20 Titles for Young Activists – Summer Reading 2020
I’ve been mulling around the idea of creating summer reading lists this year. It’s been slow going as so much of m energy is put into figuring out how to run a library during a global pandemic! But, I didn’t want to re-create the wheel offering “Summer Reading for 5th Graders” either. Those types of lists can be found all over the Internet! And although they’re super helpful for parents looking for a great starting point for summer reading plans, I wanted to go a different route.
This year, I decided to focus on creating lists around different interests – sports, the arts, gaming, etc. Each list will include 20 books and will be all ages from board books to young adult titles. The lists will also include various formats and hopefully both fiction and nonfiction titles.
First up? Activism. Young people are becoming more involved in activism from marches to presentations at town council meetings, petitions, and more. Kids are learning that change happens when people show they want it.
20 Titles for Young Activists
- A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara
- Come with Me by Holly M. McGhee, illustrations by Pascal Lemaître
- Enough! 20 Protesters Who Changed America by Emily Easton, illustrated Ziyue Chen
- Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes
- A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée
- Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
- I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World by Malala Yousafzai and Patricia McCormick
- If You’re Going to a March by Martha Freeman, illustrated by Violet Kim
- An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People by Debbie Reese and Jean Mendoza, with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
- Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson, illustrated by Frank Morrison
- March by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell
- Peaceful Fights for Equal Rights by Rob Sanders, illustrated by Jared Schorr
- Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag by Rob Sanders, illustrated by Steven Salerno
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
- Strange Birds: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers by Celia C. Pérez
- The Stonewall Riots: Coming Out in the Streets by Gayle E. Pitman
- They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker
- This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work by Tiffany Jewell, illustrations by Aurelia Durand
- What Can a Citizen Do? by Dave Eggers, illustrated by Shawn Harris
- The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist by Cynthia Levinson, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
More Resources
If you’re looking for more great titles for the littlest members of your family check out 36 Titles for Babies & Toddlers: Social Justice, Equality and Diversity and 18 More Books for Babies & Toddlers. Plus, if you’re looking for more books for teens, check out Brightly’s post – 10 Nonfiction Books About Activism for Teens,
Check back every day this week for a new summer reading list!
