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.

The National Council for the Social Studies and the Children’s Book Council are pleased to present this year’s selection of outstanding books for teaching primary, intermediate, and high school social studies.

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.

Former President Barack Obama has touched hearts by sharing his inspiring book, Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters, with the children of the world. Together, with the breathtaking illustrations of Loren Long, Obama presents 13 historical figures that have each had a profound impact on America. In a very different book, Calling the Doves/ El Canto de las Palomas, award-winning Mexican American poet Juan Felipe Herrera beautifully illustrates his childhood as the son of Mexican migrant farmworkers. Herrera vividly describes his family’s journey through the mountains and valleys of…

This year’s award winners include books that spotlight African American trailblazers (Sojourner Truth), barrier breakers (the all-black Attucks high school basketball team), and a book created in collaboration with contemporary teenage immigrants.

This article focuses on children’s literature by and about Jane Goodall. Readers are provided with recommended titles; examples for how to address social studies skills and concepts using her biography; and compelling and supporting questions that can drive students to investigate her work. The associated pullout, by the same author, consists of a brief elementary-level biography, “The Inspiring Jane Goodall,” and follow-up activities and questions for further study.

This article was inspired by the first article in the March/April 2021 issue of Social Studies and the Young Learner. NCSS editor Steve Lapham collaborated with teachers Amanda Wilburn and Lori Dodson to obtain a small collection of student-created artwork. The results are presented in “Sharing Myself through Self-Portraits.” One of those pictures is featured on the cover of this issue.

In an effort to establish and expand abilities related to perspective, three elementary education professors collaborated with a trio of local fifth-grade teachers to develop and teach a lesson on the topic. In this article, the authors begin with the description and sequencing of the lesson, continue with an explanation of book categories and some student responses from the read aloud, and finally, offer a description of the culminating writing activity with some sample student responses.

This article explores how to teach source evaluation to upper elementary students with a focus on the right to clean water that is recognized in a United Nations resolution of 2010, and based on the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights. 

Children’s literature can play a powerful role in young children’s lives to learn, inspire and transform. The images and words convey a compelling story and message that has the potential to leave lasting impressions. In recent years, there’s been an explosion of children’s books that go beyond social and emotional learning. Books for young children about historical topics like enslavement, the Holocaust, Japanese-American internment, voting rights, segregation, and genocide are presenting them with both sensitivity and insight. When it comes to current event topics there are many excellent…