International children’s picture books provide windows and mirrors for children and allow them to consider issues of fairness, justice, equity, diversity, and the common good as they build their nascent citizenship skills.

An annotated list of children's books that are high quality, unbiased, and non-stereotypical portrayals of Arabs. It is also a collection that brings the native voices of the MENA region to elementary readers

The authors show how elementary-school age students and teachers can use picture books, young adult literature, and poetry to uncover and explore the hidden histories and untold stories of Elizabeth Jennings, Ida B. Wells, Jackie Robinson, Sarah Keys Evans, and Claudette Colvin, among others, and their protests for African Americans’ right to ride in trains, streetcars, buses, and other forms of public transportation. 

This article models how to teach civic dispositions using popular trade books that do not have an obvious connection to critical themes (e.g., power, privilege, identity). In doing so, the authors show how to create opportunities to teach civic dispositions within a school environment that may forbid some books as “too controversial” or that might accept lessons that gradually introduce students (and their parents) to a topic that may be controversial.  While focusing on the read aloud as an opportunity for civic learning, the authors describe how the pedagogical frameworks of critical…

Three Lines in a Circle: The Exciting Life of the Peace Symbol by Michael G. Long; illustrated by Carlos Vélez (Louisville, KY: Flyaway Books, 2021) This picture book history of the peace symbol can help expand elementary students’ understanding of peace and introduce them to historical peace movements.  

In this article, the authors highlight four children’s picture books that can be used to discuss gender diversity with young children in social studies.

For nearly 50 years, the National Council for the Social Studies has presented the Carter G. Woodson Book Award to texts that accurately and sensitively depict the experience of one or more historically marginalized racial/ethnic groups in the United States. The award originated in 1974, named to honor distinguished scholar Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson, the Harvard-trained historian whose scholarship and dedication to making Black History known and visible led to the eventual creation of Black History Month. Texts must be non-fiction, published and set in the United States, written for…

This year’s Carter G. Woodson book picks include stories about Black heroes of the Old West, groundbreaking journalist Ethel Payne, and William Still, the “Father of the Underground Railroad.” 

The latest Septima Clark Book Award recipients shine a light on the stories of Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve in a U.S. presidential cabinet; Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman in Congress; and numerous female athletes who shattered stereotypes.

This article offers examples of classroom texts as vehicles for teaching each BHC principle as encouragement for teaching Black histories long beyond Black History Month. For summaries of the texts suggested in this article, see the Pullout in this issue, which pairs each Black Historical Consciousness principle with children’s books and ideas for further investigation.