If you’re interested in books that explore themes of empowerment, social justice, or the power of collective action, I have gathered a list for you! I focused specifically on books for younger readers, but people of all ages will benefit from reading these books. Below you will find a list of juvenile and young adult titles published in 2024 and 2025 that deal with themes of activism. As of this writing, all of these titles are owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions provided by the publishers.
Juvenile Titles
Banned Books, Crop Tops, and Other Bad Influences by Brigit Young
Rose is a good girl. She listens to her parents and follows every rule. After all, rules are there for a reason . . . right? And adults always know best.
Talia, the new girl from New York City, doesn’t think so. After only a week at school, Talia—who does what she wants, when she wants—is already making enemies. First on the list: Charlotte, Rose’s lifelong best friend.
So why can’t Rose stop wondering what it would be like to be Talia’s friend? And why does Rose read a banned book that Talia recommends? Rose doesn’t know. But the forbidden book makes her ask questions she’s never thought of. When Talia suggests they start a banned books club, how can Rose say no?
Pushing against her parents, her school, and even Charlotte opens a new world for Rose. But when Talia’s escapades become more scary than exciting, Rose must decide when it’s right to keep quiet and when it’s time to speak out. – Roaring Book Press
The Empty Place by Olivia A. Cole
A powerful and imaginative story about a girl fighting to find her way back home from a mind-bending land of the lost. When Henry’s father goes missing in the forest on her tenth birthday, her entire world shatters. The last thing she expects is for him to emerge from the trees exactly one year later, unharmed and bearing a gift for her—a strange necklace.
Everyone says her father’s reappearance is a miracle, but Henry wants real answers to her questions. Where did her father go? How did he get back? And what’s the truth behind his gift? Wearing the necklace and carrying only a simple map, Henry enters the same forest that swallowed her father. But beyond the trees, she finds a world more incredible and dangerous than she ever imagined. It’s a place for all who are lost, and there’s no clear method of escape. As Henry follows in her father’s footsteps and searches for a way home, she discovers that the truth she’s seeking isn’t as simple as she hoped, and if she wants to leave this world, she’ll have to be braver than she’s ever been. – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Every Story Ever Told by Ami Polonsky
Stevie Jane Cohen-Kaplan’s sheltered suburban life is shattered by a mass shooting at a festival in her town. In the aftermath, her brain feels broken. She can’t bear to visit her mom, recovering in the hospital under Stevie’s dad’s watchful eye, or to be pent up in her grandparents’ nearby Manhattan apartment.
To escape the apartment and her own thoughts, Stevie starts adventuring around New York City with her best friend, Avi, and a new therapy dog (in training). The trio starts chasing stories—about a neighbor’s life after the Holocaust, Stevie’s grandfathers who died of AIDS long before she was born, and even about her own mom’s activist upbringing. These stories may not bring Stevie all the way back to “normal,” but can they help her find a new version of herself? – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
A Girl Called Joy by Jenny Valentine, illustration by Claire Lefevre
Meet ten-year-old Joy Applebloom, a girl with a knack for finding the silver lining in even the darkest of rainclouds.
After years of travelling the world with her parents and older sister, Claude (Claude rhymes with bored, which is just about right), Joy and her family move to suburbia – back to school, back to her grumpy, rule-obsessed grandad and back to normality.
Joy soon finds her usual irrepressible positivity and zest for life waning, but when the powers that be threaten to pull down a mighty oak tree, Joy decides to fight back, and realizes that not all magic requires wands and spells, and perhaps the most important sort of magic is the power, resilience and courage that was there all along . . . – Kane Miller, a division of EDC Publisher
Gracie Under the Waves by Linda Sue Park
An empowering story from #1 New York Times bestseller and Newbery medalist Linda Sue Park starring a young snorkeling enthusiast who draws inspiration for fighting climate change from interacting with her pesty little brother.
Inspired by her own experience, beloved author Linda Sue Park tells the story of a girl learning how to impact a cause she cares about while navigating the ups and downs of a sibling relationship and turning disappointment into opportunity.
Gracie loves snorkeling! She loves it so much, she convinces her parents to let her plan a family vacation to Roatán, Honduras, where they can all snorkel together. She even makes a new friend there. Now, if only her irritating little brother would leave her alone, everything would be perfect. Then Gracie hurts her leg, and all her carefully made plans start to come apart. Worse still, she learns the reef itself is in serious danger. Gracie wants to help the reef . . . but she’s just a kid. What can she do to make a difference? Fortunately, her new friend has a few ideas! – Allida
Young Adult Titles
Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White
A queer Appalachian thriller that pulls no punches—following a trans autistic teen who’s drawn into the generational struggle between the rural poor and those who exploit them.
On the night Miles Abernathy—sixteen-year-old socialist and proud West Virginian—comes out as trans to his parents, he sneaks off to a party, carrying evidence that may finally turn the tide of the blood feud plaguing Twist Creek: Photos that prove the county’s Sheriff Davies was responsible for the so-called “accident” that injured his dad, killed others, and crushed their grassroots efforts to unseat him.
The feud began a hundred years ago when Miles’s great-great-grandfather, Saint Abernathy, incited a miners’ rebellion that ended with a public execution at the hands of law enforcement. Now, Miles becomes the feud’s latest victim as the sheriff’s son and his friends sniff out the evidence, follow him through the woods, and beat him nearly to death.
In the hospital, the ghost of a soot-covered man hovers over Miles’s bedside while Sheriff Davies threatens Miles into silence. But when Miles accidently kills one of the boys who hurt him, he learns of other folks in Twist Creek who want out from under the sheriff’s heel. To free their families from this cycle of cruelty, they’re willing to put everything on the line—is Miles?
A visceral, unabashedly political page-turner that won’t let you go until you’ve reached the end, Compound Fracture is not for the faint of heart, but it is for every reader who’s ready to fight for a better world. Hand this story to teens pushing for radical change. – Peachtree Teen
Dear Manny by Nic Stone
Jared Peter Christensen is running for president (of the Junior Class Council at his university, but still). His platform is solid—built on increased equity and inclusion in all sectors of campus life—and he’s got a good chance of beating the deeply conservative business major he’s running against.
But then a transfer student enters the race and calls Jared out for his big-talk/little-action way of moving. But what’s the right way to bring about change? As the campaign heats up, feelings are caught, and juicy secrets come to light, and Jared writes letters to his deceased friend Manny, hoping to make sense of his confusion. What’s a white boy to do when love and politics collide?
New York Times bestselling author Nic Stone writes from a new perspective in this exciting final chapter of the Dear Martin series that examines privilege, love, and our political climate. – Crown Books for Young Readers
Libertad by Bessie Flores Zaldivar
A queer YA coming-of-age set during the rigged Honduran presidential election
As the contentious 2017 presidential election looms and protests rage across every corner of the city, life in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, churns louder and faster. For her part, high school senior Libertad (Libi) Morazán takes heart in writing political poetry for her anonymous Instagram account and a budding romance with someone new. But things come to a head when Mami sees texts on her phone mentioning a kiss with a girl and Libi discovers her beloved older brother, Maynor, playing a major role in the protests. As Libertad faces the political and social corruption around her, stifling homophobia at home and school, and ramped up threats to her poetry online, she begins dreaming of a future in which she doesn’t have to hide who she is or worry about someone she loves losing their life just for speaking up. Then the ultimate tragedy strikes, and leaving her family and friends—plus the only home she’s ever known—might be her only option. – Dial Books
This Book Won’t Burn by Samira Ahmed
After her dad abruptly abandons her family and her mom moves them a million miles from their Chicago home, Noor Khan is forced to start the last quarter of her senior year at a new school, away from everything and everyone she knows and loves.
Reeling from being uprooted and deserted, Noor is certain the key to survival is to keep her head down and make it to graduation.
But things aren’t so simple. At school, Noor discovers hundreds of books have been labeled “obscene” or “pornographic” and are being removed from the library in accordance with a new school board policy. Even worse, virtually all the banned books are by queer and BIPOC authors.
Noor can’t sit back and do nothing, because that goes against everything she believes in, but challenging the status quo just might put a target on her back. Can she effect change by speaking up? Or will small-town politics—and small-town love—be her downfall? – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Wild Dreamers by Margarita Engle
Ana and her mother have been living out of their car ever since her militant father became one of the FBI’s most wanted. Leandro has struggled with debilitating anxiety since his family fled Cuba on a perilous raft.
One moonlit night, in a wilderness park in California, Ana and Leandro meet. Their connection is instant—a shared radiance that feels both scientific and magical. Then they discover they are not alone: a huge mountain lion stalks through the trees, one of many wild animals whose habitat has been threatened by humans.
Determined to make a difference, Ana and Leandro start a rewilding club at their school, working with scientists to build wildlife crossings that can help mountain lions find one another. If pumas can find their way to a better tomorrow, surely Ana and Leandro can too. – Atheneum Books for Young Readers
“Everyone drifts from their path once in a while. But your path is still there waiting. It’s a perfectly good one.”
