10 Books About Equality for
Kids Ages 9-12

by Jennifer Garry

Image credit: SolStock/Getty Images

As parents, teachers, and caregivers, we often want to shield the children in our lives from the ugly parts of the world. We sweep away the scary, the unfair, and the mean to a dark corner — not wanting our young ones to know it exists. While well-meaning and done out of love, there are a number of problems with this method. First, not everyone is privileged enough to be able to simply lock all bad things away. Second, things that are swept into a forgotten corner don’t change for the better. They fester and rot.

If we want the world to be a better place for our children, we have to actively do something to make it a better place. We have to raise them in a way the makes them want to do better than we have in the past. We can’t do that if we hide the bad stuff.

In order for our children to truly care about equality, they need to be able to see inequality in action – in all different forms. This means they need to see how different people are affected by it, not just how it relates to their own life. It also means reading books that are written by a diverse set of authors.

These 10 books are an excellent starting point for tweens to dive into the struggles of equality through both fiction and non-fiction.