Celebrating International Day of Peace Through Children's Books

Sue Corbin
This year's International Day of Peace will be on September 21, 2026. The day was created by the United Nations, and it is a global observance that promotes nonviolence around the world. The Jane Addams Peace Association Book Awards celebrate children's books that exemplify what peace can look like through fiction and nonfiction books. Related awards that teachers can also pull on for resources are the Coretta Scott King Book Awards (https://www.ala.org/cskbart/coretta-scott-king-book-awards-all-recipients-1970-present) and the Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People (https://www.socialstudies.org/social-education/90/3/notable-social-studies-trade-books-young-people). Teachers can use resources found at National Today (nationaltoday.com/international-day-of-peace/) and the Lion and Lamb Peace Arts Center at Bluffton University (bluffton.edu/about/lionlamb/index.aspx) for more information and book lists.

This column will focus on children's books that earned honors from the Jane Addams Peace Association in 2025 and 2026. Each one shows the strength and resilience of human beings in the face of war, prejudice, and enslavement and offers testimony of what can be done by adults and children alike to achieve peace when we put our minds to it.

​The History of We. Nikkolas Smith. (2025). Penguin Random House. Jane Addams Peace Association Picture Book Winner 2026.
Peace involves understanding ourselves and other people, recognizing and honoring differences, and learning how to use our strengths to increase cooperation. In The History of We, Nikkolas Smith weaves an exquisitely illustrated story that traces the origins of all human beings from the continent of Africa. In poetic language, he explains how words were first crafted, how skin colors changed, how we expressed ourselves and told our stories through art, how cultures developed, how we figured out new and better ways to interact with our environments and adjust to them to survive, and how music brought us all together no matter what our color, beliefs, or places of birth. Descriptions of each of the illustrations and an author's note at the end of the book allow readers to go into more depth about this true story of the history of "we." (Gr PreK–6)

---

How the Word Is Passed (Adapted for Young Readers): Remembering Slavery and How It Shaped America. Clint Smith. Adapted by Sonja Cherry-Paul. (2025). Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Jane Addams Peace Association Chapter Book Honor Book 2026.
Sonja Cherry-Paul has adapted Clint Smith's adult New York Times bestselling book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, to make the important landmarks of our country mean something more than mere statues and plaques for a new generation. "The word," in this case, is anything that signifies an honest accounting of truths of America's past. Readers take a journey to places as disparate as New Orleans, Galveston, and New York City to trace the history of slavery as it has been portrayed by artists, sculptors, and writers. We see how words—and images—can be distorted to mean many different things to different people and that connotation and context must be considered when we visit any historical site. (Gr 3–8)

---

The House Before Falling into the Sea. Ann Suk Wang. Illus. by Hanna Cha. (2024). Dial Books for Young Readers. Jane Addams Peace Association Picture Book Finalist 2025.
Cha's mixed-media illustrations are the perfect backdrops for this story of human kindness and resilience in which one family harbors people who have left North Korea to find safe haven in the South. The story is based on Wang's mother's family during the Korean War when their house was the last one on a long journey, the one that kept people from "falling into the sea." Korean words are embedded and then defined in a glossary at the end of the book, adding even more authenticity to the strong and beautiful language in this story. Little-known aspects of Korean culture are revealed, which add interest and situational context. (Gr PreK–3)

---

Mani Samilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice. Anna Lapera. (2024). Levine Querido. Jane Addams Peace Association Chapter Book Finalist 2025.
Mani is a typical tween who is maturing into womanhood but hanging on to childhood with one hand as well. She is a combination of Filipino, Chinese, American, and Guatemalan heritage, which is confusing enough, but now her mother wants to take her to Guatemala on her thirteenth birthday, and she is dreading it. She has heard about the dangers there, but she knows little about the reality of it until she finds letters between her mother and aunt that reveal the femicide that has been happening in the world that she knew nothing of. This middle grade novel has gravely solemn subject matter, but it is told from the perspective of a girl who exhibits humor, teenage angst, and strength of purpose. (Gr 5–8)

---

A Map for Falasteen: A Palestinian Child's Search for Home. Maysa Odeh. Illus. by Aliaa Betawi. (2024). Henry Holt. Jane Addams Peace Association Picture Book Honor Book 2025.
Everyone else in Falasteen's class can locate the place from which their ancestors came, but Palestine is not on the classroom map, and her teacher is not very helpful in explaining why this is so. When Falasteen asks her family, they tell her of a beautiful land where people used to live in peace with their neighbors. Her mother tells her that Palestine lives in the hearts of its people and that you don't need a map to find it. An author's note provides more detail about the history of Middle Eastern modern conflicts in language that children and young people will be able to understand. (Gr PreK–3)

---

Not Nothing. Gayle Forman. (2025). Aladdin. Jane Addams Peace Association Chapter Book Winner 2025.
Not Nothing is a testament to the power of stories, of listening, and of forgiveness. An older man waiting to die and a 12-year-old trying to figure out how to live create a bond that unites them for all time and gives them strength to face the present. Twelve-year-old Alex has been sent to a retirement home to volunteer over the summer and to think about the lines he has crossed with other people. Jozef, who is 107, has a past full of twists and turns. As he tells his stories to Alex, much is revealed and healed. Readers will find themselves in both characters, who are capable of terrible and noble things, and come to realize something about themselves that they never thought possible. (Gr 5–8)

---

A Place for Us. James E. Ransome. (2025). Nancy Paulsen Books. Jane Addams Peace Association Picture Book Honor Book 2026.
Ransome tells a story about a mother and son who live on the streets of a city in this richly illustrated wordless book. It depicts the love between the two and the dedication the mother has to ensure her son gets a good education and stays healthy, despite their circumstances. While their life is precarious, they each find a way to make their place in the world by causing no harm and doing their best to both survive and thrive. The love between the two is palpable in Ransome's capable hands. (Gr PreK–4)

---

Safiyyah's War. Hiba Noor Khan. (2023). HarperCollins. Jane Addams Peace Association Chapter Book Honor Book 2025.
Based on a true story, Safiyyah's War tells a fictionalized tale of how Muslims who lived in the Grand Mosque in Paris saved Jews who were targets of the Nazis in World War II. Safiyyah is introduced to the complicated underground resistance movement when she tries to find out why her father is acting so strangely. She learns that Jewish people are in hiding in the mosque and escaping with the help of her own people. As Khan states in the historical note at the end of the book, both Jews and Muslims believe that saving one human life is like saving everyone in the world. These shared beliefs, coupled with the kindness and love of which humans are capable, are inspiring to readers who want to know what they can do to make the world a better place. The story reads like a gripping spy novel that young adolescents won't want to put down. (Gr 5–8)

---

A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez. María Dolores Águila. (2024). Roaring Brook Press. Jane Addams Peace Association Chapter Book Winner 2026.
Told in poetry form, this fictionalized biography of Roberto Alvarez is set in the time of the Mexican Repatriation of the 1930s in the United States. Many Mexican Americans, scores of whom were legitimate citizens of America, were deported to Mexico unfairly. Roberto Alvarez was a student in a desegregated school in Lemon Grove, California, when anti-Mexican feelings climbed to dangerous heights and all the Mexican students, citizen and non-citizen alike, were forced to attend a separate school for them that was in a former barn. The families of Lemon Grove protested this and finally won back the rights of their children to attend a school with everyone else. It is an important case that Águila brings to life, weaving English and Spanish to create a narrative poem that sings with hope and the power of perseverance. (Gr 5–8)

---

Small Shoes, Great Strides: How Three Brave Girls Opened Doors to School Equality. Vaunda Micheaux Nelson. Illus. by Alex Bostic. (2023). Carolrhoda Books. Jane Addams Peace Association Picture Book Honor Book 2025.
The strength and determination of Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost, and Gail Etienne shine in this picture book biography of three remarkable young girls who lived with prejudice and danger throughout much of their lives in school to prove that White and Black children could learn together in peace. Motivated and inspired by their parents and other caring adults, including teachers, they were able to overcome the hatred of others in ways that might intimidate anyone else. At the end of the book, there is a great deal of information about the girls as they lived in the 1960s and where they are today. A history of school desegregation in New Orleans and the U.S. Marshals Service in the mid-20th century, a glossary of terms, lists of websites and other resources, and an author's note all help to flesh out the story of the McDonough Three, so named for their school in New Orleans. This book is perfect to read along with books about Ruby Bridges, who is perhaps a more well-known name in history. (Gr 1–4)

---

​They Call Me Teach: Lessons in Freedom. Lesa Cline-Ransome. Illus. by James E. Ransome. (2024). Candlewick Press. Jane Addams Peace Association Picture Book Winner 2025.
This story is reminiscent of Gary Paulsen's Nightjohn (1993, Delacorte Press), in which one man makes a difference in the lives of many by passing along his literacy skills to other enslaved people in secret meetings and church services. An author's note explains why slave owners would not want their workers to learn to read and write. Frederick Douglass’s statement —"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free"—teaches young readers that to be literate is to have power. (Gr K–3)

---

​Words Matter: The Story of Hans and Sophie Scholl, and the White Rose Resistance. Anita Fitch Pazner. Illus. by Sophie Casson. (2025). Groundwood Books. Jane Addams Peace Association Chapter Book Finalist 2026.
The simple, poetic style and almost whimsical illustrations in this book belie the serious nature of the content that elucidates the battle between good and evil, freedom and autocracy. It is a timely story, in spite of the World War II setting, that will give middle school readers food for thought about why and how words do matter and how even young people can make crucial differences in their world. Hans and Sophie Scholl were martyred by the Nazis, but their lives and the White Rose Resistance will forever be remembered in this poignant, affecting biography. (Gr 5–8)

---

A World Worth Saving. Kyle Lukoff. (2025). Penguin Random House. Jane Addams Peace Association Chapter Book Finalist 2026.
Award-winning author Kyle Lukoff has written a book that will pull readers in as they take a virtual tour of a world run by demons who are out to destroy any good thing they can find. For A, a transgender boy who is grappling with his identity in a family that clearly wants him to turn himself around, life as a trans kid is made more difficult by a group called SOSAD. When A's friend goes missing, he must find a way to combat the demons that are taking away the beauty and life-affirming parts of the world that make it livable for everyone. He must find a "world worth saving," and, with the help of a golem (a Jewish mystical character) and his own will not to be alone, A wins. In the end, A and his friends are free to live as they are—human beings in a world based on truth and love instead of evil. (Gr 5–8)

---

​Sue Corbin is retired from full-time teaching but enjoys teaching adjunct courses at places like the University of North Georgia and the National Teachers College in Cleveland, OH. She chairs the Children’s Rights to Read Committee for ILA, serving and supporting educators in their work to keep high-quality books in the hands of children across the globe. Sue lives in Charlotte, NC, and works with volunteer teachers at Gaston County Literacy Council, training them to use authentic assessments and provide research-based instruction with adults who are struggling to read.