18 Titles to Inspire Kids Under 18

Since the February 14th school violence shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, more teens and kids are becoming politically active to change the laws to better protect other children in school. Each time the news reports on a horrifying event like this, my heart breaks a little more and I wonder what else can I do? I think this hit me harder than others because my cousins went to high school at this school. They have all graduated at this point, but to be that close to a situation of violence is truly scary.

And the answer to what else can I do? Well, the teens that experienced this terrifying situation are showing the world what we can do – with nation (and worldwide) events like the School Walkout and the March for Our Lives as well as town hall meetings, social media posts, and interviews from major news networks and newspapers, teens are keeping this issue at the forefront of everyone’s mind and doing all they can to be the change. With that said, I’ve compiled a list of nonfiction books about real life teens who have changed the world as way of inspiration. Also, take a look at my 28 Social Justice Titles in YA Literature for some more inspiration filled with both nonfiction and fiction titles.

1. Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings
2. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin
3. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Young Readers Edition by William Kamkwamba
4. The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club by Phillip M. Hoose
5. Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909 by Michelle Markel, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
6. Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip M. Hoose
7. Emmanuel’s Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah by Laurie Ann Thompson, illustrated by Sean Qualls
8. The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement by Teri Kanefield
9. Girl Rising: Changing the World One Girl at a Time  by Tanya Lee Stone
10. Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World edited by Kelly Jensen
11. I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World (Young Readers Edition) by Malala Yousafzai, with Patricia McCormick
12. I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives by Caitlin Alifirenka, Martin Ganda, with Liz Welch
13. March by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell
14. Marching for Freedom: Walk Together Children and Don’t You Grow Weary
    by Elizabeth Partridge
15. Outcasts United: The Story of a Refugee Soccer Team That Changed a Town by Warren St. John
16. Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the Selma Voting Rights March by Lynda Blackmon Lowery, Elspeth Leacock, Susan Buckley, P.J. Loughran
17. We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March by Cynthia Levinson
18. We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler by Russell Freedman