Being part of a democracy means accepting the responsibility to speak up, show up, and work for positive change in your neighborhood, your nation, and the world. The books below help bring that responsibility to life, highlighting those who marched, organized, voted, and refused to be silenced, as well as titles that explore our rights and freedoms, equity and equality, diversity and respect, and the ongoing collective work of building communities where everyone belongs.
Find these recommendations and more titles at your local library through World Cat.
Picture Books
Equality's Call: The Story of Voting Rights in America by Deborah Diesen
Hiawatha and the Peacemaker by Robbie Robertson
I Am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story by Martha Brockenbrough & Grace Lin
Leo’s First Vote! / ¡El primer voto de Leo! by Christina Soontornvat
Lillian's Right to Vote by Jonah Winter
Love Is Loud: How Diane Nash Led the Civil Rights Movement by Sandra Neil Wallace
The March for Hope by Valerie Bolling
Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh
Vote for Our Future! by Margaret McNamara
The Walk by Winsome Bingham
We the People Is All the People by Howard W. Reeves
What Can a Citizen Do? by Dave Eggers
Middle Grade
Alice Piper Speaks Up by Sage Andrew Romero and Loralee Sepsey
Attack of the Black Rectangles by Amy S. King
For Which We Stand: How Our Government Works and Why It Matters by Jeff Foster
The People Shall Continue by Simon J. Ortiz
Rise Up! Powerful Protests in American History by Rachel C. Katz
A Sea of Lemon Trees by María Dolores Águila
The Side-By-Side Declaration of Independence by David Miles
Thank You for Voting: The Past, Present, and Future of Voting by Erin Geiger Smith
This Is Our Constitution: Discover America with a Gold Star Father by Khizr Khan
We the People by Don Brown
We Were the Fire: Birmingham 1963 by Shelia P. Moses
Who’s Got Mail? The History of Mail in America by Linda Osborne Barrett
YA
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, adapted by Jean Mendoza and Debbie Reese
March (trilogy) by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell
One Person, No Vote (YA edition): How Not All Voters Are Treated Equally by Carol Anderson with Tonya Bolden
Shift Happens by J. Albert Mann
Stolen Justice: The Struggle for African American Voting Rights by Lawrence Goldstone
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (Adapted for Young People) by Jeanne Theoharis; Adapted by Brandy Colbert and Jeanne Theoharis
The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of US History by Ned Blackhawk
This Book Won’t Burn by Samira Ahmed
The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert
Where I Belong by Marcia Argueta Mickelson
Wide Awake Now by David Levithan
Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli & Aisha Saeed
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