Social Justice Books for TeensLike this list

31 items

• All American Boys

  Reynolds, Jason,

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  Rashad was attacked by a white police officer at a convenience store and Quinn saw the whole thing. As community outrage builds, two teens-- one black and one white-- must each make difficult choices.

• Allegedly

  a Novel

  Jackson, Tiffany D.,

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  When Mary was nine years old, she killed an infant her mother was babysitting. Allegedly. After several years in "baby jail," at the age of fifteen, she is living in a group home in Brooklyn.

• American Street

  Zoboi, Ibi Aanu,

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  When her mother is detained by immigration, Haitian-born Fabiola begins a new life in Detroit that doesn’t resemble her American Dream. This debut novel incorporates magical realism into a contemporary urban tale.

• Beyond Magenta

  Transgender Teens Speak Out

  Kuklin, Susan,

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  Six transgender and gender non-conforming teens tell their real-life stories of discovery and transformation, coupled with beautiful photographs.

• Being Jazz

  My Life as a (transgender Teen)

  Jennings, Jazz,

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  15-year-old transgender activist Jazz Jennings recounts her journey from childhood transition to public advocacy work and reality television stardom.

• Dreamland Burning

  Latham, Jennifer,

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  After a skeleton is found on her family's property, Rowan investigates the murder of William, a teen involved in the 1921 Tulsa race riot.

• Dumplin'

  Murphy, Julie, 1985-

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  Willowdean is fat and proud, but when she starts to doubt herself, she decides to reclaim her confidence by entering a local beauty pageant.

• Fat Angie

  Charlton-Trujillo, e. E.,

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  After years of torment by bullies at school, it feels like nothing will ever get better for "Fat Angie," but everything changes when new girl K.C. moves to town.

• Feminism

  Reinventing the F-word

  Higgins, Nadia Abushanab,

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  Feminism is a simple word with a complicated definition. Explore the history of feminism in the U.S. from its earliest influences to the women who are still fighting for equal rights today.

• Fight Like a Girl

  50 Feminists Who Changed the World

  Barcella, Laura,

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  Learn about 50 influential women from Mary Wollstonecraft to Malala Yousafzai in this intersectional feminist collection of mini-biographies.

• Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

  Quintero, Isabel,

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  Latina poet Gabi Hernandez chronicles her senior year in high school as she copes with her friends' personal lives, her father's meth habit and the writing that helps her forge her identity.

• Girl Rising

  Changing the World One Girl at a Time

  Stone, Tanya Lee,

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  Nine girls in the developing world overcame the barriers to getting an education, including early child marriage, motherhood, slavery, sexual trafficking, sexism, and poverty, and used their knowledge to improve their communities.

• The Hate U Give

  Thomas, Angie,

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  Already caught between her poor neighborhood and her posh prep school, Starr finds herself at the center of racial tension after she witnesses the shooting of her childhood best friend by a white police officer.

• How Dare the Sun Rise

  Memoirs of a War Child

  Uwiringiyimana, Sandra,

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  In this powerful memoir, the author relives her escape from a bloody massacre in the Democratic Republic of Congo and her experience as a young refugee in the United States. She provides a unique perspective on racism in present-day America.

• How It Went Down

  Magoon, Kekla,

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  In the aftermath of a shooting in which a 16-year-old black boy was gunned down by a white man, conflicting accounts obscure the truth as racial tensions bubble to the surface of the community.

• March. Book One

  Lewis, John, 1940 February 21-

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  Congressman John Lewis recounts his lifelong involvement with the civil rights movement in this graphic novel series. Book One focuses on Lewis' early years as the son of an Alabama sharecropper who went on to discover nonviolent activism in college.

• March. Book Two

  Lewis, John, 1940 February 21-

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  Congressman Lewis' story continues in Book Two, which focuses on the events that led him to become one of the "Big Six" leaders of the civil rights movement and the 1963 March on Washington.

• March. Book Three

  Lewis, John, 1940 February 21-

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  In the final volume of the March trilogy, Congressman Lewis examines pivotal events in the civil rights movement from Bloody Sunday to the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

• The Miseducation of Cameron Post

  Danforth, Emily M.

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  In the early 1990s, Cameron Post rebels against her conservative Montana ranch town and her family sends her to a gay conversion therapy center.

• Monster

  Myers, Walter Dean, 1937-2014

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  While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.