Erica Holyoke & Lori Elliott 
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Activism is the practice of taking action to create change, whether in our communities, our environment, or around the systems that shape our lives. In this collection of picturebooks, activism is represented in many forms: quiet and bold, individual and collective, personal and political. From a single child advocating for amphibians in her town to multigenerational efforts for racial justice and climate equity, these stories reflect the wide-ranging possibilities of what it means to take action and make a difference. Because social change occurs across boundaries and these books invite action and social change, we chose not to include age ranges in the book recommendations. We see possibilities for inviting readers across all ages to explore the narratives and themes in these books.
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These books offer a range of issues, such as racial justice, linguistic rights, voting rights, environmental justice, literacy, civil rights, and the arts, but also show that change begins in many places: with one voice, with a classroom, with a family, or as part of initiating an entire movement. Some books focus on personal acts of courage or discovery, while others highlight the power of community and collective resistance. Together, they remind readers that activism comes in many forms and that all forms of engagement matter. Activism is about envisioning a more inclusive and just world on personal, local, and global levels. 
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These books are rich with emotion, beautifully illustrated, and grounded in truth-telling and hope. In sharing them with children, we’re honoring history, embracing activism in the present, and shaping the future. Importantly, each text offers an opportunity for wonder, further research, and action. Let’s read, reflect, and rise!

I Am the Spirit of Justice. Jemar Tisby and Malcolm Newsome. Illus. by Nadia Fisher. (2025) Zonderkidz Press.
In this ambitious historical poem picturebook, the authors employ a personified spirit of justice to trace key moments and people in the pursuit of justice for everyone: “So I erupted like a volcano. Igniting faith in the souls of those who risked everything to deliver freedom to all.” The poem begins by recognizing the “royal and majestic people” in West Africa and concludes by highlighting the most recent violence against Black individuals that sparked national protests: “I am here. Even in the midst of horrifying brutality. Reminding the world that my loved ones still matter.” This personified spirit of justice flows throughout the book, offering reminders of progress, as well as inspiration for readers to continue the journey toward justice for everyone. The additional notes at the end of the book provide supplemental details about the contributions of each individual highlighted in the vibrant images across each double-page spread.

Marjory's River of Grass: Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Fierce Protector of the Everglades. Author and Illus. by Josie James. (2025). Christy Ottaviano Books.
This picturebook biography traces the remarkable life and impact of conservationist Marjory Stoneman Douglas from the time she reconnected with her father as a young adult to her death at 108 years young. The story explores how she fell in love with the Florida Everglades, the people she met during her tenure as the editor of The Miami Herald, and the skillful ways she intertwined her connections with the power of her pen to bring awareness and action to saving the unique ecosystem she described as “a river of grass.” Descriptive language helps readers stretch their vocabulary: “Birds sang, woodpeckers tapped, frogs croaked, and insects buzzed as the observers slogged beneath the majesty of a cypress dome,” while the warm and saturated hues of the illustrations provide a window into the beauty of the subtropical wilderness. The book concludes with an author’s note detailing additional facts about Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the Everglades and calls to action around access to clean water.      

My Language Rights: A Child’s Right to the Language. Judy Thompson. Illus. by Tete García. (2025). Scribble US.
“Language is the way I speak who I am to the world.” This book opens with a spread of children sharing a speech bubble voicing their identities to the world. The illustrations are inviting, show children of diverse cultural and racial identities, and celebrate how language is interwoven in human identity. While the text also prioritizes pride in one’s language, it is also about connection, community, and creating peace in the world. Related to activism, the text prioritizes the rights that children have to their languages with calls such as “my language should be treated with dignity and respect. My school should help me feel proud of the ways I speak,” and more. The book closes with a call to action to add linguistic rights to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, serving as a call to action itself.

Prisons Must Fall. Mariame Kaba and Jane Bell. Illus. by Olly Costello. (2025). Haymarket Books.
This is a powerful story positioning young readers as aware of injustices, having big questions, and engaging in complex conversations. Written in accessible rhyming language, this picturebook explores the realities about incarceration while advocating for abolition and community healing. Through thoughtful language and illustrations, the text positions restorative ways of being in our society and how we view and interact with one another in the world. The book also captures complexity, such as asking, “some may wonder: without prisons how will we mend harm? Compassion is a good place to begin, open up your arms.” Inviting in counter-perspectives and explicit solutions, the text proposes the power of relation and connection, alluding to the concept that we cannot be free until we are all free. The book closes with discussion questions for readers to explore together. The art and illustrations add beauty and depth to this thought-evoking picturebook.

Rise Up!: Powerful Protests in American History. Rachel C. Katz. Illus. by Sophie Bass. (2025). Barefoot Books.
This vibrant and engaging informational text introduces readers to key protests throughout American history. With accessible language, the book highlights how everyday people, including children and teens, have fought for justice, equity, and change. Each protest is framed in conversation with broader views of activism, empowering readers to engage in future and current protests. The book presents the individual protests thematically, then organizes them in a timeline sequentially, and finally shares a map of geographic locations. Back matter also includes historical and research context on each movement. The book offers readers hope in seeing protest as a tool to advocate for more just, equitable, and inclusive ways of being in the United States. It calls for shared action from past to present: “Use your brain, use your voice, find your personal mission. Join hands! Join a Cause! Join a long, proud tradition!”

Ruby Bridges–A Talk with My Teacher. Ruby Bridges. Illus. by Trudy Tran. (2025). Orchard Books.
This story focuses on conversations between Ruby Bridges and her first-grade teacher, Mrs. Henry, when they reconnected after thirty-five years. While the story references events related to school desegregation, the focus is equally on celebrating teachers and their powerful and lasting influence on our lives. The writing style is simple and accessible for young readers, often evoking a child's hopefulness and optimistic wonder: “Finally, after thirty-five years, I could talk with my teacher. I could ask her all the questions I have wondered about over the years.” A significant feature at the end of the book is the “Ruby Reads Teacher Glossary,” which details the contributions of many different activist-minded and influential teachers from around the globe, sparking curiosity and inviting readers into further research. 

​Safe Crossing. Author & Illus. by Kari Percival. (2025). Chronicle Books.
This lyrical narrative informational picturebook provides information and a story of how a child, her family, and her community advocate for wildlife crossings for the amphibians that have to journey across a major road. Through child-led fundraising and collective organizing, the community works to create a safer passage for the amphibians. The narrative centers the child’s voice and agency, showing how even small, local efforts can have a meaningful impact on ecosystems. The backmatter offers rich scientific content, including information about amphibian lifecycles, the importance of wildlife crossings, and actionable steps young readers can take to support local wildlife. By emphasizing both scientific knowledge and civic responsibility, Safe Crossing provides a powerful model for how children can engage in environmental justice through local, relational, and intergenerational activism.

They Call Me Teach: Lessons in Freedom. Lesa Cline Ransome. Illus. by James Ransome (2024). Candlewick.
The author-illustrator duo of Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome has written a moving, poetic story supported with deeply saturated watercolor images highlighting the experiences of enslaved individuals who learned to read and then risked their lives to teach others: “What sound this one make, Teach? they ask, eyes bright/crouched low, I teach in whispers with hushed letters and the soft scrape of a stick against slate.” The author intentionally and effectively weaves dialect throughout the story, bringing authenticity to ways of communicating during the period. This feature of the text also lends to sharing the book as a read aloud to help young readers navigate the words and the concepts. The informative author’s note at the end of the book highlights anti-literacy laws and the variety of ways resistance can be enacted. The words and images work in concert to capture the courage and powerful, and sometimes subtle, means of resistance taken by enslaved people in the quest for freedom. 

​Up, Up, Ever Up: Junko Tabei, A Life in the Mountains. Anita Yasuda. Illus. by Yuko Shimizu. (2024). Clarion Books.
This Caldecott Honor book seamlessly weaves lyrical language and engaging artwork to highlight the experiences and perseverance of Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Mt. Everest. The narrative presents the ways that Tabei challenged gender norms, and how she also continued to focus on environmental activism to protect the beloved mountain from tourism and climate change. In addition to focusing on Tabei’s resilience as a female climber, the book also details the many ways she “knitted other women climbers together, just as a ridge joins mountaintops…eager and unstoppable, they planned, trained, and dreamed beyond the horizon.” The author’s note, timeline, glossary, and bibliography provide meaningful information and invitations for readers to learn more about Tabei, mountain climbing, and environmental activism.

​Erica Holyoke, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in Responsive Literacy Education at the University of Colorado Denver. Her research focuses on justice, equity, and belonging in literacy teaching and teacher preparation.
 
Lori Elliott, Ph.D., is an associate teaching professor in the Responsive Literacy Education program at the University of Colorado Denver, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in children’s literature. 

​Lynette Smith, Sandip Wilson and Carolyn Angus
This column focuses on global issues of civil rights, social justice, immigration, and protection of the environment. The books reviewed cover events from history and the actions of communities and individuals, including young people, in the past that raise awareness of the effects of these issues and serve as inspiration for transforming awareness into action in the present. 

​Across So Many Seas. Ruth Behar. (2024). Nancy Paulsen.
Ruth Behar relates the compelling stories of four 12-year-old girls from different generations of one Sephardic Jewish family. In 1492, during the Spanish Inquisition, a proclamation ordering all Jews to convert to Catholicism or leave the country under the threat of death leads Benvenida’s family to flee to Naples, Italy, and then travel by sea to Constantinople. In 1923, Reina is sent to live with her Tia in Cuba for sneaking out to watch Turkish Independence Day fireworks with a Muslim friend. In 1961, Alegra, Reina’s daughter, is a brigadista teaching people in rural Cuba to read and write until Fidel Castro’s communist policies make life difficult for Jews. With the help of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, her father sends her to Miami. In 2003, Paloma, Alegra’s daughter who loves the stories of her ancestors’ journeys, travels from Miami to Spain with her parents and Abuela Reina—and readers come to fully understand the relationship of these four girls. Back matter includes an extensive author’s note and sources. (Gr 6 Up)
—LS

Amil and the After. Veera Hiranandani. Illus. by Prashant Miranda. (2024). Kokila.
In this companion to The Night Diary (2018), 12-year-old Amil and his twin, Nisha, whose Muslim mother died in giving birth to them, are growing up in Bombay after fleeing home in “old India” with their Hindu father, grandmother, and family cook, Kasiz, following the 1948 Partition of India into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. At the suggestion of Nisha, Amil, who is dealing with before issues begins drawing pictures for Mama as he tries to make sense of the after. He dreams of having friends and owning a bicycle. He is confused about having Muslim and Hindu blood and why Papa won’t discuss his concerns, but as his family begins rebuilding their lives Amil has hope for the future. Prashant Miranda’s final illustration shows Nisha, Amil, and his best friend happily riding his bicycle. “Look at us, Mama. Today we are free!” Back matter includes a glossary and author’s note with a thought-provoking concern about healing of individuals and society after a traumatic experience. (Gr 6 Up)
—LS

​Barrio Rising: The Protest That Built Chicano Park. Maria Dolores Águila. Illus. by Magdalena Mora. (2024). Dial.
In 1970, Elena, who lives with her mother in Barrio Logan, one of the oldest Chicano neighborhoods in San Diego, is excited by the arrival of trucks and earth movers. Learning that a police station and not the long-promised community park is being built beneath the Coronado Bridge, they join the 12-day occupation of the land. “We are a barrio rising.” The success of the barrio’s nonviolent protest leads to the city and state agreeing that the land will be a park. The community paints the bridge pillars and on-ramps with murals and adds native flora, sculptures, and a gazebo to create Chicano Park. The banner “¡¡HASTA LA BAHÍA!!” pictured in Magdalena Mora’s final colorful mixed-media illustration reflects the continued fight of Barrio Logan to regain waterfront access to the San Diego Bay. Back matter includes a brief history of Chicano Park, resources, and an author’s note. (PreK- Gr 2)
—CA

​Cactus Queen: Minerva Hoyt Establishes Joshua Tree National Park. Lori Alexander. Illus. by Jenn Ely. (2024). Calkins Creek.
After moving to Pasadena, California, in 1897, Minerva Hoyt (1866-1945), who was born in Mississippi, came to love the Mojave Desert with its native Joshua trees. By the late 1920s, she realized that the Mojave Desert was becoming the wasteland so many people believed it to be. Determined and persistent preservationist Minerva began speaking about and exhibiting displays of the desert landscape to educate people that Mojave Desert was beautiful and brimming with life, and in 1936, she convinced President Franklin D. Roosevelt to create Joshua Tree National  Monument. (In 1994, President Clinton signed the California Desert Protection Act that established Joshua Tree National Park.) The back matter of this lively picture book biography includes more about Minerva Hoyt, the wildlife in Joshua Tree National Park, and U.S. national parks; an author’s note; tips for environmental activists; and a bibliography. (PreK Up)
—CA

​Coretta: The Autobiography of Mrs. Coretta Scott King. Coretta Scott King (with Reverend Dr. Barbara Reynolds). Illus. by Ekua Holmes. (2024). Godwin.
Beginning with “I was born on April 27, 1927, in Heiberger, Alabama, at a time and in a place where everything I would eventually become was impossible even to imagine,” this picture book adaptation of Coretta: My Life, My Love, My Legacy (2017) with an engaging first-person narration and Ekua Holmes’ vibrant mixed-media collage artwork is an eloquent introduction to the life and work of Coretta Scott King (1927-2006), a key figure in American civil rights and global human rights movements. The book ends with these inspirational words: “The Dream is a work that is very much in progress. I am counting on the next generation.” Back matter includes a “Six Principles of Nonviolence” statement, a civil rights timeline, and a referral to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change for more information on Coretta Scott King’s life. (Gr 3 Up)
—CA

​Free to Learn: How Alfredo Lopez Fought for the Right to Go to School. Cynthia Levinson. Illus. by Mirelle Ortega. (2024). Atheneum. 
In 1977, nine-year-old Alfredo Lopez immigrates to Texas to reunite with his parents, who left Mexico two years earlier to find jobs and meets his baby brother born in the US. He is excited about going to school, but a law Texas passed in 1975 prohibits the use of public funds to educate a child not born in the US. His parents, who cannot afford the annual thousand-dollar tuition for non-citizens, join three other families in a class action suit challenging the law based on 14th amendment protections. The vivid digital illustrations of this picture book inspired by a true story provide details of Alfredo’s life in Mexico and his hopes for attending school in Texas. The back matter includes additional information on the case, Alfredo’s family, and Judge William Wayne Justice, who heard the case (initially called Doe v. Plyler but later changed to Plyler vs. Doe) in Tyler, Texas; an author’s note; sources notes; and a selected bibliography.  (PreK Up)
 —SW

​Just Another Story: A Graphic Migration Account. Ernesto Saade. (2024). Graphic
In 2017, Ernesto flies to Los Angeles from El Salvador to visit his Cousin Carlos, who migrated to the US with his mother for a better life. Ernesto’s visit gives Carlos the opportunity to recount the perils, constant fear, and uncertainty he and his mother faced in their journey to the United States from El Salvador in 2007. This graphic story, with richly hued illustrations of the night and day flashbacks and muted tones of the present during Ernesto and Carlo’s visit, recounts the doubt and sadness the mother and teenaged son faced in leaving home and family, waiting for the coyote to take them on a journey that lasts weeks, facing heat of the day and cold nights, the terror at every turn of being found by police or worse, the pirates who preyed on the migrant groups, and the dread of swimming across the river at the border. Just Another Journey is author-illustrator Ernesto Saade’s moving account of the migration of Carlos and his mother, Elena, that his cousin shared with him for the first time in 2017. (Gr 6 Up)
—SW

​Let Us March On!: James Weldon Johnson and the Silent Protest Parade. Yohuru Williams & Michael G. Long. Illus. by Xia Gordon. (2024). Atheneum.
In 1917, James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) had an idea for a silent march on Fifth Avenue in New York City in response to the pain and suffering of the African Americans facing the rising violence, hatred, and destruction to their property families, and communities. Johnson said that, although he was a man of words, “Sometimes silence can be more powerful than words to attract attention,” and people at the meeting loved the idea of a silent protest parade. Xia Gordon’s richly hued, digital illustrations complement Yohuru Williams and Michael G. Long’s rhythmic narrative of the planning for the silent protest by the NAACP and the July 28 march for civil rights by more than 10,000 Black men, women, and children viewed by thousands of spectators. Back matter includes more information about the Silent Protest Parade in the authors’ note and James Weldon Johnson’s inspirational poem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” known as the Black national anthem. (PreK Up)

Lights Out: A Movement to Help Migrating Birds. Jessica Stremer. Illus. by Bonnie Pang. (2024). Paula Wiseman.
Inspired by the work of the Toronto-based organization Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP) started in 1993 by a group of volunteers concerned about safety of birds in urban areas, Jessica Stremer tells a story of how light pollution in North American cities affects migrating birds who seasonally travel thousands of miles on their flyways, mainly on the east coast. In winter, a young girl and her father rescue a lone sparrow separated from a flock flying south showing how concerned individuals decide to take action, one person, one action at a time, to help migrating birds. Bonnie Pang’s colorful, digital illustrations complement the story of the perils birds face as the starry-maps they follow are less visible at night because of the bright city lights. Back matter includes more about bird migration and the dangers of light pollution, information on the Lights Out movement, resources on how to help migrating birds, the definition of flyway, and a bibliography. (PreK-Gr 2)
—SW ​

​The Partition Project. Saadia Faruqi. (2024). Quill Tree.
When her grandmother arrives in Texas from Pakistan, Pakistani-American Maha must give up her bedroom, spend time caring for her grandmother each day after school, and accompany her to the Senior Center every Saturday. She adjusts to these changes and comes to care for her Dadi who tells of the heartbreaking events of the Partition and her family’s move to Pakistan in 1947. Maha, who dreams of becoming a journalist, realizes she can use her interviewing skills and make the Partition the topic of her Media Class project by sharing Dadi’s stories when she learns that her classmates and teacher do not know about the Partition. Maha’s Partition project grows to also include stories from other seniors at the Center, and she comes to appreciate her heritage and the sacrifices her ancestors made as well as the importance of historical events and their connection to present-time journalism. In an author’s note, Saadia Faruqi shares memories of sitting at her grandmother’s feet and hearing stories of her childhood. (Gr 6 Up)
—LS

​A Star Shines Through. Anna Desnitskaya. Trans. by Anna Desnitskaya. (2024). Eerdmans.
A young child shares memories of living in a big city where a star-shaped cardboard lamp in their apartment window always welcomed her home until war began. “We left for another country. It’s not like home here.” Everything—the language, the apartment, the view from the window, the food, even the two of them—is different in the new country until Mom brings home a kit for them to make a cardboard star just like the one they had back home to put in the window. “After that, everything around us became a little less different.” The author’s note for this beautifully crafted picture book, originally written in Russian, explains that this realistic story of loss of one’s home due to war is based on Moscow native Anna Desnitskaya’s own family’s refugee experience following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. (PreK Up)
—CA