By Spencer Miller
Last year I described how as the Editorial Coordinator for the Top Grade: CanLit for the Classroom program, I’ve been reintroduced to the wonder of children’s nonfiction and blown away by the quality and variety of nonfiction books for young readers from independent Canadian publishers. Some of the most creative and imaginative writing for young people is happening in nonfiction books.
A year later, I am still buzzing about nonfiction. Nonfiction books do a lot of heavy lifting—entertaining and educating young readers all at the same time. Canadian children’s authors and illustrators collaborate to create a reading experience that is both accurate and appealing. On top of all this, they tackle some seriously challenging topics!
Recently, there’s been a string of nonfiction titles exploring social justice issues and introducing young readers to important history, lessons, and ideas about activism and allyship. I’m so thankful these books exist! Many of our students are experiencing and/or witnessing injustices in their communities, in our country, and around the globe. They have questions and don’t always know where to turn for answers. Nonfiction books can help these students find trustworthy and reliable information curated to their level of understanding.
I hope that some of these incredible resources find their way into your classrooms and school libraries!
K-3
Based on an exercise that the author conducts while speaking to youth across Canada, We Need Everyone is an inclusive picture book that empowers young readers to identify their unique gifts and challenges young people to use their gifts to overcome obstacles, achieve goals, and strengthen communities.
Highlight: Reading this book with students is like inviting an inspiring guest speaker to visit your school.
Lion on the Inside: How One Girl Changed Basketball is a picture book biography from Muslim-American Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir about growing up, becoming a basketball star, and walking away from a professional basketball career to advocate for young Muslim women.
Highlight: Written in free verse, the voice captures all the love, hope, and passion of a rising basketball star.
4-6
The Antiracist Kitchen: 21 Stories (and Recipes) is an anthology of stories and recipes from racialized authors about food, culture, and resistance. The stories share the role of food in fighting discrimination, reclaiming culture, and celebrating people from different backgrounds.
Highlight: Introduces young readers to so many amazing authors. Also, the recipes work!
The Longest Shot: How Larry Kwong Changed the Face of Hockey is the illustrated biography of Larry Kwong, the first player of Asian descent in the NHL. Larry fought to break stereotypes and racial barriers on his way to making hockey history. The book includes important historical context, including the Chinese Head Tax, the Vancouver Riots, and the Great Depression.
Highlight: Larry received little recognition in his lifetime and his story is only now being told. You can feel the passion and admiration in this tribute to a true hockey hero.
Pride and Persistence: Stories of Queer Activism shares the stories of women and non-binary folks standing up for the queer community, including many Canadian activists and historical figures.
Highlight: Shows how allyship and activism can take many forms, like speaking at a rally, leading a march, building community, standing up for others, being a good friend, etc.
The Kids Book of Black History in Canada is a comprehensive exploration of 400 years of Black history in Canada. Taking readers on a narrative journey, it begins with the arrival in 1604 of Mathieu Da Costa, the first known African in the country, and continues to the modern-day Black Lives Matter movement and the ongoing fight for social justice.
Highlight: I see this book being described as “one-of-a-kind”, “comprehensive”, and “a must-have resource,” and I have to agree. It checks all the boxes.
7-10
Rise Up and Sing! Power, Protest, and Activism in Music teaches young readers the important role music plays in social justice and activism. Each chapter covers a different social justice topic and features popular and iconic musicians from past generations.
Highlight: The included playlists are a great way for teachers to bring music into the classroom and connect with their students.
Born A Girl: It Takes Courage introduces readers to five girls in five different countries whose lives are overshadowed by violence and injustice, showing how girls around the world navigate the challenges and horrors of period poverty, female genital mutilation, lack of access to education, body shaming, and femicide.
Highlight: While these stories are heartbreaking, the book creates spaces for inspiration and hope, following up each story with a section that explains what activists are doing in their communities to make change.
Queer History A to Z: 100 Years of LGBTQ+ Activism explores a century of history of LGBTQ+ activism in North America. Presented in an A to Z format, with one topic per letter (“P Is for Pride”), the entries explore important figures, places, events, and moments in queer history.
Highlight: The A to Z format is fun and engaging as it breaks 100 years of history into readable chunks.
11-12
stay up: racism, resistance, and reclaiming Black freedom is a mix of memoir, cultural criticism, and anti-oppressive theory. It’s everything teen readers need to know about racism, social justice, and decolonization. Khodi Dill guides readers towards an empowered understanding of themselves and a clearer view of the society they live in.
Highlight: This book couldn’t be more relevant, speaking directly to Canadian students, their contexts, their experiences, and their futures.
Mangilaluk and The Scarf and the Butterfly are two graphic memoirs in the Qinuisaarniq (“resiliency”) series from Arvaaq Press. This collection has been carefully created to educate about the history and impacts of residential schools, policies of assimilation, and other colonial acts that have affected the Canadian Arctic.
Highlight: These graphic memoirs make perfect paired texts. I recommend reading them together with students for two different perspectives on the ongoing impacts of colonialism.
Spencer Miller (he/him) is a teacher, writer, reader and basketball fan. He advocates for Canadian books in the classroom as the Editorial Coordinator of Top Grade: CanLit for the Classroom, a program of the Association of Canadian Publishers. You can follow more of Spencer’s passion for books on Instagram @YACanadaBooks.