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Check Out Our Top 10 Social Justice Books!

1.The Hate You Give - Angie ThomasSixteen-year-old Starr Carter doesn’t have an easy life. Especially since she lives in Garden Heights, the poorer side of town, and goes to a suburban prep school on the richer side. Suddenly, the uneasy balance between her two lives gets even harder when she witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend at the hands of law enforcement.

2. On The Come Up - Angie Thomas: Bri, a sixteen-year-old rapper, lost her father to gun violence at a young age. To fulfill his legacy, she hopes to “make it” as an underground hip-hop legend. After posting a rap hit, Bri becomes an internet sensation overnight. However, her rap causes controversy and challenges her to battle conflict with herself when achieving her dreams.

3. Hearts Unbroken - Cynthia Leitich Smith: Hearts Unbroken is a story about racism in small-town America. Louise, who helps write her school’s newspaper, and her younger brother Hughie, who earns the role of the Tin Man in his school play, find themselves trapped at the center of a controversy over inclusive casting.

4. Girl Rising - Tanya Lee Stone: Tanya Lee Stone examines serious topics, including early child marriage and childbearing, slavery, gender discrimination, poverty, and more. She illustrates how removing these barriers can not only create a better life for these girls, but how it can enhance safer, healthier, and more prosperous communities.

5. Glimmer of Hope - by the founders of the March for Our Lives: A Glimmer of Hope illustrates how a group of adolescents channeled their rage and sorrow after the 2018 Parkland High School shooting into action and created one of the largest and most inspiring youth-led movements in history.

6. You Sound Like a White Girl- Julissa Arce: After once considering the phrase “you sound like a White girl” as a compliment, Arce dives into the political and personal meaning of the phrase. By doing this, she explains why those words lead to eurocentric assimilation, rather than cultural appreciation. Throughout the book, Arce dismantles the myth that assimilation leads to a sense of belonging, emphasizing that assimilation is systematically designed to limit the potential success of marginalized communities.

Social justice-themed books not only illustrate underrepresented stories, but they can also provide a mirror to your own experiences in an unbalanced society. Here’s a list of the Top 10 Social Justice Books, created by students for students!

7. Poet X- Elizabeth Acevedo: Fifteen Year-old Xiomara Batista lives in the center of culturally rich Harlem, New York, where she navigates her discovery of slam poetry as a mode of artistic expression. After struggling to be heard and respected in her community, Xiomara pours her anguish and frustration into journals that quickly turn into a passion for poetry.

8. Just Mercy- Bryan Stevenson: In a call to end the mass incarceration of people of color, Bryan Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative and dedicated himself to providing equitable legal representation to the wrongly incarcerated. His non-profit, Just Mercy follows the journey of wrongfully condemned Walter McMillian, a young Black man who was young White woman. A murder he did not commit. While the film adaptation highlights McMillian’s story, it further proves that the justice system favors the rich and guilty rather than the poor and innocent.

9. The Spirit of Chicano Park- Beatrice Zamora: Created for a younger audience yet informative to all, this book written by local author Beatrice Zamora perfectly aligns with this month’s edition of The

Wing: Art and Activism. This book explores the significance of Chicano Park, a local symbol of cultural self, determination, and Mexican American pride. The murals are used as a visual resource of activism to transmit the history, culture, and perseverance of Mexican-Americans and Chicanos. Paired with colorful illustrations, the book describes the park's murals addressing themes such as immigration, women’s rights and historical and civil rights leaders.

10. This Time Will Be Different- Misa Sugiura: This book follows 17 year old CJ on a journey of self discovery of her Japanese American identity after struggling with the pressure of cultural success and achievement. After spending the majority of her life helping her aunt at the family’s flower shop, CJ’s mom decides to sell the shop to the same family who lured her grandparents into Japanese internment camps in the height of World War II. The sudden shift sends shocks into the family and her community, giving CJ a cause to fight for.