LibGuides: ENGL 180 Children's Literature: Social Justice in Children's Literature Resources

Social Justice Resources

Jane Addams Award
For children's books that promote peace and social justice.
The Social Justice Literature Award
This award is presented to honor books that address social responsibility towards individuals, communities, societies, and/or the environment as well as invite reflection and socially responsible action by the reader.
Coretta Scott King Book Awards
Given to African American authors and illustrator for outstanding inspirational and educational contributions, the Coretta Scott King Book Award titles promote understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples and their contribution to the realization of the American dream of a pluralistic society.

Book Lists: Social Justice

The following links go to a variety of websites with booklists for children and are aimed at social justice issues.

Social Justice Books: Teaching for Change
A website with multicultural and social justice book lists for educators, YA, and children
Social Justice for Junior/Intermediate Readers
A Goodreads booklist
Picture Books | Zinn Education Project
A booklist on a variety of social justice topics from the Zinn Education Project
Inclusive Children's Books for Everyone
A Goodreads booklist
Growing Future Activists
A GoodReads booklist
Diverse books for children
A Goodreads booklist
Black Lives Matter - Kids
A Goodreads Booklist
Rainbow Book List
Books for ages 0-18. "annual bibliography of quality books with significant and authentic LGBQTIA+ content"

Featured Source

Featured below is one website, Social Justice Books, an organization aimed at "teaching for change." Linked here is over 50 booklists for finding books on such themes as Activism, Changemakers, Early Childhood Anti-Bias, Latinx & Latin America, LGBTQ+, and more.

Bookslists - Social Justice Books
60+ Booklists of children's books on various social justice issues

(click on image to enlarge)

Teaching Resources

Linked below are just a few websites aimed at teaching inclusivity in education. Click the links to view websites where you can learn about on-going programs, as well as locating an array of resources such as lesson plans, resource lists, and more.

Teaching Resources - TeachingForChange.org
On the Teaching For Change website, here is a list of books, films,, lessons, recommended titles, reviews, recommended resources, and more
Educator Resources - GLSEN
From the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), the webpage offers lessons, activities, and resources for educators
The Zinn Education Project
"The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the teaching of people’s history in classrooms across the country."
Teaching Tolerance - Classroom Resources
Search for lessons, learning plans, student tasks, teaching strategies, and more on this website, part of the Southern Poverty Law Center
Teaching Tolerance - Gender Spectrum
A project of the Southern Poverty Law Center
PFLAG - Safe Schools
Search for information, resources, programs, and more regarding safe schools - from Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)
LGBTQ Youth Resources - from the Centers for Disease Control
From the CDC website, this webpage focuses on youth resources for LGBTQ youth - includes resources on school bullying.

Education & Social Change

Search the Library Catalog

Find books, academic references, and educational films in Holman Library.

What search terms should you search? Try lots of possible keywords, such as:

transgender AND children
"gender identity" AND children AND literature
education OR teaching AND "gender identity"

Academic Databases

The databases below have thousands of magazines, newspapers, and scholarly articles on teaching children and youth about gender identity/gender topics.

To limit to scholarly: Check the box Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals if an option.
You can also limit to magazines and newspapers to find non-scholarly, third sources.

ProQuest Combined Databases This link opens in a new window
Search millions of articles from ProQuest's electronic collections, including a digital newspaper archive, thousands of academic journals, and popular magazines like Newsweek and Rolling Stone.
Database Tutorial: ProQuest Advanced Search
Database Tutorial: How to Select & Cite Sources in ProQuest (and more)
Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Search more than 18,000 academic journals and magazines from a wide variety of disciplines including more than 7500 full text peer-reviewed journals.
ERIC (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
ERIC, the Education Resource Information Center, provides access to education literature and research. The database provides access to information from journals included in the Current Index of Journals in Education and Resources in Education Index. Content includes journal articles, research reports, curriculum and teaching guides, conference papers, dissertations and theses, and books dating back to 1966.
Gale Literature This link opens in a new window
Search for literary work overviews and author biographies plus scholarly literary criticism and analysis of authors and their works - novels, short stories, poetry, and drama including Shakespeare plays.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Search 2,000 full-text scholarly peer-reviewed journals in Science, Social Sciences, Humanities and Health Sciences
Professional Development Collection (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Designed for professional educators, this database provides a highly specialized collection of professional education journals, including more than 350 peer-reviewed titles.