from the California Department of Education

Elementary (3rd - 5th grade)

Summer Wheels
by Eve Bunting
Two young boys wrestle with their sense of injustice when a new kid in the neighborhood does not return a bike belonging to "The Bicycle Man." This is a charming story of community and its meaning. California author.

Leon's Story
by Leon Walter Tillage
This autobiographical selection relates the human rights violations suffered by the African American author as the son of a poor sharecropper in 1940s North Carolina. Edited oral interviews by the author reveal incidents of hatred and racism regarding schooling, seating in public facilities, and encounters with justice and the law. An author's afterword and an editor's note provide additional insight on the origins of the book.

Shredderman: Secret Identity
by Wendelin Van Draanen
Bubba has been the bane of Nolan's existence for five long years. So when Mr. Green asks the class to become reporters, Nolan decides he'll write an exposé on Bubba. He doesn't want to sign his name to it so Nolan creates a secret identity for himself on the Internet. He launches Shredderman.com as a place where truth and justice prevail and bullies get what's coming to them. Will engage reluctant readers, especially boys.

Middle School (6th - 8th grade)

Touching Spirit Bear
by Ben Mikaelsen
Cole's anger erupts into violence. To avoid going to prison, he agrees to participate in a sentencing alternative based on the Native American Circle Justice. He is sent to a remote Alaskan island where an encounter with a huge Spirit Bear changes his life.

The Voices of Silence
by Bel Mooney
The injustice and turmoil of Romania in the late 1980s are portrayed in this novel of a nation's struggle to confront an oppressive ruler. Told through the eyes of young teens, the struggle to survive and find meaning in life are vividly real. Human rights violations and emotional intensity are portrayed.

Left for Dead: A Young Man's Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis
by Pete Nelson
Recalls the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis at the end of World War II, the Navy cover-up and unfair court martial of the ship's captain, and how a young boy helped the survivors set the record straight fifty-five years later. Written in simple chronological order, it tells a powerful story. Illustrated with photographs.

High School (9th-12th grade)

To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
Prejudice and class distinction emerge as enemies of justice and truth as eight-year-old "Scout" Finch tells of life in a small Alabama town where her father is a lawyer.

Age of Iron
by J. M. Coetzee
This novel, set in modern South Africa, tells of an elderly white woman who is dying in a land afflicted with its own mortal illness. As Mrs. Curren's body fails, her eyes are more fully opened to the horrors and injustice of apartheid. Vivid metaphors are used.

Silas Marner
by George Eliot
Set in the English countryside of the early eighteenth century, this novel tells the simple story of a man who waits 16 years for justice.

Bad
by Jean Ferris
Set in a detention facility for teenage girls, the narrative follows events as a girl, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, enters the criminal justice system. She realizes that no one is really "bad," but everyone has a complicated story behind her actions. This book addresses controversial issues of interest to many adolescents and includes scenes and language that reflect mature content. Before handing the text to a child, educators and parents should read the book and know the child.

Burger's Daughter
by Nadine Gordimer
In this realistic portrayal of class and political party strife under South Africa's apartheid regime, the Nobel Prize-winning author tells how a young woman takes up her dead father's cause for political and racial justice.

Dreaming in Color, Living in Black and White: Our Own Stories of Growing Up Black in America
(Edited) by Laurel Holliday
African American adults tell of their searing personal experiences of racism while growing up. The collection is deeply disturbing, with the unforgettable slap of the "N word" at the core of many stories. These difficult, painful stories show diverse, proud adults who are determined to tell their stories and to work for justice.

The Crucible
by Arthur Miller
Social hypocrisy and miscarried justice come to life in this play set in puritanical Salem, Massachusetts, during the witch trials. Miller effectively illustrates the conflict between the individual and the society that attempts to establish the individual's moral code.

Cry, The Beloved Country
by Alan Payton
In the 1950s, a black South African accused of a crime turns to his minister father and a white attorney for help, but the racial problems of the country prevent justice from being served. Human rights violations in South Africa during apartheid are depicted.

This Migrant Earth
by Thomas Rivera
Part fantasy, part historical fiction, this story of Mexican American life in Texas explores social justice and economic issues as experienced by migrant laborers.

Dangerous Skies
by Suzanne Fisher Staples
Set in the mud flats of the Chesapeake Bay, this mystery raises the issues of old-fashioned racial hatred and prejudice. Two friends are caught in the conflicts of truth, justice, and loyalty to each other.

Of Mice and Men
by John Steinbeck
George and Lenny, migrant workers in the Salinas Valley of California during the Great Depression, dream of a time when they will have enough money to buy their own farm. Lenny, a mentally retarded young man, unwittingly commits murder. His friend, George, must determine the most humane way for justice to be done.

And Justice for All: An Oral History of the Japanese American Detention Camps
by John Tateishi
The Japanese American evacuation and relocation from 1942 to 45, during World War II, is portrayed in this collection of personal narratives about this troublesome time in America's past.

Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti
by Frances Temple
Seventeen-year-old Djo (a victim in the real-life 1991 firebombing of a boys' shelter) is remembered by Jeremie, a girl who cares for him in the hospital after he has been beaten in an unprovoked attack. A coming of age for these two characters occurs in the midst of the cruel injustices that wracked the poverty-stricken nation of Haiti before Jean-Bertrand Aristide's rise to power in 1991. Human rights violations are depicted.