Creating Critical

Classrooms

2nd Edition

Text Sets

Body Image

  • Appearing tonight: May Heather Elizabeth Livingstone (Olivier Dunrea)
  • Dumpy LaRue (Elizabeth Winthrop)

Breaking Stereotypes

  • All the colors of the race (Aronld Adoff)
  • Summer wheels (Eve Bunting)
  • Princess Smartypants (Barbara Cole)
  • Paul and Sebastian (Renee Escudie)
  • Teammates (Peter Escudie)
  • Tusk tusk (David McKee)
  • Loving (Ann Morris)
  • My buddy (Audrey Osofsky)
  • Daddy has a pair of striped shorts (Mimi Otey)
  • My dad takes care of me (Patricia Quinlan)
  • The true story of the Three Little Pigs (Jon Scieszka)
  • People (Peter Spier)
  • Three strong women (Claus Stamm)
  • Angel child, dragon child (Michelle Maria Surat)
  • Here comes the cat! (Valdimir Vagin)
  • Kevin's grandma (Barbara Williams)
  • Crow boy (Taro Yashima)
  • William's doll (Charlotte Zolotow)

Bullying/Teasing (See Homophobia section as well)

  • Creativity (E.B. Lewis)
  • Hooway for Wodney Wat (Helen Lester)
  • Oliver Button is a sissy (Tommy de Paola)
  • Simon's hook (Karen Gedig  Burnett)
  • The sissy duckling (Harvey Fierstein)
  • Willy and Hugh (Anthony Browne)
  • Willy the Wimp (Anthony Browne)

Conflict/War

  • Feathers and fools (Mem Fox)
  • Gleam and Glow (Eve Bunting)
  • My name was Hussein (Hristo Kyuchukov)
  • One more border (William Kaplan)  
  • Passage to freedom (Ken Mochizuki
  • Patrol (Walter Dean Myers)
  • Playing war (Kathy Beckwith)
  • Sami and the time of troubles (Florence Heide & Judith Gilliland)
  • So far from the sea (Eve Bunting)
  • Sweet dried apples: A Vietnamese wartime childhood (Rosemary Breckler)
  • Tasting the sky: A Palestinian childhood (Ibtisam Barakat)
  • The butter battle book (Dr. Seuss)
  • The cello of Mr. O (Jane Cutler)
  • The harmonica (Tony Johnston)

Gangs/Gun Violence

  • Just one flick of a finger (Marybeth Lorbiecki)
  • Making up Megaboy (Virginia Walter)
  • Stars in the darkness (Barbara Joosse)
  • Your move (Eve Bunting)

Gender Equity

  • China's bravest girl: The legend of Hua Mu Lan  (Charlie Chin)
  • Just like Josh Gibson (Angela Johnson)
  • Keep climbing, girls (Beah E. Richards)
  • Miss Rumphius (Barbara Cooney)
  • Pete & Pickles (Berkeley Breathed)
  • Piggybook (Anthony Browne) Pair this with The giving tree (Shel Silverstein)
  • Players in pigtails (Shana Corey)
  • Princess Smartypants (Babette Cole)
  • Ruby's wish (Shirin Yim Bridges)

Homophobia

  • Antonio's card/La tarjeta de Antonio (Rigoberto Gonzalez)
  • Asha's mums (Rosamund Elwin  & Michele Paulse)
  • Daddy's roommate (Michael Willhoite)
  • Heather has two mommies (Leslea Newman)
  • In our mothers' house (Patricia Polacco)
  • King and king (Lindade Hann & Stern Nijland)
  •  Molly's family (Nancy Garden)
  • Oliver button is a sissy (Tomie DePaola)
  • The sissy duckling (Harvey Fierstein)

Homelessness, poverty

  • A shelter in our car (Monica Gunning)
  • Fly away home (Eve Bunting)
  • Rent party jazz (William Miller)
  • Selavi: That is life: Haitian Story of Hope (Youme Landowne)
  • The lady in the box (Ann McGovern)
  • The orange shoes (Trinka Hakes Noble)

 Illness/Death

  • Aunt Lucy has cancer (Connie S. Owens)
  • Deshawn days (Tony Medina)
  • I miss you (Pat Thomas)
  • Missing Maggie (Connie S. Owens)
  • Old people, frogs, and Albert (Nancy Wilson) Easy Chapter Book
  • The hope tree (Laura Numeroff & Wendy S. Harpham)
  • What's happening to Grampa? Maria Shriver)

Immigration/Migrant families

  • Amelia's road (Linda Jacobs Altman)
  • Coolies (Yin)
  • Friends from the other side/Amgios del otro lado (Gloria Anzaldua)
  • Home at last (Susan Middleton Elya)
  • How many days to America: A Thanksgiving story (Eve Bunting)
  • Molly's pilgrim (Barbara Cohen)
  • The name jar (Yangsook Choi)
  • When this world was new (D. H. Figueredo)

Non-Traditional Families

  • If only Daddy knew me (Lila McGinnis)
  • Jin Woo (Eve Bunting)
  • Mommy near, Mommy far (Carol Peacock)
  • Our Gracie Aunt (Jacqueline Woodson)
  • Visiting day (Jacqueline Woodson)

Our Global Society

  • Sugar changed the world (Marc Aronson & Marina Budhos
  • Mirror (Jeannie Baker)
  • Zora and me (Victoria Bond & T. R. Simon)
  • Birmingham Sunday (Larry Dane Brimner)
  • They called themselves the KKK (Susan Campbell)
  • Seeds for Change: Planting a path to peace (Jen Culleron)
  • The firefly letters (Margarita Engle)
  • Warriors in the crossfire (Nancy Bo Flood)
  • Goal (Mina Javaherbin)
  • Five flavors of dumb (Antony John)
  • A million shades of gray (Cynthia Kadohata)
  • Thunder over Kandahar (Sharon E. McKay)
  • The good garden (Kate Smith Milway)
  • Yummy: The last days of Southside shorty (G. Neri)
  • A long walk to water (Linda Sue Park)
  • Bamboo people (Mitali Perkins)
  • Heart of a Samurai (Margi Preus)
  • The dreamer (Pam Munoz Ryan)
  • Black jack: The ballad of Jack Johnson (Charles R. Smith)
  • Fly Free (Roseann Thong)
  • Saltypie: A Choctaw journey from darkness into light (Tim Tingle)
  • Dear Primo: A letter to my cousin(Duncan Tonatiuh)

Racism

  • Coolies (Yin)
  • Freedom summer (Deborah Wiles)
  • Goin' someplace special (Patricia McKissack)
  • Granddaddy's gift  (Margaree King Mitchell)
  • Grandmama's pride (Becky Birtha)
  • Henry's freedom box (Ellen Levine)
  • Major Taylor: Champion cyclist (Lesa Cline-Ronsome
  • Martin's big words (Doreen Rappaport)
  • More than anything else (Marie Bradby)
  • Ron's big mission (Rose Blue & Corinne J. Naden)
  • Sister Anne's hands (Marybeth Lorbiecki)
  • Skin again (bel hooks)
  • The other side (Jacqueline Woodson)
  • The skin you live in (Michael Tyler)
  • The story of Ruby Bridges (Robert Coles)
  • When Marian sang (Pam Munoz Ryan)
  • White socks only (Evelyn Coleman)
  • Whitewash (Ntozake Shange)

Social Class/Getting along with others who are different

  • One green apple (Eve Bunting)
  • Score one for the sloths (Helen Lester)
  • Smoky night (Eve Bunting)
  • Somebody loves you, Mr. Hatch (Eileen Spinelli)
  • The summer my father was ten (Pat Brisson)
  • Voices in the park (Anthony Browne)

Special Learners

  • Ian's walk: A Story about Autism (Laurie Lears)
  • My friend Isabelle (Eliza Woloson)
  • The big box (Toni Morrison)
  • What's wrong with Timmy? (Maria Shriver)

Taking Social Action

  • Click, clack, moo: Cows That type (Doreen Crownin)
  • Giggle, giggle, quack (Doreen Cronin)
  • Nasreen's secret school  (Jeanette Winter)
  • Si, se puede! Yes, we can! The janitor strike in L.A. (Diana Cohn)
  • The streets are free (Kurusa)