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5 Middle Grade Books to Empower Young People to Speak Up
In this complicated world, reading books about people who change the world is a big part of our routine at home. No matter where you live, it’s never too early to teach your children how to speak up, and stories about people doing just that are a great way to inspire your children’s curiosity and courage.
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The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure, by Caroline Paul and Wendy MacNaughton
The Gutsy Girl is one of my favorite books to browse through with my girls for inspiration. The activists on these pages are real-life women today and from the past who’ve faced their fears and experienced exhilarating adventures. The book is also interspersed with activities such as creating a compass, boosting your confidence with self-talk, and using crickets to guess what the temperature is. The pen-and-ink drawings are a real bonus.
Author Paul was one of the first female firefighters in San Francisco, and she and illustrator MacNaughton are partners in real life. Some readers have criticized Paul’s description of climbing the Golden Gate Bridge untethered, for fun, but in the end this memoir/how-to-outdoors guide is such a great way to encourage middle girls to try new things.
Severn and the Day She Silenced the World, by Janet Wilson
Severn Suzuki, the daughter of an environmentalist, was only 12 years old when she got the chance to speak to the international delegates at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro, as she urged adults to “change your ways.”
“That was the best speech I heard all week!” said former U.S. vice-president Al Gore. Author Wilson uses Severn’s story to show that young people have the power to change the world when they work together. This is an inspirational story, with photos and an epilogue, shows how much young people can accomplish when they’re determined to make the world a better place
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope
William Kamkwamba, Bryan Mealer
3.5
Paperback
$18.99
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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope, by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
At age 14, William Kamkwamba’s country Malawi, land-locked in rural Africa, experienced one of the worst famines in history. His family couldn’t afford to pay their son’s $80-a-year tuition, so William had to leave school.
Still he refused give up his dream to learn. Instead, he decided to make a windmill—out of PVC pipe, a broken bicycle and some long wooden poles—to generate a current that powered lights and a radio in his parents’ house. This moving, uplifting story about the power to rise above your struggle inspires hope.
Rad American Women A-Z: Rebels, Trailblazers, and Visionaries who Shaped Our History . . . and Our Future!
Kate Schatz
Hardcover
$16.95
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Rad American Women A-Z: Rebels, Trailblazers, and Visionaries who Shaped Our History… and Our Future!, by Kate Schatz and Miriam Klein Stahl
“A” for Angela Davis and “Z” for Zora Neale Hurston; this illustrated book lifts kids with its short, powerful narratives about these brave women around the world. At last, Dolores Huerta, who organized farmworkers, is recognized, along with Ella Baker, who mentored Dr. Martin Luther King and helped shape the Civil Rights Movement.
This is such an awesome introduction to 26 diverse, smart, strong and women—with beautiful woodblock prints—around the world who’ve changed society. Authors Schatz and Stahl will inspire both you and your children.
I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World (Young Readers Edition)
Malala Yousafzai
Paperback
$10.99
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I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World, by Malala Yousafzai
When she was just ten years old, the Taliban took control of the area where Malala Yousafzai lived in Pakistan. The terrorists said girls could no longer go to class, but Malala decided to stand up for what she believed in. She fought for her right to go to school, and one day in 2012, she nearly lost her life when a terrorist shot her point-blank while she rode the bus on her way home from school.
Malala survived, and this Young Readers Edition of her bestselling memoir is a story of hope and possibility. Malala, who now studies in England, became the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize winner, and she continues to devote her life to her belief that all girls deserve an education.
What books would you recommend to inspire young readers to feel empowered to change the world?