Social Studies

Liberty and justice for all

~ Janet Dawson ~ Leave a comment

Walk the Walk by R. J. Owens, illustrated by Reggie Brown (Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 40 pages, ages 4-8). Dex and Papa are walking to his piano lesson, a walk that seems to Dexter to take forever. But Papa tells him, “If we’re going to talk the talk, we’ve got to walk the walk.” This means supporting the Montgomery Bus Boycott, just like other Black people are doing all over the city. Along the way, Dex and Papa see signs reminding people not to ride the bus and giving information about how to get a ride if they need one. They’re hassled by police and people riding in a truck with a Confederate flag in the back. When Dex has to pee, they can’t go in a restaurant with a “Whites Only” sign out front. At last, the two of them walk past a church where people are outside celebrating. The boycott is over, and they can ride on any seat in the bus! Even though the piano teacher is only a few blocks away, they hop on a bus and choose a front seat, each one wiping away tears of joy. The last page shows a grown-up Dex and an older Papa crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge with a crowd of protesters. “And sure enough, as the years rolled on by, Papa and I just kept on walking, together.” Includes an author’s note, a Montgomery Bus Boycott timeline, and lists of sources and further reading.

This is a great introduction to an important chapter in the civil rights movement, with Dex serving as a generally cheerful but occasionally whiny kid narrator, and Papa keeping his spirits up with his refrain of “walk the walk.” The text and illustrations work together to show features of the boycott, including the racism the participants encountered. Although readers may need a preliminary introduction to the boycott’s history before reading the book, it’s a story that would work well with kids as young as preschool or kindergarten.

We the People Is All the People by Howard W. Reeves, illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh (Harry N. Abrams, 40 pages, grades 1-5). Starting with the Preamble to the Constitution, the narrative states, “We the people is all the people,” then goes on to celebrate the huge diversity of people living in the United States: different religions, cultures, occupations, sexualities, physical abilities, and homes. The illustrations bring this diversity to life, showing all kinds of people in a variety of American settings. One particularly memorable one shows a Native woman with outstretched braids and arms that hold people from history, like a Chinese-American railroad worker laboring up one braid, and a white man leading two enslaved people in chains up one of her arms. The author’s note talks about both the revolutionary nature of the U.S. Constitution and its shortcomings, with references to unnamed people in power who seek to undo it and a sobering but realistic look at the work still needed to ensure that “all the people” are served by it. Also includes an illustrator’s note.

This timely book is a thought-provoking meditation on the diversity of people who are (or should be) served and protected by the U.S. Constitution. Along with the author’s note, it’s an excellent springboard for learning about and discussing the Constitution and the freedoms it outlines that are currently under threat. Duncan Tonatiuh’s illustrations are truly spectacular, and, in my opinion, should receive Caldecott consideration.

Journeys

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Navigating Night by Julie Leung, illustrated by Angie Kang (Anne Schwartz Books, 48 pages, grades K-4). A girl describes her night with her dad as they deliver food to customers from their restaurant. Her jobs are to navigate from one house to the next and to serve as a translator for Cantonese-speaking Baba. She wishes she could have a life more like the kids she sees at the houses where they drop off the food, and she tells Baba that she doesn’t want to do deliveries anymore. Instead of responding directly, he starts telling her about another night, back when he was a kid in China, that “darkened an entire nation.” After years of hunger and worry, his family got a letter from an uncle in New York City, offering a home to one member of the family. Her dad was chosen. He tells her how he got lost his first day, spending hours trying to find his way back to Chinatown. “Before I had you, I would get so lost,” he says, and she smiles, understanding him in a new way. Back at the restaurant, the whole family gathers for dinner, and Baba picks out the tenderest chunks of meat for her. “Baba and I have learned to navigate night, down unlit roads and past unfamiliar street signs, looking for new paths ahead. Together we find our way home.” Includes notes from the author and illustrator about growing up with parents who escaped China’s Cultural Revolution to come to America.

This would make a great book to share for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The stories of the past and present are woven together perfectly, giving the reader a chance to slowly understand Baba better, just as his daughter does. Be sure to share the author’s and illustrator’s notes at the end, which are both very moving. Angie Kang’s will also give readers a greater appreciation of the beautiful illustrations and how they reflect the changing mood of the story.

Taking Flight by Kashmira Sheth, illustrated by Nicolò Carozzi (Dial Books, 32 pages, grades K-4). Three children take long journeys from home, each one addressed in the second person (“You might have said goodbye to teammates from your cozy village surrounded by cotton fields, as you drifted across the ocean, far from the place you belonged.”). They travel from Tibet, Syria, and Ukraine, sometimes witnessing the destruction of their homes, and always leaving behind people and places they know and love. After spending time in refugee camps, they come to an unfamiliar new country with a different language, where they have to bravely start at a new school. Slowly, they learn English, reach out to classmates, and “day by day, little by little, as the new becomes known, you meet other children just like you. Some who were born here, others who arrived not so long ago. You all try to belong together. And before long you do.”

This book really packs an emotional punch, especially in these days of increased hardships for immigrants and refugees coming to America. The text is spare but intimate, and the illustrations show three very different children coming from places far away from each other having similar experiences that require similar courage. This would be a great book to share with both kids who are new to the U.S. and their classmates who are getting to know them.

When history repeats itself

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Unbreakable: A Japanese American Family in an American Incarceration Camp by Minoru Tonai and Jolene Gutiérrez, illustrated by Chris Sasaki (Harry N. Abrams, 40 pages, grades 2 and up). Minoru Tonai tells the story of his family’s imprisonment during World War II. His father was questioned as early as October of 1941 about being a spy, despite his work as a farmer and his near deafness, and was taken away shortly after Pearl Harbor. Just six months later, the rest of the family was forced to leave their farm and their dog to move to a “detention center.” For the next three years, they endured desert heat and cold, barracks living, and a constant wind that blew sand everywhere. After two years, Papa was finally allowed to join the rest of the family, and in the fall of 1945, after more than three years of imprisonment, the family was allowed to go back home to California. Includes extensive back matter with notes from the illustrator and author (Gutiérrez only, as Minoru Tonai passed away in 2023 at the age of 94), a timeline and other additional information, and a bibliography.

The spare text and stark, brown-toned illustrations capture this dark chapter in American history as seen through the eyes of a young boy. Min’s father collected rocks, and these are symbolic in the story of the strength and resilience the family needed to get through these difficult years. Min doesn’t shy away from the injustice of their situation and the pain of their many losses. His story is an extremely valuable resource for teaching kids about the experience of thousands of Japanese Americans, and the back matter gives plenty of additional information as well as opening up topics for discussion.

Barbed Wire Between Us by Mia Wenjen, illustrated by Violeta Encarnación (Red Cornet Press, 48 pages, grades 2 and up). “In this land of promise, we hoped to find a place to belong.” So begins–and ends–this reverso poem that shows a Japanese-American family in World War II and a contemporary immigrant family detained at the southern border. In both cases, families are separated, and children are imprisoned behind barbed wire. They suffer from “meager food” and dust everywhere but are also heartened by the kindnesses of strangers and other immigrants, while they try to find beauty where they can. The girl on the last page looks out at the reader as she stands next to barbed wire, with a hope–but no promise–of finding a place to belong. Includes information about Fort Sill, Oklahoma, the site of both imprisonments, as well as that of members of the Chiricahua Apache tribe in the late 19th century; reverso poems; and the author’s family’s experience as Japanese Americans during World War II.

Wow, this book is so powerful, and the reverso poem is absolutely masterful. With spare text and haunting illustrations, Mia Wenjen shows how shameful history continues to repeat itself in America. Mia, I know you are a subscriber to this blog, so congratulations to you on this beautiful book, and I hope it gets some awards recognition.

History books kids will want to read

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Basket Ball: The Story of the All-American Game by Kadir Nelson (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 112 pages, grades 4-8). This history of basketball starts with a chapter called Pregame that describes the invention of basketball on a rainy winter’s day in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts. In four quarters, Kadir Nelson takes readers through the history of the game from that point, focusing especially on Black contributions. There’s a chapter on the development of the NBA, another called The Revolutionaries that profiles some of the greats of the sport, and one that looks at winning teams over the years. The section labeled Halftime tells about the American Basketball Association (ABA) that only lasted a decade but had an outsized influence on the NBA. A final chapter called Overtime gives a brief history of women’s basketball. Includes an author’s note, timeline, glossary, index, and lists of notes and sources.

This book will fly off the shelves at my school. The cover is eye-catching, and Kadir Nelson’s illustrations capture the speed, motion, and excitement of basketball with plenty of portraits of players many readers idolize. The text is written in an easy conversational tone, perfect for the subject, but there’s a lot of it, and I’m guessing many kids will focus on the illustrations. I’d love to see the final chapter, which felt a little tacked-on, expanded into an entire book about women’s basketball.

My Bicentennial Summer: True Adventures from the Most Epic Family Road Trip of All Time by G. Neri, illustrated by Corban Wilkin (Candlewick, 96 pages, grades 2-6). The summer G. Neri was eight years old, two things happened: America threw itself an epic 200th birthday party and his family decided to take a road trip to from southern California to Washington, D.C. and back again to be part of the celebration. In a 1967 wood-paneled station wagon (10 miles per gallon) and a pop-up tent trailer, Neri and his parents and two older brothers set off. The story is told in a scrapbook style, with illustrations of the family and cartoon bubbles drawn atop photos of the sights they saw. Taking the southern route to head east, they arrived in D.C. in time for a parade on July 3rd, then scrambled to Philadelphia for another one on the Fourth. They somehow got lost and wound up watching the People’s Bicentennial, which was a alternative protest parade, but that proved to be an interesting lesson as well. After catching the fireworks in Philly, they headed back west via the northern route, finishing up with a luxurious stay in Las Vegas before arriving home after seven weeks away. Neri ended up with plenty of material for “What I did over my summer vacation,” as well inspiration to live a life of travel and adventure. Includes an author’s note, facts about the United States, a list of big questions (with partial answers) about American history, additional information about traveling, and a list of recommended reading.

As a veteran of both the Bicentennial (as a child) and some fairly epic family road trips (as an adult), I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book, and it surpassed my expectations. I thought it might be an exercise in nostalgia that wouldn’t be of much interest to 21st-century kids, but it captures the excitement, boredom, mishaps, and ultimate rewards of a long road trip in any era. As a biracial family traveling in the 1970’s, the Neris got into a few sketchy situations, and the author doesn’t shy away from noticing inequalities in the country. Ultimately, though, he celebrates America, the Founding Fathers, and the ideas of democracy, while emphasizing the need to protect and build on those ideals.

Courageous Journeys

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Seven Million Steps: The True Story of Dick Gregory’s Run for the Hungry by Derrick Barnes and Christian Gregory, illustrated by Frank Morrison (Amistad Books for Young Readers, 40 pages, grades 1-5). “What would you do if you knew someone who goes to bed every night without having supper?” This opening question is answered by an account of Dick Gregory’s 1976 run from Los Angeles to New York City: you would travel thousands of miles with very little food, subsisting mostly on juice, vitamins, and water to bring attention to those who are hungry across the country. You would cover 50 miles a day across twelve states, talking to anyone who would listen about what you’re doing and why. You would overcome pain and hunger to cross the George Washington Bridge into NYC on the Fourth of July, the 200th anniversary of the United States. Includes additional information about Dick Gregory’s run and hunger vs. food insecurity, as well as notes from the authors (one of whom is Gregory’s son) and illustrator, and three photos from the run.

I finished this book with more questions than answers and ended up spending some time learning about Dick Gregory and this run. His story is inspiring and is told here in a way to get kids to think about actions they can take to make the world a better place. I loved Frank Morrison’s illustrations showing different vistas of America and capturing the highs and lows of the run. I did find the story a bit confusing, particularly the second-person narration, which draws the reader in, but doesn’t give a straightforward account of the events. If you’re reading this to kids, be prepared to answer some questions.

The Gift of Freedom: How Harriet Tubman Rescued Her Brothers by Glennette Tilley Turner, illustrated by Laura Freeman (Harry N. Abrams, 40 pages, grades 2-5). Starting with Harriet Tubman’s own escape in 1852, this book focuses on how Tubman helped others in her family find their way to freedom, specifically her three brothers. Her plan was to travel to Maryland at Christmas in 1854, when they were given permission to gather for a family Christmas dinner. The siblings met in secret at their parents’ home, where they were helped by their father, who averted his eyes or blindfolded himself so that he could honestly tell anyone who asked that he had not seen them. Following the familiar routes and safe houses that she had learned about, Harriet led her brothers to Philadelphia, where they were given new identities and put on a train to Canada. Includes a selected bibliography, a letter to readers, and an author’s note, which emphasizes how Harriet Tubman always learned as much as she could and befriended people with skills she lacked to allow her to be as successful as possible.

This compelling story with its striking illustrations offers plenty of drama and shows Harriet Tubman’s courage and skill that allowed her to help so many people escape slavery. The author’s note lists her other accomplishments helping to fight in the Civil War and working for women’s rights. The ending felt a bit abrupt, and there was no follow-up to the mention of Tubman’s attempts to rescue her husband, and I had to learn via other sources that he remarried and chose to stay in Maryland.

Two early awards contenders for 2027

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The Dream Builder’s Blueprint: Dr. King’s Message to Young People by Alice Faye Duncan, illustrated by E. B. Lewis (Calkins Creek, 32 pages, grades 2-8). In the foreword, Alice Faye Duncan explains that the text of this book is an erasure poem, a form of found poetry, in which she took a 1,765-word speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to a Philadelphia junior high school in 1967 and distilled it to 277 words. This brief text captures the essence of the speech, in which Dr. King encouraged his audience to build a blueprint for their lives: believing in themselves, choosing a life’s purpose, working for peace and justice, and practicing nonviolence. Words in the poem are capitalized and printed in large, colorful fonts for emphasis, while the illustrations show the hope and hard word needed to build such a blueprint. Includes additional history about this speech with a link to a YouTube video of it, a list of the historical figures mentioned in the speech with the dates of their lives and a sentence about their achievements, victories from the American Civil Rights Movement, directions for writing your own erasure poem, and a bibliography.

There’s so much more to this book than meets the eye, and readers will learn about this inspiring speech that Dr. King made to kids (something he seldom did), as well as receiving instruction and encouragement for creating their own erasure poetry. Although the announcement of 2027 awards is almost a year away, I hope this will be considered, especially for Coretta Scott King recognition.

Troubled Waters: A River’s Journey Toward Justice by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Bryan Collier (Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 40 pages, grades 2-5). The Alabama River tells its story, briefly recounting the millions of years it has flowed from Montgomery to Mobile, witnessing the arrival of the Choctaw, who gave it its name that means “Thicket Clearers,” and later, the Europeans, who brought with them ships carrying enslaved Africans. It witnessed the Trail of Tears, the rise of the Black Belt and its cotton plantations, and battles of the Civil War. A bridge was built over it, and eventually, that bridge became the site of two marches in 1965 that brought the violence against civil rights protesters to the nation’s attention. Those marches led to an even bigger one, from Selma to Montgomery, and to the passage of the Voting Rights Act less than five months later. Includes a timeline of the Alabama River from circa 10,000 BCE to August, 1965 and a note from the illustrator.

This powerful book focuses on the Alabama civil rights marches in 1965 that led to the Voting Rights Act in August of that year, told in the unique perspective of the Alabama River. The text is poetic, with lines from spirituals woven in, and the illustrations are gorgeous, always keeping the river at the center of the story. Definitely another awards contender.

Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards

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An email alerting me to the upcoming Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards ceremony coming up this Thursday, November 6, sent me on a search for some of the books that I hadn’t read yet. You can see a complete list of winners and honor books here.

Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown by Candace Fleming (Anne Schwartz Books, 368 pages, grades 7 and up). Most of us know about Jonestown and the tragic end that befell more than 900 residents in the Guyana jungle. This book takes readers back to founder Jim Jones’s earliest days and shows how a bizarre mix of idealism and quest for power led him to start the People’s Temple which moved from Indiana to California, and finally to Guyana where Jones basically kept his followers imprisoned: cut off from the world and subject to his paranoid drug-fueled ravings. Individual members of the group are profiled, based on Fleming’s interviews with survivors, and their memories of enjoying being part of a warm community mixed with traumatic punishments, sleep deprivation, and overwork serve as a warning to anyone drawn to a charismatic leader like Jim Jones. Includes source notes, a bibliography, and an index.

I remember reading about this incident in the news during my own teenage years and trying to make sense of what could have possibly gone so horribly wrong. This book answers some of those question–although many are unanswerable–and is told in such a compelling style that I could not put this book down and read it in about 36 hours. It’s an especially important book for teens, as many of those interviewed were their age during the events of the story (including Jones’s son Stephan), and in many cases, a questioning attitude toward authority saved them.

Oasis by Guojing (Godwin Books, 160 pages, grades 4-7). Two children live in the desert, fending for themselves with only occasional phone calls from their mother who works in Oasis City, trying to get permission to bring her children to live with her. When the kids find a broken robot, they’re able to repair it and activate its “mother” mode, giving them an AI mom. When their human mother comes home for a few days, she discovers the AI mother, and destroys it in a fit of fear and rage. Her daughter runs off, and the mother is able to repair the robot and bring the daughter back home. The two mothers share their hopes and dreams for the children, and the AI one shows how she has been able to reproduce conditions in Oasis City to start growing plants, giving them hope that one day they can all live in the desert together. The author information relates that Guojing was inspired by “left-behind children” in China, who stay in rural areas when their parents go to find work in the city.

I had gotten this book out of the library several months ago, after seeing its five starred reviews, but I was a little put off by the dark artwork and never got around to reading it. I’m so glad I gave it another try. It’s a quick read–it only took me about 15 minutes–but it packs a powerful punch and celebrates all sorts of family connections and love. The cover says, “In a bleak and distant future, two children are lost, one robot is found, and a tendril of hope appears,” but it didn’t seem like such a distant future to me.

Up, Up, Ever Up! Junko Tabei: A Life in the Mountains by Anita Yasuda, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu (Clarion Books, 48 pages, grades 2-5). As a child, Junko Tabei dreamed of climbing mountains, and she pursued that dream when she moved to Tokyo as a young woman. Most mountaineering clubs didn’t take women, but Junko persevered until she found one that did. Even after marrying and having a daughter, Junko continued to climb and to encourage other women to join her. Eventually they planned an expedition to become the first all-female team to climb Mount Everest. Even an avalanche couldn’t stop her, and Junko realized her dream of being the first woman to reach Everest’s summit. In her later years, she became an activist for sustainable mountain climbing, researching the impact of trash and human waste on Everest and helping to mitigate some of those effects. Includes an author’s note, timeline, glossary, and bibliography.

I’m a little late to this 2024 book, but I’m breaking my rule of only reviewing books published in the current year. The Boston Globe-Horn Book Award follows the school year calendar, so it was eligible for this year’s award and was an honor book, in addition to winning a 2025 Caldecott Honor. Both are well-deserved for the beautiful ink and color illustrations that not only portray breathtaking mountain landscapes but celebrate Junko’s Japanese culture.

Rewriting the history books

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White Lies: How the South Lost the Civil War and Rewrote History by Ann Bausum (Roaring Brook Press, 368 pages, grades 9 and up). Beginning with a list of the 20 lies covered in this book from “Slavery was a compassionate institution” to “We erase history when we remove symbols of the Confederacy,” the book goes on to debunk these lies in four sections. The first covers American history leading up to and including the Civil War, the second is how the myth of Lost Cause was constructed and spread after the war and reconstruction ended. Part three discusses how this propaganda was spread through the country via monuments, Hollywood films, and children’s education, and the final section brings us up to the present in which steps to remedy the lies and propaganda are being met with a powerful backlash. The “Gallery of the Lost Cause” throughout the book shows various statues and monuments to the Confederacy and its leaders, including information on the cost, history, and current status of each one. Includes a note from the author on the evolution of her own thinking from her Virginia public school education in the mid twentieth century to the present, a timeline, and extensive source notes, bibliography, and index.

This is a fascinating and relevant book about how slavery, racism, the Civil War, and the lies surrounding the Confederacy and its history have seeped into the American consciousness, largely through very deliberate efforts to infiltrate textbooks, public history, and Hollywood. Although I didn’t grow up in the South, I still absorbed much of this misinformation through my own education and consumption of popular culture. The final part of the book does an excellent job of showing how we are still living with the consequences of this propaganda today. I do wish this book were more accessible for middle school and high school readers. I’m a medium-fast adult reader, but even with daily reading it took me weeks to get through the text-dense pages unbroken by any sort of graphics or sidebars. It’s hard for me to imagine many teenagers sticking with this book all the way through, and that’s a shame. Educators might want to consider using excerpts from it in history classes as a way of bringing its valuable content to more readers.

How the Word Is Passed: Remembering Slavery and How It Shaped America by Clint Smith, adapted for young readers by Sonja Cherry-Paul (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 336 pages, grades 7 and up). Based on the 2021 book, this version for young readers tells of Clint Smith’s travels across America and to Africa looking for how the story of slavery is told. He starts his journey in at Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, then continues to the Whitney Plantation and Angola Prison in Louisiana, Blandford Cemetery in Virginia, various sites in New York City, Galveston Island, Texas, and Gorée Island, off the coast of Senegal. His reports on what he sees and the people he speaks with show how the history of slavery has been taught, how that is (sometimes) changing, and how people react to those changes. Includes a glossary and a list of selected sources.

I read the original version of this book when I took a trip down south in 2023, and it really made me look at the museums I visited there differently. The writing is so engaging, with each section told as a personal sojourn to the various places that includes of a fascinating variety of voices. Smith writes in the epilogue about interviews with his own grandparents, which could serve as inspiration for kids to learn history by having conversations with older relatives. While this does not go nearly as deeply into the history as White Lies, it was a much quicker read and would be a useful book to read before going on historical field trips.

Learning from the past

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A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, a Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out by Nicholas Day, illustrated by Yas Imamura (Random House, 304 pages, grades 5-8). As he did in The Mona Lisa Vanishes, Nicholas Day connects a work of art with the historical events around it. Here, the story starts in 1815 with the catastrophic eruption of the Indonesian volcano Tambora. The enormous amount of ash and smoke caused changes in the global climate that resulted in droughts, floods, crop failures, and famine in the United States and Europe. The work of art in question is Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, which was published in 1818, and which Day makes a compelling case for having been created from this dark time. Another byproduct of the time was a more scientific study of weather and climate, which is how we know that the climate is changing today. Throughout the narrative, Day pointedly addresses readers, making sure they are paying attention to the parallels of this tragic story with what is going on in our world right now. Includes extensive bibliography, notes, and index.

Since The Mona Lisa Vanishes was one of my favorite nonfiction books ever, I was thrilled to see that Nicholas Day has a new book out, and I was not disappointed.  Okay, I was a little disappointed, not because it wasn’t engaging, well-researched, and fascinating, but because any story that draws my attention to climate change fills me with existential dread in a way that a fun story about the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Louvre could never do. I would love to see this get some Sibert recognition.

Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws That Affect Us Today by Cynthia Levinson and Sanford Levinson (Peachtree, 2025, grades 6 and up). The Electoral College, lame duck presidents, gerrymandering, unequal representation: despite the best intentions of the Founding Fathers, the U.S. Constitution contains some serious flaws that affect the country today. The authors look at eight different issues, beginning each chapter with an episode from history that reveals the fault line, then going back to the origin of that section of the Constitution, and concluding with a look at how other states and countries deal with those issues differently. In the last part, they grade different parts of the Constitution (spoiler alert: overall, it’s a C-), then debate whether it would be better to call another Constitutional Convention to revisit the entire document or to work on amending it. Includes a timeline, bibliography, notes, and an index.

This is the third edition of the book originally published in 2017, with two new chapters and recent updates (there’s also a graphic novel version). I’m honestly shocked that this didn’t win any awards when it was first published, especially Sibert. The format makes the material engaging and relevant, and it really opened up my eyes to how flaws in the Constitution are causing so many of the problems we see today with voting and Congressional gridlock, among other things. It also made me think about how this makes sense, given how much the country and the world have changed in the last 250 years. This would make a great textbook for middle school and high school civics classes, as well as important reading for any U.S. citizen.

Interlink Publishing and books about Palestine

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Last weekend, I headed into Northampton, Massachusetts for the Read and Resist Fest at Interlink Publishing. Described as a “social justice and literary festival dedicated to collective liberation,” this event featured booths from vendors and organizations around the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts as well as teach-ins and kids’ activities, including a storytime with Hannah Moushabeck reading Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine.

Turns out Hannah Moushabeck is one of the owners of Interlink, along with her two sisters and brother-in-law. The publishing company was founded by her father, Michel Moushabeck back in 1987. After emigrating to the U.S. from Lebanon, he couldn’t find a publisher for a book he had written, so he decided to start his own company.  Since then, Interlink has become known for publishing translated literature as well as cookbooks, travel guides, and children’s books.

As the only Palestinian-owned publisher in the United States, Interlink has published a number of books about Palestine for children and young adults under the imprint Crocodile Books. As near as I can tell, there were almost no children’s books about Palestine or Palestinians until just a few years ago, so the book list I’ve put together on the subject is pretty short. Thankfully, Interlink is leading the way in producing high-quality books to help kids learn about the country of Palestine and to empathize with those affected by the injustices and genocide that of course continues today. Here are a few of their recent books for different ages.

A Is for Arab by Aya Mobaydeen (Crocodile Books, 2025, 16 pages, ages 0-3). From Arab to Zeitoun, this alphabet book offers words and pictures from the Arab world. Most of the pages contain a few words, but P is for Palestine, at the center of the book, stands alone. There were quite a few words I wasn’t familiar with, so this could also serve as a good starting point for non Arabs to learn more about Arab culture.

Everything Grows in Jiddo’s Garden by Jenan A. Matari, illustrated by Aya Ghanameh (Crocodile Books, 2025, 32 pages, ages 4-8). In rhyming text, the narrator learns about her family’s home in Palestine through Jiddo’s (grandfather’s) garden. Sometimes Jiddo gets sad remembering his home and his family’s forced departure, but the garden reminds them all of the hope and love they have. Includes an author’s note about her own grandparents and how her Jiddo’s garden saved the family when they were under siege in Jordan.

Young Palestinians Speak: Living Under Occupation by Anthony Robinson and Annemarie Young (Interlink Books, 2024 (updated edition), 118 pages, grades 5 and up). I’ve only seen the original 2017 version of this book, but it should be required reading for all Americans, starting with Congress. The authors interviewed young people living in both Gaza and the West Bank about their dreams, fears, and the difficulties of living in an occupied country. Gaza is described repeatedly as “a prison” by the children living there, yet despite their bleak lives, the kids interviewed try to hang onto their hopes and dreams. Equally poignant are the conversations with adults trying to help the kids deal with the many stresses of occupation to preserve some semblance of a childhood.