“Do it! What are you waiting on? Do it! Stand up for what you believe in. The world needs your voice. Whoever you are, you have something to say. Say it." -Kerry Washington
In this book list:
Non-Fiction Titles
People can make their voices heard in hundreds of different ways. This is a visual voyage of resistance through American history. Discover the artwork, music, fashion, and creativity of the activists. Meet the leaders of the movements, and learn about the protests that helped to shape the United States from all sides of the political spectrum.
This revised, updated and expanded edition celebrates the LGBTQ+ community's diversity, the incredible victories of the past fifty years and the voices of young activists.
We Will Always Be Here shines a light on powerful and often untold stories from Wisconsin's history, featuring individuals across a wide spectrum of identities and from all corners of the state. Drawing from a rich collection of primary sources--including diary entries, love letters, zines, advertisements, oral histories, and more--the book provides a jumping-off point for readers who are interested in learning more about LGBTQ+ history and activism.
Who are you? What is racism? Where does it come from? Why does it exist? What can you do to disrupt it? Learn about social identities, the history of racism and resistance against it, and how you can use your anti-racist lens and voice to move the world toward equity and liberation.
A compelling account of the killing of Vincent Chin, the verdicts that took the Asian American community to the streets in protest, and the groundbreaking civil rights trial that followed.
Poisoned Water shows not just how the crisis unfolded in 2014, but also the history of racism and segregation that led up to it, the beliefs and attitudes that fueled it, and how the people of Flint fought--and are still fighting--for clean water and healthy lives.
The power to change lies with the citizens of this great country--especially teens! Each chapter breaks down a different problem plaguing American democracy, exploring how it's undemocratic, offering possible solutions (with examples of real-life teens who have already started working toward them), and suggesting ways to effect change.
Enough Is Enough is a call to action for teens ready to lend their voices to the gun violence prevention movement. 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.
Full of empowering stories of young leaders all over the world, this information-packed book offers 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.
This explores the roots of racism and its legacy in modern day, all while empowering young people with actionable ways they can help foster a better world and become antiracists.
Inspired by the #SayHerName campaign launched by the African American Policy Forum, these poems pay tribute to victims of police brutality as well as Black Lives Matter activists.
Inspired by her fans and enraged by how little in culture has changed since her groundbreaking novel "Speak" was first published in 1999, bestselling author Anderson presents a poetic memoir in which she shares reflections, rants, and calls to action woven between deeply personal stories from her life that she's never written about before.
Today's feminism is more diverse than ever before and asks all kinds of questions. Combining insightful text with graphic illustrations, this tackles topics including intersectionality, the gender pay gap, the male gaze, and mansplaining.
Discover the power of words and images in this thought-provoking look at protest art by highly acclaimed artivist De Nichols.
Graphic Novels
This covers the key figures and events that have advanced women's rights from antiquity to the modern era. Stories of notable women throughout history-from queens and freedom fighters to warriors and spies-and the progressive movements led by women that have shaped history.
Hyun Sook Kim shares a dramatic autobiography about political division, fear-mongering, anti-intellectualism, the death of democratic institutions, and the relentless rebellion of reading.
This follows the dynamic story of Charisma, a Black high school student who is grappling with mounting pressures from home and school. When frustrations with her family intersect with a conflict at school, she reaches a crossroads, facing a choice that could change her future. Charisma's Turn exemplifies how Black girls can be truly empowered to reach their full potential when they have supportive educators and community members in their corner.
What are the causes and consequences of climate change? When the scale is so big, can an individual make any difference? Documentary, diary, and masterwork graphic novel, this looks at our planet and how we live on it and explains what global warming is all about.
With colorful art, compelling discourse, and true stories from America's past and present, this sheds light on how today's political struggles have their origins in the decisions of our Founding Fathers.
High school students embark on a crash course of friendship, female empowerment, and women's health issues.
Derived from excerpts of a letter that went viral and also the basis of a documentary film. In her letter, Jonnie calls out the authorities for neglecting to immediately investigate missing Indigenous people and urges them to not treat her as the Indigenous person she is proud to be if she were to be reported missing. Through the illustrations, the artist imagines a situation in which a young Indigenous woman does disappear, portraying the reaction of her community, her friends, the police, and media.
Part of the graphic novel trilogy based on the life of civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis.
This book provides a crash course in what drives mass incarceration, the human and community costs, and how to stop the numbers from going even higher.
Darrin Bell was six years old when his mother told him he couldn't have a realistic water gun. She said she feared for his safety, that police tend to think of little Black boys as older and less innocent than they really are. Through evocative illustrations and sharp humor, Bell examines how The Talk shaped intimate and public moments from childhood to adulthood.
An intriguing and accessible graphic novel about the role wealth and influence play in American democracy.
A feminist manifesto exposing the everyday sexism that teenage girls face.
Fiction Titles
Two Black young men attend prestigious schools nearly thirty years apart, and yet both navigate similar forms of insidious racism. As the two students, whose lives overlap in powerful ways, risk losing the opportunities their parents worked hard to provide, they move closer to discovering who they want to be instead of accepting as fact who society and family tell them they are.
Standing in opposition to a class assignment to debate Hitler's Final Solution, seniors Cade and Logan become embroiled in turmoil involving their teacher, principal, Commissioner of Education, white supremacists, and their entire community.
Clementine Chan believes in the power of the written word. Under the pseudonym Hibiscus, she runs a popular blog reviewing tea shops and discussing larger issues within her Chinatown community. Danny Mok is allergic to change, and the gentrification seeping into Chinatown breaks his heart. He channels his frustration into his internet alter ego, BobaBoy888, bickering with local blogger Hibiscus over all things Chinatown and tea. When a major corporation reveals plans that threaten to shut down the Mok's beloved tea shop, Clementine and Danny find themselves working together in real life to save this community they both love.
A heartbreaking and powerful novel about racism and social justice as fourteen-year-old Ayo has to decide whether to take on her mother's activist role when her mom is shot by police.
When teen social activist and history buff Kezi Smith is killed under mysterious circumstances after attending a social justice rally, her sister Happi begins to question the idealized way her sister is remembered. Happi and her sister Genny embark on a journey to honor Kezi in their own way, using an heirloom copy of The Negro Motorist Green Book as their guide.
A streetrat turned revolutionary and the disillusioned hacker son of a politician try to take down a ruthlessly technocratic government that sacrifices its poorest citizens to build its utopia. A searing portrayal of the future of climate change in South Asia.
A high school junior teams up with a hacker during a police brutality protest to shut down a device that creates an impenetrable dome around Baltimore that is keeping the residents in and information from going out.
An anthology featuring fictional stories of everyday resistance in poems, prose, and art.
Jasmine and Chelsea are best friends on a mission--they're sick of the way women are treated even at their progressive NYC high school, so they decide to start a Women's Rights Club. They post their work online--poems, essays, videos of Chelsea performing her poetry, and Jasmine's response to the racial microaggressions she experiences--and soon they go viral.
Perry Firekeeper-Birch begins to question everything when the rising number of missing Indigenous women starts circling closer to home, as her family becomes embroiled in a high-profile murder investigation, and as greedy grave robbers seek to profit off of what belongs to her Anishinaabe tribe. Old rivalries, sister secrets, and botched heists cannot -will not- stop her from uncovering the mystery before the ancestors and missing women are lost forever.
After a terrorist attack rocks the country and anti-Islamic sentiment stirs, three Black Muslim girls create a space where they can shatter assumptions and share truths.