The Canadian Children's Book Centre has launched a Social Justice & Diversity Book Bank! Set a filter or use the search box to discover Canadian children's literature on a wide range of topics. Recommended grade range and age levels are included.
The website Mirrors Windows Doors, created and maintained by Marjorie Coughlan, is an excellent source of children's & YA literature titles on a range of diverse issues. See especially, the link to online reading lists on topics celebrating diversity in literature, including adoption, refugees, and countries around the world.
weneeddiversebooks.org (WNDB) is a popular site for discovering diverse children's literature.
The Diverse Book Finder is a site curated by 4 women in the U.S. The project started with a grant provided by Bates College in Lewiston, Maine and focuses on picture books. This site lists not just recommended titles, but attempts to list all multicultural titles published in the U.S. so that research can be done on how people are portrayed in the literature.
McWhirter, Ruth & Gurbinder Kaur (Eds.). Social justice picture books: Lesson plans for the junior-intermediate classroom. Open Library, eCampusOntario.
Power of Story: Diverse Books for All Readers. Scholastic web site.
Jason Reynolds talks about The Power of Story in this interview with Scholastic.
We Are Teachers has complied "21 Free Resources for Teaching Social Justice in the Classroom"
Media Smarts, Canada's Centre for Digital and Media Literacy, provides lesson plans on bias, ethics, and perspectives in the media, with an emphasis on digital literacy.
Making Space: Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice Throughout the K-12 Curriculum by Teaching Tolerance Classroom Resources
This site includes lesson plans and teaching strategies accessible by creating a free account. Teaching Tolerance is a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, AL.
18 Children's Books to Prompt and Further Conversations on Race. PBS Teachers Lounge, PBS Education, 2020.
Perception by
Social action art in book form, Perception: A Photo Series encourages readers to look, and then look again. Tired of reading negative and disparaging remarks directed at Indigenous people of Winnipeg in the press and social media, artist KC Adams created a photo series that presented another perspective. Called "Perception Photo Series," it confronted common stereotypes of First Nation, Inuit and Métis people to illustrate a more contemporary truthful story. First appearing on billboards, in storefronts, in bus shelters, and projected onto Winnipeg's downtown buildings, Adam's stunning photographs now appear in the book, Perception: A Photo Series. Meant to challenge the culture of apathy and willful ignorance about Indigenous issues, Adams hopes to unite readers in the fight against prejudice of all kinds. Perception is one title in The Debwe Series.
About Museums, Culture, and Justice to Explore in Your Classroom by
"Museums are public resources that can offer rich extensions to classroom educational experiences from tours through botanical gardens to searching for family records in the archives of a local historical society. With clarity and a touch of Quinn presents ideas and examples of ways that teachers can use museums to support student exploration while also teaching for social justice. Topics include disability and welcoming all bodies, celebrating queer people's lives and histories, settler colonialism and decolonization, fair workplaces, Indigenous knowledge, and much more." publisher
Being the Change by
Topics such as race, gender, politics, religion, andsexualityare part of our students' lives, yet when these subjects are brought up at school teachers often struggle with how to respond. How do we create learning conditions where kids can ask the questions they want to ask, muddle through how to say the things they are thinking, and have tough conversations? How can we be proactive and take steps to engaging in the types of conversations where risk is high but the payoff could be even greater? Being the Changeis based on the idea that people can develop skills and habits to serve them in the comprehension of social issues. Sara K. Ahmed identifies and unpacks the skills of social comprehension, providing teachers with tools and activities that help students make sense of themselves and the world as they navigate relevant topics in today's society. Each chapter includes clear, transferrable lessons and practical strategies that help students learn about a targeted social comprehension concept. From exploring identity and diversity to understanding and addressing biases and microaggressions, Sara demonstrates how to address real issues honestly in the classroom while honoring and empowering students. Dealing with social issues is uncomfortable and often messy, but you can build habitats of trust where kids and adults can make their thinking visible and cultivate empathy; where expression, identity, and social literacy matter. There is no magic formula for making the world a better place. It happens in the moments we embrace discomfort and have candid conversations. **** "I am convinced that every class of kids I work with is filled with change agents who will make this world the one we teach toward. I believe that my students will carry the work of doing right by this world into their own lives. I'll bet you believe this about your kids, too." -Sara K. Ahmed
Gender: Your Guide: A Gender-Friendly Primer on What to Know, What to Say, and What to Do in the New Gender Culture by 
Teaching Fairly in an Unfair World by
This era of so-called fake news demands a deeper curriculum that questions the inconsistencies of facts and opinions in various texts and images. This timely new edition of a groundbreaking book offers students opportunities to connect with social justice issues through inventive language exploration and the active examination of all forms of media. It encourages teachers to evaluate their core teaching beliefs and recognize the realities of their students' lives to develop a richer understanding of our complex world. A glossary of more than 50 strategies, along with reproducible pages for easy classroom use, complements this essential resource.
