~ Picture Books with a Message ~
Click book titles with links to find TPN reviews and teacher-tested activities related to the books.
Anti-War and Peace Education Books
-Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem by Maya Angelou
The Bomb and the General by Umberto Eco
The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss
-Can You Say Peace? by Karen Katz
-A Child’s Garden: A Story of Hope by Michael Foreman
–The Children’s Peace Book by Jolene De Lisa
The Conquerors by David McKee
-The Enemy: A Book About Peace by Davide Cali & Serge Bloch
-The General by Janet Charters
The Golden Rule by Ilene Cooper
-Good Night, Commander by Ahmad Akbarpour
-Hiroshima by Lawrence Yep
If The World Was A Village by David J. Smith
-It’s Mine by Leo Lionni
Land of Many Colors by the Klamath County YMCA Family Preschool
-The Last Brother by Trinka Noble
-Let There Be Peace by Jill Jackson and Sy Miller
A Little Peace by Barbara Kerley
Little Yellow Little Blue by Leo Lioni
-One World. One Day by Barbara Kerley see also
-No Pretty Pictures by Anita Lobell
Paths to Peace: People Who Changed the World by Jane Breskin Zalben see also
-Peace by Wendy Halperin
-Peace Begins with You by Katherine Scholes
The Peace Book by Todd Parr
Peace Tales: World Folktales to Talk About by Margaret MacDonald
Peaceful Pieces by Anna G. Hines
-The Pig War by Betty Baker
-The Pig War by Mark Holtze
Pink and Say by P. Polacco
-Playing War by Kathy Beckwith
-Potatoes Potatoes by Anital Lobell
-Sadako Eleanor Coerr & Ed Young
-Same, Same but Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw
Sami and the Time of the Troubles by Florence Perry Heide
The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss
Shooting the Moon by Frances O’Rourke Dowell
-The Sky of Afghanistan by Ana A. de Eulate
-Three Questions by Jon J. Muth
-The Thousand Paper Cranes: The Story of Sadako and the Children’s Peace Sculpture by Ishii Takayuki
-What Does Peace Feel Like? by V. Randunsky
Activism/Social Justice
-A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara
-The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle by Alison Inches
–All the Way to the Ocean by Joel Harper
-Amelia to Zora: Twenty-Six Women who Changed the World by Cynthia Chin-Lee
-Akira to Zoltan: Twenty-Six Men Who Changed the World by Cynthia Chin-Lee
–Beatrice’s Goat by Page McBrier
–Change Sings by Amanda Gorman
-Earth Day Book by Todd Parr
-Counting on Community by Innosanto Nagara
-Greta and the Giants by Zoe Tucker
-Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth by Oliver Jeffers
–Imagine illustrated by John Lennon and Jean Julien
-Lorax by Dr. Seuss
-One Plastic Bag by Miranda Paul
-Our House is on Fire by Jeannette Winters
–Pesky Plastic by Leticia Colon de Mejias
-Say Her Name by Zetta Elliot
-Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh
_The Story of Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Biography Book for New Readers by Christine Pratt
–We March by Shane W. Evans
-The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist by Cynthia Levinson
Anti-Racism/Anti-Bias Books
–All the Colors We Are by Katie Kissinger
Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
–Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki
-Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters by Patricia C. McKissack and Frederick L. McKissack
–Eagle Song by Joseph Bruchac
-Encounter by Jane Yolan
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
–Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles
Going Someplace Special by Patricia McKissack
–If a Bus Could Talk by Faith Ringgold
–The Jacket by Andrew Clements
–Heart of a Chief by Joseph Bruchac
-Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine
-Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester
Keepunumuk: Weeachum’s Thanksgiving Story by Danielle Greendeer
–Looking Like Me by Walter Dean Myers
-Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match by Monica Brown
-Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport
Martin Luther King Day by Linda Lowery
–My Brother Martin by Christine King
-Morning Girl by Michael Dorris
–Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carol Boston Weatherford
-Never Forgotten by Patricia McKissack
–Oh Freedom by Casey King & Linda Barrett Osborne
The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson
-Picture Book of Rosa Parks by David A. Adler
-The Play Lady by Eric Hoffman
–Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles
–Same, Same But Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw
–Shades of People by Shelly Rotner
–Skin Again by bell hooks
-The Skin I’m In by Pat Thomas
–The Skin that You Live In by Michael Tyle
–Sister Anne’s Hands by Marybeth Loriecki
Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold
Teammates by Peter Golenbock
-Two Mrs. Gibsons by Toyomi Igus
–Warriors by Joseph Bruchac
We Are All Alike We Are All Different by the Cheltenham Elementary School Kindergarten
What if Zebras Lost Their Stripes by John Reitano
White Socks Only by Evelyn Coleman
Anti-Bullying Books
–The Araboolies of Liberty Street by Sam Swope
–Blue Cheese Breath and Stinky Feet by DePino
–Bully by Patricia Polacco
Chester Raccoon and the Big Bad Bully by Audrey Penn
-Crow Boy by Taro Yashima
Dancing in the Wings by Debbie Allen and Kadir Nelson
-Going Some Place Special (McKissack)
–Hey Little Ant by Phillip & Hannah Hoose
Heroes by Ken Mochizuki
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli see TPN Lesson
-Mayfield Crossing by Vaunda Nelson see TPN Lesson
Mr. Lincoln’s Way by Patricia Polacco
–Oliver Button is a Sissy by Tommie dePaola
–Roxie and the Hooligans by Phyllis Naylor
–Say Something by Peggy Moss
–Simon’s Hook: A Story about Teases and Put Downs by Karen Burnett
-This is Our House by Michael Rosen
–Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts
–White Socks Only by Evelyn Coleman
Conflict Resolution | Kindness & Caring |Cooperation
–A Life Like Mine UNICEF
–A School Like Mine UNICEF
Adventures of Sparrow Boy by Brian Pickney
–Blue Cheese Breath and Stinky Feet by DePino
–Children Just Like Me by Dorling Kingsley
–City Green by Diane DiSalvo-Ryan
–Community Soup by Alma Fullerton
-Crow Boy by Taro Yashima
–Enemy Pie by Derek Munson
–Everyone Cooks Rice by Norah Dooley
–Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
–Fill a Bucket by Carol McCloud
–The Garden of Happiness by Erika Tamar
–Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae
–Good People Everywhere by Lynea Gillen
–The Hating Book by Charlotte Zolotow
-No Hitting by Karen Katz
–I See Kindness Everywhere by Shelly Frost
If a Bus Could Talk by Faith Ringgold
–If I Were in Charge of the World by Judith Viorst
-It’s Mine by Leo Lionni
–Kindness to Share from A to Z by Todd & Peggy Snow
–Mayfield Crossing by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
–Mirror by Jeannie Baker
The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
–Never Say a Mean Word Again by Jacqueline Jules
–One by Kathryn Otoshi
–Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed by Emily Pearson
The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson
–Our Community Garden by Barbara Pollack
–Oliver Button is a Sissy by Tommie dePaola
Otter in Charge by Jessica Jackson
–Our School Garden by Richard Swan
–The Peace Stick by Nidhi Misra
–Picture Book of Rosa Parks by David Adler
–Ruby Bridges by Robert Cole
–Same Same But Different byJenny Kostecki Shaw
–Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman
–Small Acts of Kindness by James Vollbracht
–Still This Love Goes On by Buffy St. Marie
–The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
–The Jacket by Andrew Clements
–We are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell
–We March by Shane W. Evans
–Water, Weed and Wait by Edith Hope Fine
When Friends Fight by Liz George
–Yo! Yes! by Chris Raschka
Gender Equality
-10,000 Dresses by Marcus Ewert
Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
-Caroline’s Comets: A True Story by Emily Arnold McCully.
–Dangerously Ever After by Dashka Slater
–Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots? by Camela LaVigna Coyne
-Families, Families, Families by Suzanne Lang and Max Lang
-The Girl Who Thought in Pictures by Julia Finley Mosca
-I Am Jazz by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings.
-In Our Mothers’ House by Patricia Polacco
-My Feminist ABC by Irene Pizzolante
–Not All Princesses Dress in Pink by Jane Yolen
–Not Every Princess by Jeffery Bone
–Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch see also
–Princess and the Pizza by Mary Jane Auch
–Princess Grace by Mary Hoffman
–Princess Knight by Osamu Tezuka
–Secret Lives of Princesses by Philippe Lechermeir
-And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
–This Day in June by Galye E. Pitman
-This Little Trailblazer:A Girl Power Primer by Joan Holub
-The Watcher: Joan Goodall’s Life with Chimps by Jennette Winter
Ableism
-Caroline’s Comets: A True Story by Emily Arnold McCully.
Don’t Call Me Special by Pat Thomas
In Jesse’s Shoes by Beverly Lewis
-The Girl Who Thought in Pictures by Julia Finley Mosca
Ageism
–Now One Foot, Now the Other by Tommie de Paola see also
–Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox
Economic Discrimination
–A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams
A Day’s Work by Eve Bunting
Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting
Return to Sender by Julia Alvarez
Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold
Critical Media Literacy: Point of View
–Everyone is Bob by T.A.H. Markou
–Hey Little Ant by Phillip & Hannah Hoose
–The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka
Personal Growth & Inspiring People
–Gift of Nothing by Patrick McDonnell see also
Good People Everywhere by Lynea Gillen
–It’s Mine by Leo Lionni
–Looking Like Me by Walter Dean Myers
-Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport
Martin Luther King Day by Linda Lowery
–My Brother Martin by Christine King
-My Name is Celia/ Me Llamo Celia by Monica Brown
-Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates by Jonah Winter
Sadako Eleanor Coerr & Ed Young
-Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx by Jonah Winter
-Tito Puente, Mambo King/Tito Puente, Rey del Mambo by Monica Brown
Turning Pages: My Life Story by Sonia Sotomayor
–Those Shoes by Noah Z. Jones
-The Astronaut with a Song for the Stars: The Story of Ellen Ochoa by Julia Finley Mosca
–The Way I Feel by Janan Cain