Peace and Justice reading list
A useful way to find good books are the best of the annual “Notable Book” lists— most are available online, e.g.: The Association for Library Service to Children (Amer. Library Assoc.) shares its own list as well as award lists: www.ala.org (other ALSC lists: software, web sites, DVDs, toys, recordings.) Other awards listed on the ALSC site: Newbery, Caldecott, Pura Belpre (Latino authors), Batchelder, Odyssey, Geisel, Sibert. See also Coretta Scott King and Jane Addams awards; over a dozen state “Children’s Choice” awards; notable book lists of Library Journal, Horn Book, Publisher’s Weekly, NY & LA Times, Guardian, etc.
Books about Books
- Great Books About Things Kids Love, 750 Recommended Books for Children 3-14, by Kathleen Odean. She has produced similar books for girls, boys, and toddlers.
- Spirited Minds, African American books for boys, and Strong Souls Singing, African American books for girls, both edited by Archie Givens.
- What Stories Does My Son Need to Hear, reviews 100 recommended character building books (plus 100 films as well), by Michael Gurian and Terry Trueman.
- Literature for Today’s Young Adults by Alleen Nilsen & Kenneth Donelson.
Preschool to Grade 2
- 14 Cows for America by Carmen Deedy
- Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport
- Teammates by Peter Golenbock
- Peas on Earth by Todd Doodler (board bk)
- The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles
- The Peace Book by Todd Parr
- Peace Begins with You by Katherine Scholes
- Peaceful Pieces by Anna Hines (poetry)
- Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Pinkney
- A Little Peace by Barbara Kerley
Third to Sixth Grade
- Faraway Island by Annika Thor
- Alfred Nobel: The Man Behind the Peace Prize by Kathy-Jo Wargin
- Twice As Good by Richard Michelson
Middle School
- Crow by Barbara Wright
- Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
- Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt
- Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
- Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Ryan
- Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
- Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
Adults
- Peaceful Revolution by Paul Chappell
- The End of War by Paul Chappell
- Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nha Hanh
- Practicing Peace in Times of War by Pema Chodron
- Cultivating Peace by James O’Dea
- It Happened on the Way to War by Rye Barcott
- Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick (teen book about surviving the Killing Fields)
- Peace: A history of movements and ideas by David Cortright
- Peace is the Way: Writings on Nonviolence from the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Edited by Walter Wink
- Women on War: Essential Voices for the Nuclear Age from a Brilliant International Assembly. Edited by Daniela Gioseffi
- Peace Action, Past, Present, and Future. Edited by Glen Harold Stassen and Lawrence S. Wittner
- The New American Militarism: How Americans are Seduced by War, by Andrew J. Bacevich
- Abraham Went Out: a Biography of A. J. Muste, by Joann Ooiman Robinson
- Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism. Edited by Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans
- Ambassadors of Reconciliation, Vols I and II, Edited by Elaine Enns and Ched Myers.
- The Essays of A.J. Muste, Edited by Nat Hentoff
- Poets for Peace, A Collection. Compiled and edited by Timothy Crowley
- We Remember: Stories by North Carolina Veterans of World War II, edited by Russell Reynolds
- The Long Sixties: From 1960 to Barack Obama, by Tom Hayden
- Gandhi and Beyond: Nonviolence for an Age of Terrorism, by David Cortright
- A People‘s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn
- The Irony of American History, by Reinhold Niebuhr
- Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence, by American Friends Service Committee
- On Violence, by Hannah Arendt
- Pacifism in the Twentieth Century, by Peter Brock and Nigel Young
- Love is the Measure: a Biography of Dorothy Day, by Jim Forest
- War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, by Chris Hedges
- The Essential Writings of Mahatma Gandhi, Iyer Raghavan, editor
- A History of Warfare, by John Keegan
- Peace: An Idea Whose Time has Come, by Anatol Rapaport
- House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power, by James Carroll
Reading lists provided by
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