diversity & social issue books (written by or about people who have experienced social issues and/or diversity)
Before You Were Mine By: Maribeth Boelts
A boy’s dog dies, so his family decides to go to a shelter
and adopt a new one. While the boy is looking at the dog he wonders what his
old life was like. He also thinks about how hard the dog’s life must have been
while he was on his own. He then decides that his old life doesn’t matter
anymore because the dog now has his forever home with him.
Elmer By: David McKee
There were lots of elephants, but Elmer wasn’t elephant
colored, he was patchwork colored. He always had the other elephants laughing,
but he always thought they were laughing at him and not with him. He decides to
go on a walk, where he finds a tree full of elephant colored berries. He dyes
himself with the berries and returns to the herd. It begins to rain and all of
Elmer’s color washes away. The other elephants laugh and tell Elmer he played
the biggest joke of all and deserves to be honored every year. Every year the
other elephants dye themselves different colors while Elmer dyes himself
elephant colored.
Interest
Level: K-2
Grade
level Equivalent: 2.9
And Tango Makes 3 By: Justin Richardson
Tango is a penguin that has two fathers. One day a zookeeper
finds an egg and gives it to Roy and Silo, the two male penguins that are in
love and want to have their own egg. They are able to hatch the egg and raise
Tango as their own. The zookeeper gave her the name Tango because it takes two
to make a Tango.
Interest Level:
K-2
Grade level
Equivalent: 3.9
I don’t want to Talk About it By: Jeanie Franz Ransom
A girl's parents tell her they are going to be getting a
divorce. She then goes through all the different animals she wants to be so
that the situation is made better. She wants to be an elephant so she can break
up fights, a horse so she can run away, a porcupine so no one can hurt her, a
crocodile so she can gobble up her parents, a fish so no one can see her tears,
a lion so people will think she is brave, a kangaroo so she can crawl in her
parents pocket and they can’t leave her, and a robin so she can fly away.
Ian’s Walk By: Laurie Lears
One day Ian’s sisters Julie and Tara take him for a walk. Julie
notices how different Ian is from other people because of his autism. She
describes how he’d rather eat his dry cereal than pizza, and at the diner he
watches the ceiling fan. Ian wanders off and the girls must think like him to
find him. They find him ringing a bell and on the way home they let him do all
the things he likes.
Interest Level:
K-2
Grade level
Equivalent: 3.4
The Junkyard Wonders By: Patricia Polacco
This book talks about a class of kids with different
disabilities. They call themselves the junkyard kids, because they think no one
wants them just like the stuff you would find in a junkyard. Their teacher Mrs.
Peterson teaches them differently.She
takes them to a junkyard and has them make a project out of the junk they find.
This helps them to learn the unappreciated value of the things other people
discard. The group of Thom, Gibbie, Jody, and Trisha rebuild a plane and set it
off. In the end they are not only just successful with the plane, but go on to
have successful careers in their adult lives.
Interest Level:
2-5
Grade
level Equivalent: 3.8
The Lunch Thief by: Anne C. Bromley
Rafael has had his lunch stolen. He knows it was the new kid
Kevin that took his lunch. He doesn’t act on it because he doesn’t want to
cause a fight. He notices other kids’ lunches going missing when he’s out with
his mom. They see Kevin carrying a laundry bag into a hotel room. Rafael’s mom
tells him that Kevin may have been part of one of the families that had their
house burn down in the wild fires. Rafael feels guilty for being angry and
offers to share his lunch with Kevin that next day.
Mockingbird by: Kathryn Erskine
Caitlin is a girl with Asperger. She struggles to see things
that aren’t either good or bad. For that she relies on her brother Devon. All of
that is taken away from her when he is killed in a school shooting. She
struggles with coping with the death of her brother, and her dad proves to be
no help. Caitlin sees a counselor to help her deal with her loss and to
practice empathy and learn about other people’s emotion. She learns about
closure and how important it is for everyone in the community to have it. She
and her dad finish Devon’s eagle scout project. At school Caitlin meets Michael
who sympathizes with her because he lost his mother in the shooting. Through
their friendship Caitlin learns about empathy and gains closure.
Interest Level:
6-8
Grade level
Equivalent: 3.5
Out of My Mind By: Sharon M. Draper
Melody is born with a photographic memory. She’s also probably
one of the smartest kids in her school. Unfortunately, she can’t express it
because she has cerebral palsy. She is stuck in a special education classroom,
which she describes as being far beneath her academic level. One day she gets a
computer that enables her to speak. She then gets to enter a normal classroom
and she joins the quiz team. The team makes it to nationals, but she is unable
to go and she is devastated.
Interest Level:
3-5
Grade level
Equivalent: 4
A Shelter in Our Car By: Monica Gunning
Zettie and her mother leave Jamaica to find a better life in
America after her papa dies. They are homeless, and the kids at school call her
Junk Car Zettie. Her mom looks for a job while Zettie is at school, and at
night her momma reads her a book from the library in the back of their car.
Each morning they use a bathroom in the park to wash up. Her momma has a day
that works in their favor. At the health fair she is promised a job, and that
night they sleep and shower in a motel.