliefs and decision-making, social studies education, and the pedagogy of children's literature and film.
Ellie Cotton is a third grade teacher at a year-round school in Wake County Public Schools in North Carolina. She is a 2024 alumna of Elon University.
Zines in the Social Studies Classroom: A Pedagogy of Teaching for Social Justice
Kimi Waite
Throughout history, students have taken to the streets to demand an education that reflects their lives and empowers them to better the world. From the Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-Ins to the 1968 East Los Angeles Walkouts, and the ThirdWorld Liberation Front Strikes at San Francisco State University, K-12 and university students have been key organizers in social movements. More recently, movements like March For Our Lives and Fridays for Future continue this tradition. Thus, education must provide the necessary tools for students to engage in civic problem-solving and reenvisioning a more just society. Yet too often, when justice is taught in schools, it remains abstract and theoretical, lacking the practical tools needed for informed action. National social studies curriculum initiatives like the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework emphasize the importance of student inquiry, critical thinking, and taking informed action, which are essential for transforming these ideals into real-world change.1
Justice Work Must Lead With Race
Abolitionist teaching, which Dr. Bettina Love describes as “a way of life, a way of seeing the world, and a way of taking action against injustice,”2 involves teachers working in solidarity with students and school communities to prioritize freedom and humanity in all decisions. This requires listening to and empowering students with the tools that they need to lead. With this concept in mind, I taught an undergraduate course on ethnic identity and diversity at a minority serving institution, where students explored “counter-narratives”—stories that
challenge dominant narratives and contribute to the knowledge of marginalized communities.3 Students learned about the intersectionality of oppression, recognizing that systems like sexism, classism, and cis heterosexism must be understood through the lens of race and racism.4
The students engaged in a zine project, a five-step process that can be adapted for K-12 classrooms. Zines—self-published mini-magazines— are a valuable tool in social studies or history classrooms that emphasize teaching history for justice, centering counter-narratives, and teaching from the margins. Zines provide students with a creative outlet to amplify marginalized voices, challenge dominant narratives, and promote community education and mobilization on pressing social issues.
What is a Zine?
Zines often find a place in classrooms as an alternative teaching method that promotes creative self-expression. Derived from the term ‘fanzine’ (short magazines created by fans) and pronounced like “magazine,” zines have evolved beyond simple DIY (Do-It-Yourself) publications. Originating in the 1930s science fiction fandom, they grew in the 1950s and 1960s through underground presses, offering a platform for underrepresented voices outside mainstream media. By the 1970s, zines were cheaply printed for niche audiences and influenced by activist movements, including the punk and feminist movements, especially the Riot Grrrl movement.5 Today, zines provide a space for voices that have been historically excluded in traditional publishing, such as
Feminist Zines, Disability and Mental Health Zines, and Poetry Zines. To provide examples for students, teachers can share a library guide resource from Cornell University (https://guides.library. cornell.edu/zines101/history). This is also a good opportunity for high school students to learn about university library guides and their purpose. Students can practice their research and information literacy skills by looking for other university library guides that provide examples and a history of zines.
Zines offer students creative outlets to explore and engage with class topics, allowing them to channel ideas into art. They cover diverse subjects and offer freedom in writing styles, design, and expression, such as illustrations, fonts, and
photographs. Research has shown that zines enhance individual autonomy and empowerment in education.6 However, less focus has been given to their potential as a pedagogical tool for fostering partnerships beyond campus, connecting with communities, and building relationships. Public libraries also support zine culture by hosting workshops and carrying zines. Zines are available at the Los Angeles Public Library (www.lapl.org/zines) and San Francisco Public Library (https://sfpl.org/locations/main-library/ book-arts-special-collections/little-magazinecollection). Teachers can borrow zines from local libraries for students to examine and analyze before creating their own. Many zines are also accessible online for reading.
Social Studies and Teaching For Justice
According to Ayers and colleagues* the three pillars of social justice education are:
• Equity: The principle of fairness, which demands that what the most privileged can provide to their children (and receive for themselves) must be the standard for all and that there must be a redressing and repairing of historical and embedded injustices.
• Activism: The principle of agency, which involves full participation, preparing students to see, understand, and, when necessary, change all before them.
• Social literacy: The principle of relevance, which involves resisting the effects of materialism and consumerism, as resisting the power of social evils rooted in forms of supremacy (i.e., white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia), and nourishing our awareness of our own identities and our connections with others, and how our lives are negotiated within pre-established power relationships.
*William Ayers, Therese Quinn, and David Stovall, eds., “Handbook of Social Justice in Education,” (Routledge, 2008).
Following is the five-step process I used for our class zine project:
1. Select a public issue of personal interest;
2. Research the public issue from a community journalism perspective;
3. Explore zines on the selected issue for design choice ideas and content ideas;
4. Manifesto and call to action;
5. Distribute your zine to the community.
Each step integrates academic skills in reading, writing, research, information literacy, and factfinding to create a zine that spurs civic action on a personally important issue.
Step 1: Select a Public Issue of Personal Interest
A supportive, safe, and trusting learning environment is essential for teaching hard history and having difficult conversations. Before preparing the lesson, consider that some students may have personal connections to these topics, which should influence how you teach the lesson. When planning to implement the lesson, emphasize classroom agreements such as using respectful language, listening without judgment, and avoiding interruptions. The following resources from Learning for Justice (www.learningforjustice.org) and Facing History (www.facinghistory.org) can help you discuss and facilitate difficult conversations and topics:
• Learning for Justice: Social Justice Standards7
• Learning for Justice: Let’s Talk! Facilitating Critical Conversations with Students8
• Facing History: Preparing Students For Difficult Conversations9
I gave students a three-column chart with three questions to generate ideas and spark conversation: (1) What do you love? (2) What do you hate? (3) What injustices upset you? Students first had time to process the questions quietly, then participated in a “turn and talk” with a neighbor.
Afterward, I randomly grouped students into six groups of five to form focus groups. While in their groups, students added to their charts using a different color pen to highlight new ideas or “add-ons.” Some common issues of injustice that students discussed included:
• Tuition increases at our university, and other issues happening around campus
• Reproductive justice and women’s rights
• Discrimination faced by the LGBTQ2IA+ community
• Harassment by the police
• Negative cultural stereotypes around gender
Step 2: Research the Public Issue from a Community Journalism Perspective
Students researched community journalism outlets that provide a counter-narrative to the dominant mainstream media’s portrayal of issues they care about. At the minority serving institution where I work, my students are predominantly Latinx, Black, and Asian American. I encouraged them to select outlets reflecting their own realities and lived experiences. Examples include:
• Univision–Spanish language
• Telemundo–Spanish language
• The Los Angeles Wave–an AfricanAmerican-owned newspaper
• The Los Angeles Sentinel–an AfricanAmerican-owned newspaper
• Boyle Heights Beat–which covers Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles and features youth reporters
• The University Times–California State University, Los Angeles student newspaper
• Daily 49er–California State University, Long Beach’s student newspaper
High school students can search for community journalism outlets in their community that offer “counter-narratives.” For example, their high school paper, the local Spanish language news outlet, a student-run university paper, or a
Example 2: https://ls2pac.lapl. org/?section=resource&resource id=5705556406
• University cultural centers, such as the Black Student Union, Chicanx Student Union, AAPI Student Union, and Women and Gender Center, can partner with high school teachers for distribution ideas and collaborations.
• Friends and family members
• A local cafe or community organization focused on the zine’s issue.
During the research and zine-making process, I saw my students feel confident, gain a renewed sense of purpose in their education, and experience healing through an authentic outlet to share their voices and lived experiences. They were passionate about educating the public as a form of activism. Whether addressing issues like ethnic studies in K-12, abolition and campus police, animal rights, or youth climate activism, a common sentiment was, “I am in school, and many people are not, so it’s my responsibility to bring the truth to the people.”
Reflection: Please respond to the following questions.
1. Which was your favorite zine and why?
2. What ideas did you get for making your own zine for the Zines project?
Artistic choices from Zine Author: (1) Design; (2) Layout; (3) How did they present the information?
Your analysis: (1) What’s missing; (2) Does anything need to be added?
3. What counter-narratives did you see?
Table 1. Zines Analysis Activity
Table 2. SQE Zine Manifesto Activity
Please fill out the entire graphic organizer (text should fill all the columns). You’re free to work in groups.
What is Students for Quality Education (SQE)?
What is their mission?
Look at the timeline of student victories. What issues have students been working towards achieving?
What is the “student movement” in California and globally?
What made this zine effective and impactful?
How can the zine be improved?
Notes
1. National Council for Social Studies, The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History (Silver Spring, MD: 2013), 42.
2. Bettina L. Love, We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom (Beacon Press, 2019).
3. H. Richard Milner IV and Tyrone C. Howard, “Counternarrative as Method: Race, Policy and Research for Teacher Education,” Race Ethnicity and Education 16, no. 4 (2013): 536-561.
4. Kimberle Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color,” The Legal Response to Violence Against Women 5 (1997): 91.
5. Laura Van Leuven, “A Brief History of Zines,” The Chapel Hill Rare Book Blog https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/ rbc/2017/10/25/a-brief-history-of-zines
6. Julie Chu, “Navigating the Media Environment: How Youth Claim a Place Through Zines,” Social Justice 24, no. 3 (69) (1997): 71-85; Barbara J. Guzzetti and Margaret Gamboa, “Zines for Social Justice: Adolescent Girls Writing on Their Own,” Reading Research Quarterly 39, no. 4 (2004): 408–436.
9. “Preparing Students for Difficult Conversations | Facing History & Ourselves,” (March 28, 2016), www.facinghistory. org/resource-library/preparing-students-difficultconversations
10. “Zine Library Locations | Los Angeles Public Library.” n.d. www.lapl.org, www.lapl.org/zines/locations.
11. Students for Quality Education. n.d. https://csusqe.org
12. California Faculty Association. n.d. www.calfac.org
13. SQE Manifesto Zine, https://csusqe.org/wp-content/ uploads/2014/12/SQE-Manifesto-Zine-Final-booklet-100. pdf
Kimi Waite is an Assistant Professor of Child and Family Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. She is the 2021 California Council for the Social Studies Outstanding Elementary Social Studies Teacher of the Year.
Intertextuality: Pairing Picturebooks and Poetry to Teach Social Studies
William P. Bintz
Pairing picturebooks with poetry can deepen student engagement and understanding. A surprising classroom moment during a read-aloud of America is Under Attack by Don Brown sparked new insights into this approach.1 Building on recent advances in text sets, this article explores the benefits of paired texts, their role in intertextuality, and practical strategies for teaching historical figures in social studies across grades K-8. It concludes with reflections on future applications.
Unexpected Surprises
Not long ago, I read Brown’s America is Under Attack aloud to graduate students in my “Reading Across the Content Areas” course. This picturebook describes the attack on September 11, 2001. It highlights the heroism of firefighters, emergency workers, civilians, and airline crew members and passengers who found themselves in a host of harrowing situations that day. I read this picturebook aloud for three reasons: (1) to demonstrate the power of picturebooks to teach content area material, (2) to provide a demonstration of reading aloud as an effective instructional strategy, and (3) to engage students in thoughtful reflection. After reading, I invited students to write reflections on the whole experience. One student wrote:
I thought picturebooks were for children. I was so surprised though after you read this picturebook. This picturebook is not only for children but also for older students and even adults. The story
reminded me of a poem I read in high school called ‘Daddy’s Day for 9/11.’2 It’s about a girl and her classmates celebrating daddy’s day at school. Her father, however, died in the 9/11 attack. At school, she introduces her daddy by saying he isn’t there because he lives far away (heaven) but still loves her. While you were reading, I was making connections between the picturebook and the poem.
I was pleasantly surprised, not by the student’s realization that picturebooks were not just for children, but by the connection she made between the picturebook and a poem. For much of my career as an English Language Arts teacher and now a literacy educator, I had always conceptualized and developed paired text as two texts that were interrelated in some way and consisting of the same or similar genre. This student, however, introduced me to a different way of conceptualizing and developing a pair text, namely, to pair a picturebook and a poem.
At the same time, I was also surprised to learn that to pair a picturebook and a poem was different, but not new. Much recent research has been, and continues to be, conducted on the development and implementation of text sets, using not traditional views but expanded ideas of texts.3 Among others, these expanded ideas of texts include newspapers, cartoons, field guides, websites, social media posts, blogs, songs, podcasts,
texts that address the same theme in unique ways. Still another way is to pair companion texts—two texts that complement each other by widening the perspective on a specific topic in a content area. Here, I share a new way to pair text by pairing picturebooks and poetry.
Pairing Picturebooks and Poetry
Below are paired text examples I created for teaching historical figures in social studies, along with instructional strategies that highlight intertextual connections. Additional strategies can be found in Using Paired Text to Meet the Common Core. 9
Figure 1 illustrates the paired text of Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad and the poem “Freedom.”10 Both texts focus on the courageous life and difficult times of Henry Brown.
The H-Map is an instructional strategy that uses the letter “H” as a framework for organizing text summaries and connections. After reading, students summarize one text in the left column and the other in the right column. In the middle column, they write intertextual connections between the two texts.
Figure 2 is based on the pairing of Marilyn Nelson’s picturebook A Wreath for Emmett Till and Patrick Lewis’s poem “The Innocent.”11 Both
Figure 2. Intertextual Connections Chart
A Wreath for Emmett Till
“The Innocent”
texts focus on the life and times of Emmett Till in the segregated South of the 1950s. One text is an award-winning picturebook that introduces Emmett Till, a young Black boy, who was murdered by five White men for allegedly whistling at a White woman while he was shopping at a local store. The other text is an evocative poem that also describes the life of Emmett Till.
Intertextual Connections Sheet is an instructional strategy that helps students identify and describe intertextual connections between two texts. During or after reading, students identify and record intertextual connections at the top of each column. Then, students describe how each text addresses each intertextual connection.
Figure 3 is based on the paired text of the picturebook How Do You Spell Unfair? and the poem National Spelling Bee Championship Montage.12 Both texts focus on the true story of MacNolia Cox, a young, African American girl who earned the right to participate in the 1936 National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. She did not win the contest but did experience racial discrimination from vendors, sponsors, and judges.
Describing Intertextual Connections is an instructional strategy that helps students identify, record, and describe intertextual connections. During or after reading, students write a summary of the picturebook in the left-hand column, and
Emmett Till Lynched After Being Accused of Whistling Injustice Justice
Emmett Till, born in Chicago in 1941. At 14 years old, visited relatives in segregated Mississippi. Five white men murdered him and threw his body into a river.
Emmett Till, a 14-yearold African American boy, spent time in the segregated state of Mississippi.
Emmett Till was abducted and lynched allegedly because he whistled at a white woman and because of his race. The lynchers feared the young African American boy.
Emmett Till allegedly whistled at a white woman while he was shopping, and five white men murdered him.
Five white men who murdered Emmett Till were put on trial. At the end of the trial, all were acquitted of the crime.
Emmett Till was a boy martyr. His mother spent her entire life seeking justice for his murder. Emmett Till earned a nation’s grief.
The five white men who murdered Emmett Till went on trial but justice was silent. Killers were acquitted, and verdict was embraced by Southern virtue. Today, the truth is known and recognized. Emmett Till was an innocent person, and the five white men who murdered him were guilty. Justice now has much to say.
article will spark new thinking not only about the power of paired text in social studies, but also the potential of paired text across the curriculum.
Notes
1. Don Brown, America is Under Attack (New York: Square Fish, 2011).
2. Author unknown, “Daddy’s Day for 9/11,” https:// townsquare.media/site/40/files/2012/09/911-poem.pdf, n.d.
3. Kelly Tracy, Kristen Menickelli, and Roya Scales, “Courageous Voices: Using Text Sets to Inspire Change,” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (2016): 1–10.
4. Mary Ann Cappiello and Erika Thulin Dawes, Text Sets in Action: Pathways through Content Area Literacy (Portland, ME: Stenhouse, 2021); NWESD Communications, “Linked Text Sets: A Strategy for Deeper Learning,” www.nwesd. org/ed-talks/linked-text-sets-a-strategy-for-deeperlearning (April 15, 2019); see also Kristine Pytash, Kathy Batchelor, William Kist, and Kristen Srsen, “Linked Text Sets in the English Classroom,” The Alan Review (2014): 52–62; Sunday Cummins, “The Case for Multiple Texts,” Educational Leadership 74, no. 3, (2017): 66-71.
5. Graham Allen, Intertextuality (New York: Routledge, 2000).
6. Barbara King-Shaver, When Text Meets Text: Helping High School Readers Make Connections in Literature (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2005).
7. Stephanie Harvey and Ann Goudvis, Strategies That Work (Portland, ME: Stenhouse, 2017).
8. Kathy Short, Jerome Harste with Carolyn Burke, Creating Classrooms for Authors and Inquirers (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996), 537.
9. William Bintz, Using Paired Text to Meet the Common Core (New York: The Guilford Press, 2015).
10. Ellen Levine, Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad (New York: Scholastic Press, 2007); Author unknown, “Freedom,” https://henrysfreedombox. weebly.com/poetry.html, n.d.
11. Marilyn Nelson, A Wreath for Emmett Till (New York: Clarion Books, 2009); Patrick J. Lewis, “The Innocent,” in When Thunder Comes: Poems for Civil Rights Leaders (Recorded Books, Inc. and Blackstone Publishing, 2013).
12. Carole Boston Weatherford, How do You Spell Unfair?: MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee (Somerville, MA: Candlewick, 2023); National Spelling Bee Championship Montage in A. Van Jordan, M-A-C-N-O-LI-A: Poems (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2004).
Anonymous. “THAT DAMNED FENCE.” https://japanese internmentmemories.wordpress.com/category/japaneseinternement-poetry, March 2, 2012.
Batchelor, Kathy. “Using Linked Text Sets to Promote Advocacy and Agency Through a Critical Lens.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 62 no. 4, (2018): 379–386.
Lupo, Sarah, Berry, Alicia, Thacker, Emma, Sawyer, Amanda, & Merritt, Jodi. “Rethinking Text Sets to Support Knowledge Building and Interdisciplinary Learning.” The Reading Teacher 73, no. 4 (2019): 513–524.
Mochizuki, Ken. Baseball Saved Us. Lee & Low Books, 2018. Neufeld, Peter. “Comprehension Instruction in Content Area Classes.” The Reading Teacher 59, no. 4 (2005): 302–312.
Paretti, Marie. In Weese, Katherine, Fox, Stephen, and Greene, Stuart. Teaching Academic Literacy: The Uses of TeacherResearch in Developing a Writing Program. New York: Routledge, 1999.
Soalt, Jennifer. “Bringing Together Fictional and Informational Texts to Improve Comprehension.” The Reading Teacher 58, no. 7 (2011): 680–683.
William P. Bintz is a Professor of Literacy Education in the School of Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum at Kent State University in Ohio. His research examines using picturebooks to teach K-12 reading comprehension and how postmodern picturebooks redefine traditional storytelling.
Letter from Mrs. Frank Morgan to Consumer Research Bureau, April 10, 1969
(pp. 1 and 2 of 4. Access complete letter at https://docsteach.org/documents/document/letter-mrs-morgan-to-consumer-research-bureau.)
SAFE FOR KIDS? from page 186
final law was far from comprehensive. The act let the agency ban hazardous toys on a caseby-case basis but did not set any overall safety standards. The law also failed to account for the risks of burns, shocks, choking, and mechanical injuries, allowing potentially harmful toys to remain on the market.
Despite the shortcomings of the law itself, the Child Protection Act opened the door for the appointment of the National Commission on Product Safety in 1968. The Commission was charged with assessing the extent to which available products posed unreasonable hazards to the buying public and focused on threats to children. The rationale for government oversight was compelling. According to estimates from the U.S. Public Health Service, toys accounted for 700,000 injuries and numerous deaths per year.6 These accidents ranged from minor cuts and bruises to electrocution and suffocation, and many seemed predictable and preventable. The Zulugun blowgun, for example, capitalized on racist stereotypes about Africa and was initially sold without a guard to keep children who confused the mouthpiece and firing end of the toy from inhaling its plastic darts.7
On December 17 to 18 of 1968, the Commission invited several witnesses to Boston to analyze the risks of toys, cribs, and other goods for children. Richard J. Manuell of the National Safety Council
contended that parents were more responsible for child accidents than the toy industry. Citing the results of the Florida Toy Injury survey of 1960 to 1961, Manuell said that only 7 percent of toy injuries involved “small commercial toys”; that over one-fourth resulted from misuse; and that almost half happened when children were left unsupervised. Manuell opposed wrapping children in a “cocoon.” “A child has to experience some minor injuries, some minor experiences of trauma in order to learn,” he explained. Although he acknowledged that the voluntary safety standards of the Toy Manufacturers of America (TMA) and Underwriters Laboratories (UL) were too weak to prevent some injuries, he was “quite satisfied” with the efforts of the private sector.8
Aaron Locker, the General Counsel of the TMA, agreed. Accidents related to toys were rare when placed within the context of the $2.5 billion U.S. toy market. “The fact that there are some unsafe toys does not mean that all are unsafe,” Locker concluded. “But let me say this: as far as the industry is concerned, one unsafe toy is too many.”9
Trial lawyer and toy safety advocate Edward M. Swartz saw things differently. According to Swartz, buyers incorrectly assumed that any item sold as a “toy” was safe for children, leading families to overlook serious risks.10 After summarizing the reasons why most lawsuits against companies selling dangerous toys were
unsuccessful, Swartz exhibited a series of substandard goods to the Commission. These items included a “harmless” archery set that contained arrows with removable rubber tips, a doll with a ribbon pinned to its hair, toy cars with hard metal fins, and a dizzying array of “reallife” toys—“anything, virtually, that mama has, in replica form.”
The Junior Chef Magic-Cool Oven, for example, had real heating coils powered by 110V of electrical current. Its box announced, “Outside safe for little fingers to touch,” and the UL label on its back implied that the device would not shock or burn its users under normal conditions.11 Real-life toys blurred the line between playthings and appliances, trading safety for authenticity. Morris Kaplan, the Technical Director of CU, echoed these concerns and singled out UL for certifying toys indistinguishable from full-sized domestic equipment.12
After the Commission released an interim report siding with critics of the toy industry, letters from frustrated consumers fueled the push for reform. Caregivers like Dianne Morgan grasped the political stakes of their experiences: “The public is being deceived and cheated by these manufacturers. Even more important, defenseless children can be seriously injured.” The only way to guarantee toy safety, she believed, was government intervention.
“Everyone says, ‘Write to your Congressman, Washington, or anyone who will listen.’ I’m
Letter from Evelyn Buckley to Buffalo District Office of FDA, May 10, 1972
(pp. 1 and 2 of 4. Access complete letter at https://docsteach.org/documents/document/letter-evelyn-buckley-toy-easter-bunny.)
country communicated three messages to policymakers: toys were exposing children to unreasonable risks, toymakers were failing to correct or to warn buyers about these risks, and families were willing to concede some of their freedom of choice as shoppers for federal regulation. The last letter from the report affirmed, “Medical bills are more expensive and my child’s safety is more important than buying a cheaper, unsafe toy.”15
The copies of the complaints at the National Archives are still marked with red ink from the Commission’s staff, who catalogued every letter and underlined the evidence and excerpts added to its written statement. These annotations show how ordinary Americans propelled the legislative process.
Following the Toy Safety Act, consumers continued to write to the FDA—and then the CPSC—about harmful playthings, calling on the U.S. bureaucracy to remove these goods from the market. Despite the work of government agencies to outlaw specific toys and to set new standards for safe design, familiar hazards appeared again and again. On May 10, 1972, Evelyn Buckley of Buffalo, New York, recounted a worrisome accident involving another stuffed Easter bunny. After checking that the doll’s eyes were securely attached to its head and taking off the ribbon around its neck, she decided the toy was “quite
safe” and gave the rabbit to her infant daughter. A weekand-a-half later, Buckley heard the baby crying in her crib and found a stray nylon thread wrapped so tightly around her finger that a friend had to cut the string with nail clippers. “The very frightening part,” Buckley reflected, “is that a large amount of the thread had pulled loose, enough so that it could have just as easily wrapped around the neck.”16
Even as safety-conscious parents pressured federal officials to protect children against home injuries, toys remained risky commodities.
Notes:
1. Mrs. Frank Morgan, Jr., to Consumer Research Bureau, April 10, 1969, Box 1, Folder 3, Administrative Records, 1968–1970, Entry No. A1 22, RG 424: Records of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), College Park, Maryland.
2. On toys, see Gary Cross, Kids’ Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood (Harvard University Press, 1997); Lisa Jacobson, Raising Consumers: Children and the American Mass Market in the Early Twentieth Century (Columbia University Press, 2004); and Amy F. Ogata, Designing the Creative Child: Playthings and Places in Midcentury America (University of Minnesota Press, 2013).
3. See “Lead Paint and Toys,” Consumer Reports 22.11 (1957): 540; “Rag Doll Legislation,” Consumer Reports 28.11 (1963): 509–510; “Electric Toys,” Consumer Reports 29.11 (1964): 534–537; and “A Point About Eyes,” Consumer Reports 31.2 (1966): 52.
4. For important studies of child safety, see Arwen P. Mohun, Risk: Negotiating Safety in American Society (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), 236–255; Barbara Young Welke, “The Cowboy Suit Tragedy: Spreading Risk, Owning Hazard in the Modern American Consumer Economy,” Journal of American History 101 (2014): 97–121; and Cynthia A. Connolly, Children and Drug Safety: Balancing Risk and Protection in Twentieth-Century America (Rutgers University Press, 2018).
5. U.S. Senate, Consumer Subcommittee, The Child Protection Act of 1966: Hearings before the Consumer Subcommittee, 89th Cong., 2nd sess., 1966, 14–20.
6. National Commission on Product Safety (NCPS), Final Report of the National Commission on Product Safety (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office (GPO), 1970), 30–32.
7. The CPSC later received and denied a petition from Congressman Edwin B. Forsythe to ban blowguns. See Box 14, Folders 5–7, Petition Files, 1973–1982, Entry No. A1 18, RG 424, NARA.
8. NCPS, Hearings, Volume II: Boston, December 1968 (New York: LawArts Publishers, 1970), 97–98, 112, 118.
9. NCPS, Hearings, Volume II, 267, 284.
10. NCPS, Hearings, Volume II, 176.
11. NCPS, Hearings, Volume II, 227–236.
12. NCPS, Hearings, Volume II, 251–258.
13. Morgan to Consumer Research Bureau.
14. Glen M. Jackson to Congressman Fountain, January 5, 1969, Box 1, Folder 3, Entry No. A1 22, RG 424, NARA.
15. U.S. Congress, House, Subcommittee on Commerce and Finance, National Commission on Product Safety Extension and Child
Teaching Writing in the Social Studies
Joan Brodsky Schur
NCSS Bulletin 118, 143 pages, 2020
Good writing skills are a pathway to academic success and a lifelong asset for students. The social studies disciplines offer excellent opportunities for the development of these skills because social studies subjects require students to present information clearly and accurately, to summarize different perspectives, and to construct persuasive arguments.
In this book, Joan Brodsky Schur draws on her extensive experience as a teacher of both social studies and English to show how social studies teachers can integrate excellent writing instruction into their courses. In every chapter, she recommends several writing strategies, each of which is embedded in social studies content, to show how thinking skills, mastery of information, and writing reinforce one another. The chapters of the book present a structured progression in which students become proficient at writing on a small scale—for example, through short writes, or paragraphs about clearly defined topics—as the foundation for more ambitious projects such as essays and research papers.
This book offers invaluable suggestions that will help social studies teachers in grades 7 through 12 to teach the skills of communication and self-expression that will enable students to achieve their college and career goals and become effective citizens with a voice in American society.
Joan Brodsky Schur is a social studies consultant, author, and teacher who taught both social studies and English to students in New York City for three decades. She is the author or co-author of six books for teachers on topics related to United States and world history, including Eyewitness to the Past: Strategies for Teaching American History in Grades 5–10.
NCSS Item number 205000
Price: $42.95 (list price)
$32.95 (NCSS member price) https://members.socialstudies.org/store
Purchase 10 or more copies and save 20% off the non-member price. Order online at www.socialstudies.org/store. To order by phone, call 1-800-683-0812. To order by purchase order, please email as attachments to bookstore@ncss.org; fax to 301-779-8596, or mail to NCSS Publications, 7100 Old Landover Road Suite 500 Hyattsville MD 20785. Any order including a check as payment should be sent to: NCSS, P.O. Box 79078, Baltimore, MD 21279-0078.
Protection Act: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Commerce and Finance, 91st Cong., 1st sess., 1969, 51–58.
16. Mrs. Evelyn Buckley to Buffalo District Office, FDA, May 10, 1972, Box 81, Folder 2, Records Relating to Development of Mandatory Product Safety Standards, 1968–1983, Entry No. P 3, RG 424, NARA.
Alexander Parry is an Assistant Professor of Health Humanities and Bioethics at the University of Rochester Medical Center. He works on the histories of injuries and consumer product safety and can be reached at alexander_parry@urmc. rochester.edu.
Amanda Voglezon and Samantha Hunter-Gibbs served as editors of this article. Amanda is an Education Specialist and Sam was Director of Education Programs in the Public Museum Engagement and Legislative Archives Division at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The National Archives Education team may be reached at education@nara.gov
Robert Shaffer is a Professor of History Emeritus at Shippensburg University in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. His areas of expertise include social studies education, U.S. diplomatic history, and U.S. immigration history. He spent 4 years as a high school teacher and 25 years as a college professor.
Q. Why did you become an educator?
A. I became a social studies teacher, and then a history professor, because I believe that learning about past human experiences best prepares students and society more broadly to face current problems and challenges most effectively.
Q. What career achievement are you most proud of?
A. As a high school teacher in Brooklyn, New York, I was most proud of having students contrast the portrayals of historical events (e.g., Andrew Jackson’s presidency) in different editions of the same textbooks, to show how interpretations and emphases of “history” are constructed and evolve over time. As a college “social studies methods” professor, I was most proud of exposing future teachers to the professional and societal debates current and historical over how history and civics should be taught. (Nash et al.’s History on Trial was the key text here.) As a historian, I am most proud of publishing articles about the hitherto-neglected record of those white and Black Americans who protested the incarceration of Japanese
Americans during World War II.
Q. When and why did you join NCSS?
A. I joined NCSS during my first year of teaching high school, in 1986, at the strong urging of my department chairperson. He argued (and I came to agree!) that to be a good social studies teacher one must not only keep up with new ideas and debates in our field, but also support (and be part of) advocacy for social studies education through our professional organization.
Q. How has being a part of a professional association enriched your career?
A. Being part of NCSS helped my high school teaching by continually reinforcing the importance in lesson planning of developing higher-level questions and critical inquiry activities. NCSS was even more integral to my career as a college professor training future social studies teachers, as perhaps one-half of the readings in the “methods” classes came from Social Education, and many classroom discussions critically examined these articles. For inquiries about Social Education advertising, call Maribell Abeja-DeVitto at 312-673-5483 or e-mail MAbejaDeVitto@smithbucklin.com
Inquiry Design Model: Building Inquiries in Social Studies
Kathy Swan, John Lee, and S.G. Grant. Foreword by Walter Parker. C3 Inquiry Series, co-published by NCSS and C3 Teachers 167 pp.
This book is a comprehensive, in-depth guide for teachers who want to build classroom inquiries based on the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework. The authors demonstrate how to construct effective Inquiry Design Model (IDM) blueprints that incorporate engaging questions, tasks, and sources. The book offers invaluable advice on how to formulate compelling and supporting questions, build disciplinary knowledge, and develop the ability of students to evaluate evidence, construct arguments, and take informed action.
The authors of this book are the lead authors of the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards.
Blueprinting an Inquiry-Based Curriculum: Planning with the Inquiry Design Model
Kathy Swan, S.G. Grant and John Lee 189 pages. 2019.
The publication of the C3 Framework and the development of the C3 Inquiry Design Model (IDM) were just the beginning!
The basic IDM blueprint has become a widely accepted foundation for inquiry-based teaching. This book presents new variations of that blueprint to support curricular and instructional strategies that target specific goals-for example, taking informed action, the need to fit inquiries into limited class time, and the promotion of student-centered learning.
The authors of this book, who were the lead writers of the C3 Framework, present five different forms of inquiry and their associated blueprints. In addition to structured inquiry based on the original IDM blueprint, the authors describe inquiries and offer blueprints that center on taking informed action, focusing inquiries to fit limited class time, guiding students to greater involvement, and launching student-directed inquiries. The book also provides invaluable advice on how teachers can progress from blueprinting a single inquiry to blueprinting an entire curriculum.
Purchase 10 or more copies and save 20% off the non-member price.
Order online at www.socialstudies.org/store.
To order by phone, call 1-800-683-0812. To order by purchase order, please email as attachments to bookstore@ncss.org; fax to 301-779-8596, or mail to NCSS Publications, 7100 Old Landover Road Suite 500 Hyattsville MD 20785. Any order including a check as payment should be sent to: NCSS, P.O. Box 79078, Baltimore, MD 21279-0078
