Independent Reading Suggested Books for Young Heroes: Children of the Civil Rights Movement
See our Independent Reading for Elementary Students Teacher Tool for guidance on how to use the suggested texts below.
Fiction Texts with Connecting Topics and Themes
- Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (990L)
- Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson (680L)
- The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine (630L) *
Informational Texts to Build Content Knowledge
- Child of the Civil Rights Movement by Paula Young Shelton (AD840L) *
- If You Were a Kid During the Civil Rights Movement by Gwendolyn Hooks and Kelly Kennedy (700L)
- Little Rock Nine (Turning Points) by Marshall Poe
- Nonviolent Resistance in the Civil Rights Movement by Gail Terp (780L)
- The Little Rock Nine: A Primary Source Exploration of the Battle for School Integration (We Shall Overcome) by Brian Krumm (880L)
- The Power of One: Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine by Judith Fradin (110L)
- Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock’s Central High by Melba Pattillo Beals (1000L)
- We Were There, Too!: Young People in U.S. History by Phillip Hoose (950L)
- We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March by Cynthia Levinson (1020L)
Non-Fiction Texts with Aligned Themes and Topics
- All the Way to the Top by Annette Bay Pimentel and illustrated by Nabi Ali (AD680L)
- Kid Activists: True Tales of Childhood from Champions of Change by Robin Stevenson & Allison Steinfeld
- Malala's Magic Pencil by Malala Yousafzai
- The Youngest Marcher by Cynthia Levinson
* lower Lexile or qualitative measures than core text.
** higher Lexile or qualitative measures than core text.
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