30 Books for Young People for Aspiring Activists
The sooner children realize that they can get involved and have the opportunity to make a difference, the better. For young people, these books highlight activity and resistance in their stories.
Compiled by YA Resists , a Los Angeles-based YA group of authors and sponsored by PEN USA , this Reading List has something for everyone. And no matter how old you are, the right story can motivate you to fight a good fight, whatever that means to you.
- The Ellie McDoodle Diaries: Ellie for President , Ruth McNally Barshaw
- Annie Glover NOT Tree Lover , Darlene Bailey Bird and Heather Mayone
- My Life with the Lincolns , Gail Brandeis
- A thousand is never , Shana Burg
- Rose Sees Red , by Cecil Castellucci
- Robert Cormier’s Chocolate War
- We will not touch: Female factory strike in 1909 , with paintings by Joan Dash
- Little Brother , Corey Doctorow
- Operation Redwood , Suzanne T. French
- Miracle Charlie Ann , Kimberly Newton Fusco
- Flash , Karl Hayasen
- The same sun is here , Silas House and Neela Vaswani
- White Sands, Red Menace , by Ellen Cages
- “The Iron Dragon Never Sleeps” , S. Krensky and J. Fulweiler
- Wide Awakening , David Levitan
- Whose Side Are You On ?: A Story of a Song , J.E. Lyon and C. Cardinale
- Rock and river , Kekla Magun
- Fire in the streets , Kekla Magun
- Revolution Evelyn Serrano , Sonia Manzano
- Destroy all cars , Blake Nelson
- Bread and roses too , Katherine Paterson
- Liddy , Katherine Paterson
- Fall-Out , J. Pausewang
- The Gospel of Larry , Janet Tashjian
- Vote for Larry , Janet Tashjian
- That girl Lucy Moon , A. Timberlake
- War and the Watermelon , R. Wallace
- One Crazy Summer , Rita Williams-Garcia
- Come in from the cold , Marsha Qualey
Whether they buy these books online, at a bookstore, at a book fair, at a local library, or receive them as a gift, you can be sure that they will receive more from them than just a good story.