Reading: Social Justice

Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Young Adult Fiction. 229 pages.

Two teen males—one black, one white—grapple with the aftermath of a police officer who has brutally beaten the black teen. A powerful story about what it means to you a young man in America across the lines of race. Young Adult Fiction. 316 pages.

Luis Rodrigues began to relate the futility of his life in Los Angeles as a gang member; now at 30 years of age, realizing his son is following the same way of life in Chicago, finishes his life story as a legacy to his son. Nonfiction. 262 pages.

Poverty in America is made up of both the long-term chronically poor and new working poor--the tens of millions of victims of a broken economy and an ever more dysfunctional political system. Sasha Abramsky brings the effects of economic inequality out of the shadows and, ultimately, suggests ways for moving toward a fairer and more equitable social contract. Nonfiction. 355 pages.

A memoir of growing up in the tough world of Baltimore in the 1980s chronicles the relationship between the author and his father, a Vietnam vet and Black Panther affiliate, and his campaign to keep his sons from falling victim to the temptations of the streets. Nonfiction. 227 pages.

A father's letter to his son about the experience of being a Black man in America. Widely recognized as one of the best books of 2015. Nonfiction. 152 pages.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has witnessed some of the worst crimes peopel can inflict on others. So wherever he goes, he inevitably gets asked, How do I forgive? This book is his answer. Nonfiction. 229 pages,

The novel explores the experiences of characters who have immigrated to the United States from a number of Latin American nations through differing first-person perspectives. Fiction. 285 pages.

In this powerful memoir, Nicole Mason tells her story, navigating between an unpredictable home life and school, where she excelled. While showing us her own path out of poverty, Mason examines the conditions that make it nearly impossible to escape poverty and exposes the presumption harbored by many--that the poor don't help themselves enough. Nonfiction. 242 pages.

Having come from Mexico to California ten years ago, 14-year-old Francisco is still working in the fields but fighting to complete his education. In this autobiographical story, Jimenez celebrates his Mexican roots even as he learns to be an American. Young Adult Fiction. 195 pages.

Through personal stories of the working poor, single parents, landlords and tenants, Matthew Desmond traces the very real consequences of the housing crisis that is plaguing many large cities. Nonfiction. 418 pages.

As violence and unrest looms over their country, Nadia and Saeed embark on a furtive love affair.. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed leave their homeland and begin their life as refugees. Described as "spellbinding" and "all too relevant." Fiction. 231 pages.

In this extraordinary collection of short stories, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah explores urgent instances of racism and social unrest. Friday Black confronts readers with a complicated, insistent wrenching chorus of emotions, the final note of which, remarkably, is hope. Fiction. 194 pages.

Two Pulitzer Prize winners address our era's worst human rights violation: the oppression of women in the developing world. They show that a little help can transform lives, and that the key to economic progress lies in unleashing women's potential. Nonfiction. 294 pages.

Limited and persecuted by racial divides in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, three women, including an African-American maid, her sassy and chronically unemployed friend, and a recently graduated white woman, team up for a clandestine project. Fiction. 464 pages.

This runaway best seller tells the story of 16-year-old Starr Carter, who is drawn to activism after she witnesses the police shooting of her unarmed friend. Winner of the Coretta Scott King award. Young Adult Fiction. 444 pages.

An account of the previously unheralded but pivotal contributions of NASA's African-American women mathematicians to America's space program describes how they were segregated from their white counterparts by Jim Crow laws in spite of their groundbreaking successes. Nonfiction. 346 pages.

Set in the ethnic neighborhoods of Seattle during World War II and Japanese American internment camps of the era, this debut novel tells the heartwarming story of widower Henry Lee, his father, and his first love Keiko Okabe. Fiction. 309 pages.

In this engaging personal narrative, Kendi weaves together ethics, history, law, and science, and asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it. Nonfiction. 305 pages

Heart-wrenching and ultimately uplifting, this stirring memoir chronicles one Asian-American immigrant's struggle to find himself--and to transcend the dangers of gang life in Los Angeles. Nonfiction. 249 pages.

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. Nonfiction. 381 pages.

Facebook CEO Cheryl Sandberg examines why women's progress in achieving leadership positions has stalled, explains the root causes, and offers compelling commonsense solutions that can empower women to achieve their full potential. Nonfiction. 228 pages.

There are three rules in the neighborhood: Don't cry; Don't snitch; Get revenge. Will takes his dead brother Shawn's gun, and gets in the elevator on the 7th floor. As the elevator stops on each floor, someone connected to Shawn gets on. Someone already dead. Dead by teenage gun violence. And each has something to share with Will. Young adult fiction. 306 pages.

From bestselling author Jon Krakauer, a stark, powerful, meticulously reported narrative about a series of sexual assaults at the University of Montana ­-- stories that illuminate the human drama behind the national plague of campus rape. Nonfiction. 367 pages.

Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status. Alexander shows that, by targeting black men and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control. Nonfiction. 312 pages.

Heartbreaking, hilarious, and at times enraging, Piper's story offers a rare look into the lives of women in prison - why it is we lock so many away and what happens to them when they're there. Nonfiction. 327 pages.

Two kids with the same name were born blocks apart in the same city within a few years of each other. One grew up to be a Rhodes Scholar, army officer, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison. Why? Nonfiction. 250 pages.

Many people in the U.S. believe that the dangerous world of human trafficking is something that happens to foreign women, men and children -- not something that happens to their own children and neighbors. They could not be more wrong. Nonfiction. 183 pages.

Beginning in 1903 with the arrival of sixteen-year-old Masuo Yasui in Oregon, the author chronicles the struggles and ultimate triumph of three generations of Japanese Americans. Nonfiction. 308 pages.

One of the first African American students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 tells her story about the threats and emotional abuse she endured on the path to integration. Nonfiction. 312 pages.

The true story of how the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands. Nonfiction. 368 pages.