We hope these selections serve to educate and encourage a dialogue around advocacy, activism and allyship in relation to social justice issues.
Take the Mic edited by Bethany C. Morrow
This anthology features fictional stories–in poems, prose, and art–that reflect a slice of the varied and limitless ways that readers like you resist every day. Take the Mic’s powerful collection of stories features work by literary luminaries and emerging talent alike.
Available formats: Book, Ebook (OverDrive by Media on Demand)
Watch Us Rise by Renée Watson
Frustrated by the way women are treated–even at their progressive New York City high school–two best friends start a Women’s Rights Club, post their essays and poems online, and watch it go viral, attracting positive support as well as trolls.
Available formats: Book, Ebook (OverDrive by Media on Demand)
Go With the Flow by Lily Williams
Sophomores Abby, Brit, Christine, and Sasha are fed up. Hazelton High never has enough tampons. Or pads. Or adults who will listen. Sick of an administration that puts football before female health, the girls confront a world that shrugs — or worse, squirms — at the thought of a menstruation revolution. They band together to make a change. Its no easy task, especially while grappling with everything from crushes to trig to JV track but they have each others backs.
Available formats: Book, Ebook (OverDrive by Media on Demand)
White Rose by Kip Wilson
Disillusioned by the propaganda of Nazi Germany, Sophie Scholl, her brother, and his fellow soldiers formed the White Rose, a group that wrote and distributed anonymous letters criticizing the Nazi regime and calling for action from their fellow German citizens. The following year, Sophie and her brother were arrested for treason and interrogated for information about their collaborators. This debut novel recounts the lives of Sophie and her friends and highlights their brave stand against fascism in Nazi Germany.
Available formats: Book, Ebook (OverDrive by Media on Demand)
Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian
Reza is an Iranian boy who has just moved to the city. Reza knows he’s gay, but all he knows of gay life are the media’s images of men dying of AIDS. Judy is an aspiring fashion designer who worships her uncle Stephen, a gay man with AIDS who devotes his time to activism as a member of ACT UP. Art is Judy’s best friend, their school’s only out and proud teen. He’ll never be who his conservative parents want him to be, so he rebels by documenting the AIDS crisis through his photographs. These three teens find their voices as activists during the height of the AIDS crisis in New York City.
Available formats: Book, Ebook (Hoopla), Audiobook (Hoopla), Ebook (OverDrive by Media on Demand)
The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert
The first year they are eligible to vote, Marva and Duke meet at their polling place and, over the course of one crazy day, fall in love.
Available formats: Book, Ebook (Hoopla), Audiobook (Hoopla)
Running by Natalia Sylvester
Senator Anthony Ruiz is running for president. Throughout his successful political career he has always had his daughter’s vote, but a presidential campaign brings a whole new level of scrutiny to sheltered fifteen-year-old Mariana. As tensions rise within the Ruiz family, Mari begins to learn about the details of her father’s political positions, and she realizes that her father is not the man she thought he was.
Available formats: Book, Ebook (OverDrive by Media on Demand)
Internment by Samira Ahmed
Rebellions are built on hope. It’s been one year since the census landed seventeen-year-old Layla Amin and her family on the registry. Five months since the attorney general argued that Korematsu v. United States established precedent for relocation of citizens during times of war. And one month since the president declared that “Muslims are a threat to America.” And now, Layla and her parents are suddenly taken from their home and forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens. With the help of new friends also trapped within the detention center, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the internment camp’s director and his guards.
Available formats: Book, Ebook (Media on Demand by OverDrive), Audiobook (Media on Demand by OverDrive), Audiobook (cloudLibrary)
This Time Will Be Different by Misa Sugiura
Katsuyamas never quits — but seventeen-year-old CJ doesn’t even know where to start. She’s never lived up to her mom’s type A ambition, and she’s perfectly happy just helping her aunt, Hannah, at their family’s flower shop. Then her mom decides to sell the shop — to the family who swindled CJ’s grandparents when thousands of Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during WWII. Soon a rift threatens to splinter CJ’s family, friends, and their entire Northern California community; and for the first time, CJ has found something she wants to fight for.
Available formats: Book, Audiobook (Hoopla)
When They Call You A Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors
When They Call You a Terrorist reminds us that protest in the interest of the most vulnerable comes from love: that love is the push to search for justice for those victimized by the powerful. With journal entries, photos and notes that show the formation of an activist from a very young age, this meaningful, empowering account of survival, strength, and resilience seeks to change the culture that declares innocent Black life expendable.
Available formats: Book, Audiobook (Hoopla), Ebook (OverDrive by Media on Demand), Audiobook (OverDrive by Media On Demand)
Channel Kindness by Lady Gaga
Within these pages you will meet young change makers who found their inner strength, who prevailed in the face of bullies, who started their own social movements, who decided to break through the mental health stigma and share how they felt, who created safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth, and who have embraced kindness with every fiber of their being by helping others without the expectation of anything in return.
Available formats: Book
Lifting as We Climb by Evette Dionne
For African American women, the fight for the right to vote was only one battle. African American women had to deal with white abolitionist-suffragists who drew the line at sharing power with their black sisters. They had to overcome deep, exclusionary racial prejudices that were rife in the American suffrage movement. And they had to maintain their dignity—and safety—in a society that tried to keep them in its bottom ranks. In this powerful book, Dionne draws an important historical line from abolition to suffrage to civil rights to contemporary young activists—filling in the blanks of the American suffrage story.
Available formats: Audiobook (Hoopla), Ebook (OverDrive by Media on Demand)
Enough Is Enough by Michelle Roehm McCann
This handbook deftly explains America’s gun violence issues – myths and facts, causes and perpetrators, solutions and change-makers – and provides a road map for effective activism. Told in three parts, Enough Is Enough also explores how America got to this point and the obstacles we must overcome, including historical information about the Second Amendment, the history of guns in America, and an overview of the NRA. Informative chapters include interviews with teens who have survived gun violence and student activists who are launching their own movements across the country.
Available formats: Book
Putting Peace First by Eric David Dawson
Young people are hungry to change the world, but often aren’t given the chance. This book empowers them to make change happen. Using the inspiring stories of real life peacemakers, each chapter highlights a different aspect of peacemaking, from Opening Your Heart to Taking a Stand. With clear, step-by-step explanations of how each peacemaker achieved their goals, this book is a guide for anyone who wants to make a difference.
Available formats: Book
How to Change Everything by Naomi Klein
Full of empowering stories of young leaders all over the world, this information-packed book offers young readers a comprehensive look at the state of the climate today and how we got here, while also providing the tools they need to join this fight to protect and reshape the planet they will inherit.
Available formats: Book, Ebook (OverDrive by Media on Demand)
In Good Hands by Stephanie Mackendrick
A series of engaging and approachable profiles of women who have run for office. They come from across the political spectrum, around the world, and at all levels of politics. Readers will learn what inspired them to run, how they managed to win, and what they accomplished once they came to office.
Available formats: Book, Hoopla (Ebook)
Imaginary Borders by Xiuhtezcatl Martinez
In this personal, moving essay, environmental activist and hip-hop artist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez uses his art and his activism to show that climate change is a human issue that can’t be ignored.
Available formats: Book, Ebook (OverDrive by Media on Demand)
You Call this Democracy? by Elizabeth Rusch
Rusch examines some of the more problematic aspects of our government but, more importantly, offers ways for young people to fix them.
Available formats: Book, Ebook (OverDrive by Media on Demand)
Jane Against the World by Karen Blumenthal
Tracing the path to the landmark decision in Roe v. Wade and the continuing battle for women’s rights, Blumenthal examines, in a straightforward tone, the root causes of the current debate around abortion and repercussions that have affected generations of American women.
Available formats: Book, Audiobook (OverDrive by Media On Demand)
My Body My Choice by Robin Stevenson
The long fight for abortion rights is being picked up by a new generation of courageous, creative and passionate activists. This book is about the history, and the future, of that fight.
Available formats: Book
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