Ban this Book, by Alan Gratz, is a story about empowerment and coming of age through education. When protagonist Amy Anne finds out that her favorite book (as well as several others) has been banned from her elementary school library, she starts finding her voice. Devastated that it has been taken off the shelf, Amy...
How Beautiful We Were, by Imbolo Mbue, is a story mainly about environmental degradation, but education plays an important role. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells us of the catastrophic effects of oil spills and river pollution on the land and on the people of Kosawa. Children die from poisoned...
Marie Benedict’s The Other Einstein offers the chance to follow the life of a brilliant woman, Mitza Maric, whose own scientific merits were lost in husband Albert Einstein’s enormous shadow. In the early 20th century, Mitza was a brilliant physicist in her own right and her contribution to the theory of relativity is strongly...
The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad (published in English in 2003) is a non-fiction description of the life and family of Shah Muhammad Rais. At Shah M Book Co, Rais braved persecution to bring books to the people of Kabul over the course of three decades and successive repressive regimes. As well as...
In Pipe Dreams: The Urgent Global Quest to Transform the Toilet, author Chelsea Wald (a member of AWC The Hague) gives us an entertaining and well-researched exploration of sanitation, pee and poop. She is passionate about her subject, and it shows in her book. She takes us through history, from at least the Romans to...
Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt’s Treasured Books by Susan L. Roth and Karen L. Abouraya, Dial Books for Young Readers, published by The Penguin Group, 2012
As democratic institutions across the globe face existential issues, it’s good to have children’s books with “CAN DO” messages of people taking a stand in support...
