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Our Social Justice Books project offers a list of recommended books on Native American Heritage. We also feature a critique of Scholastic and resources for teaching about the crisis in Palestine and Israel. We hope you will help us continue to select and share pre-K–12 social justice books with a donation for Giving Tuesday. 

The People Shall Continue

Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun’s Thanksgiving Story

In My Anaana’s Amautik

What Your Ribbon Skirt Means to Me: Deb Haaland's Historic Inauguration

Thanku: Poems of Gratitude

Mascot

The Marrow Thieves

We Still Belong

Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults

Book Banning Seeks to Erase Native Americans

By Debbie Reese

Today — after hundreds of years of derogatory, biased, and factually incorrect representations of us in children’s books — Native parents can reach for books that affirm the lives and histories of our Native Nations and, of course, our children. Those books are by Native writers. With their stories, they are interrupting the cycle of misinformation that has characterized books with Native characters for far too long. And they are bringing forth truths about history that are not included in most textbooks. . . Today’s book bans are taking those books away from all readers.

Soon after a critique of Scholastic's catalogue for being as white as the Oscars, Scholastic launched it's "diverse books" catalog. That provided window dressing, not a solution, to their collection which continues to contribute to a distorted view of the United States.

It was recently revealed that Scholastic was offering schools the chance to opt out of the diverse bookcase for their popular school book fairs.

Given the dangerous and increasing levels of racism and homophobia in the United States, Scholastic should emphasize people of color and LGBTQ+ identity in ALL of its publishing and collections.

Sadly, this is not the only example of Scholastic prioritizing profits over educational integrity. While they publish many books that we value, their marketing and communications divisions are as guilty of censorship and misinformation as the people banning books.

One cannot understand the crisis in the Middle East without acknowledging its history. As educators, our role is to help students grasp and analyze this history.

Our Zinn Education Project (with Rethinking Schools) offers a growing collection of resources to help students learn the roots of the current crisis, including lessons and articles from Rethinking Schools, books for K–12, podcasts, calls to action, and infographics.

To kick off #GivingTuesday, the Teaching for Change board (current and past) has donated a lead gift of $2,500 for 2023!

Now it’s your turn to help us meet our goal of raising $10,000 on #GivingTuesday, November 28, 2023.

Wear Teach Banned Books buttons — and share them with your friends — to prompt conversations about the need to actively oppose book bans, teach truthfully, and defend LGBTQ+ rights.

Your donation supports the Zinn Education Project's efforts to provide free people’s history lessons to teach outside the textbook. The buttons are 1.5″ round with a matte finish.

Shop Indie Bookstores

Teaching for Change staff and board encourage everyone to support indie bookstores and public libraries.

Most of the titles at Social Justice Books are linked to Bookshop.org, an indie bookstore platform. When you find a book there, please purchase from the link we provide. A small percentage from sales through these links goes to Teaching for Change to sustain Social Justice Books selection, reviews, outreach, and more.

Make a gift or create your own fundraiser to support Teaching for Change.

Teaching for Change

PO Box 73038

Washington, DC 20056

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