Here are 100 books that Children of the Stone City fans have personally recommended if you like Children of the Stone City. Book DNA is a community of 13,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of They Called Me a Lioness

Nora Lester Murad Author Of Ida in the Middle

From my list on children’s books featuring Palestine.

Why am I passionate about this?

Although I am Jewish, I didn’t know much about Israel until college. I studied in Cairo and Jerusalem and became very committed to Palestinian rights. I married a Palestinian Muslim, and we raised our daughters in the West Bank under Israeli occupation. Now, I spend most of my time talking with people about the need for justice, peace, security, and dignity for everyone and explaining why equality for Palestinians is not only a moral stance but one that is also good for Jews. The books I recommended help young people understand Palestinian experiences so they can resist the dehumanizing messages that are so common in the media.

Nora's book list on children’s books featuring Palestine

Nora Lester Murad Why Nora loves this book

I loved learning Ahed Tamimi’s story from her directly rather than from a news story. How often do teenagers get to learn about life in Palestine from a Palestinian age mate? Ahed was arrested when she was 16 for slapping a soldier, but her story started when she was born in the West Bank under Israeli occupation.

I found Ahed’s story informative and inspiring, and I can’t stop thinking about her!

By Ahed Tamimi , Dena Takruri ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked They Called Me a Lioness as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A Palestinian activist jailed at sixteen after a confrontation with Israeli soldiers illuminates the daily struggles of life under occupation in this moving, deeply personal memoir.

“I cannot even begin to convey the clarity, the intensity, the power, the photographic storytelling of They Called Me a Lioness.”—Ibram X. Kendi, internationally bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Kirkus Reviews

“What would you do if you grew up seeing your home repeatedly raided? Your parents arrested? Your mother shot? Your uncle killed? Try, for just a moment, to imagine that this was…


If you love Children of the Stone City...

Book cover of A School for Unusual Girls

A School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin,

A spy school for girls amidst Jane Austen’s high society.

Daughters of the Beau Monde who don’t fit London society’s strict mold are banished to Stranje House, where the headmistress trains these unusually gifted girls to enter the dangerous world of spies in the Napoleonic wars. #1 NYT bestselling author…

Book cover of A Little Piece of Ground

Nora Lester Murad Author Of Ida in the Middle

From my list on children’s books featuring Palestine.

Why am I passionate about this?

Although I am Jewish, I didn’t know much about Israel until college. I studied in Cairo and Jerusalem and became very committed to Palestinian rights. I married a Palestinian Muslim, and we raised our daughters in the West Bank under Israeli occupation. Now, I spend most of my time talking with people about the need for justice, peace, security, and dignity for everyone and explaining why equality for Palestinians is not only a moral stance but one that is also good for Jews. The books I recommended help young people understand Palestinian experiences so they can resist the dehumanizing messages that are so common in the media.

Nora's book list on children’s books featuring Palestine

Nora Lester Murad Why Nora loves this book

Reading this story really makes you feel what it’s like to live under Israeli occupation, and maybe that’s why this book is being banned. Twelve-year-old Karim and his family can’t leave their house during the army’s curfew, and Karim is tired of dealing with his siblings and parents when all he wants to do is play soccer.

When he’s allowed out, Karim befriends a boy from the refugee camp, and they build a soccer field in an old junkyard. But when Karim gets stuck there when the Israeli soldiers come back and impose another curfew, things get scary, and Karim has to grow up fast to stay safe.

By Elizabeth Laird , Sonia Nimr ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Little Piece of Ground as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 9, 10, 11, and 12.

What is this book about?

A heartfelt and honest story, and an introduction to the Palestinian struggle for readers between nine and eleven years-old, set on the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Written by Elizabeth Laird, in collaboration with Sonia Nimr, a Palestinian archaeologist, storyteller, writer and translator, who lives in Ramallah.

Twelve year-old Karim Aboudi lives with his family in Ramallah, on the West Bank of Palestine. After a terror attack takes place, they are trapped in their home, bound by a strict curfew enforced by the Israeli military.
.
Like any other child, Karim longs to play football with his mates - not to be…


Book cover of The Lemon Tree

Nora Lester Murad Author Of Ida in the Middle

From my list on children’s books featuring Palestine.

Why am I passionate about this?

Although I am Jewish, I didn’t know much about Israel until college. I studied in Cairo and Jerusalem and became very committed to Palestinian rights. I married a Palestinian Muslim, and we raised our daughters in the West Bank under Israeli occupation. Now, I spend most of my time talking with people about the need for justice, peace, security, and dignity for everyone and explaining why equality for Palestinians is not only a moral stance but one that is also good for Jews. The books I recommended help young people understand Palestinian experiences so they can resist the dehumanizing messages that are so common in the media.

Nora's book list on children’s books featuring Palestine

Nora Lester Murad Why Nora loves this book

I loved this book because it tells the entire history of the Palestinian-Israeli crisis through the real-life relationship between one Palestinian refugee and the Israeli woman who was born in the house he was expelled from. The young adult version, based on the adult book, is packed full of details, but all told with nuance from the perspectives of the people involved.

Written by a journalist, the book is easy to follow and interesting. Like in real life, some of the differences are resolved, but most aren’t, leaving the reader interested in learning more.

By Sandy Tolan ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Lemon Tree as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 9, 10, and 11.

What is this book about?

In 1967, a twenty-five-year-old refugee named Bashir Khairi traveled from the Palestinian hill town of Ramallah to Ramla, Israel, with a goal: to see the beloved stone house with the lemon tree in its backyard that he and his family had been forced to leave nineteen years earlier. When he arrived, he was greeted by one of its new residents: Dalia Eshkenazi Landau, a nineteen-year-old Israeli college student whose family had fled Europe following the Holocaust. She had lived in that house since she was eleven months old.
On the stoop of this shared house, Dalia and Bashir began a…


If you love Beverley Naidoo...

Book cover of From Cells to Ourselves: The Story of Evolution

From Cells to Ourselves by Gill Arbuthnott,

4.5 billion years ago, Earth was forming - but nothing could have survived there…

From Cells to Ourselves is the incredible story of how life on earth started and how it gradually evolved from the first simple cells to the abundance of life around us today. Walk with dinosaurs, analyse…

Book cover of Thunderbird: Book One

Nora Lester Murad Author Of Ida in the Middle

From my list on children’s books featuring Palestine.

Why am I passionate about this?

Although I am Jewish, I didn’t know much about Israel until college. I studied in Cairo and Jerusalem and became very committed to Palestinian rights. I married a Palestinian Muslim, and we raised our daughters in the West Bank under Israeli occupation. Now, I spend most of my time talking with people about the need for justice, peace, security, and dignity for everyone and explaining why equality for Palestinians is not only a moral stance but one that is also good for Jews. The books I recommended help young people understand Palestinian experiences so they can resist the dehumanizing messages that are so common in the media.

Nora's book list on children’s books featuring Palestine

Nora Lester Murad Why Nora loves this book

I love this book because it combines fantasy, history, culture, and superstition. It’s also a translation, which lets English readers read what their Palestinian agemates are reading.

The fast-paced story follows Noor, an orphaned girl from Ramallah in the West Bank, as she travels back and forth in time with mythical creatures, facing life-threatening obstacles, to solve a mystery that will save the world.

By Sonia Nimr , M. Lynx Qualey (translator) ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Thunderbird as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Shortlisted for the 2023 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation, Society of Authors

A Palestinian girl travels to the past in a magical quest to save the world.

The Thunderbird trilogy is a fast-paced time-traveling fantasy adventure centered on Noor, a young orphaned Palestinian girl who starts in the present and must go back in time to get four magical bird feathers and save the world. Aided by a djinn cat and girls who look identical to Noor and who each have one of the bird's powers, in this initial volume Noor begins her journey through different historical…


Book cover of The Bias That Divides Us: The Science and Politics of Myside Thinking

Steven Pinker Author Of Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters

From my list on rationality and why it matters.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a Harvard professor of psychology and a cognitive scientist who’s interested in all aspects of language, mind, and human nature. I grew up in Montreal, but have lived most of my adult life in the Boston area, bouncing back and forth between Harvard and MIT except for stints in California as a professor at Stanford and sabbatical visitor in Santa Barbara and now, Berkeley. I alternate between books on language (how it works, what it reveals about human nature, what makes for clear and stylish writing) and books on the human mind and human condition (how the mind works, why violence has declined, how progress can take place).

Steven's book list on rationality and why it matters

Steven Pinker Why Steven loves this book

Stanovich is a cognitive psychologist who showed that rationality is related, but not identical, to intelligence.

In this timely book, he shows that smart people, and everyone else, are victims of a powerful bias to show that our own tribe is virtuous and wise and knowledgeable and the other tribe is evil and stupid and ignorant. Needless to say, it explains a lot about our current moment.

By Keith E. Stanovich ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Bias That Divides Us as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Why we don't live in a post-truth society but rather a myside society: what science tells us about the bias that poisons our politics.

In The Bias That Divides Us, psychologist Keith Stanovich argues provocatively that we don't live in a post-truth society, as has been claimed, but rather a myside society. Our problem is not that we are unable to value and respect truth and facts, but that we are unable to agree on commonly accepted truth and facts. We believe that our side knows the truth. Post-truth? That describes the other side. The inevitable result is political polarization.…


Book cover of The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America, with a New Preface

Douglas Flowe Author Of Uncontrollable Blackness: African American Men and Criminality in Jim Crow New York

From my list on race, crime, and American imprisonment.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an Associate professor of history at Washington University in St. Louis who is primarily interested in crime, illicit leisure, masculinity, American cities, and imprisonment. I grew up both in New York City and Orlando, Florida, and I received a PhD from the University of Rochester. Most of the books I read have to do with understanding the American criminal justice system, criminality itself, and the part societies play in constructing crime. Currently I am researching and writing a book about African American men and the carceral state, tentatively entitled Jim Crow Prison.  

Douglas' book list on race, crime, and American imprisonment

Douglas Flowe Why Douglas loves this book

Muhammad’s study of ideas and discourse about real and imagined crime among African Americans is a touchstone for anyone seeking to understand this history.

He has painstakingly assembled the intellectual, pseudo-scientific, and popular conversations Americans had about the subject from the end of slavery until well into the 20th century.

This work has been particularly important for me because he brings our attention to the urban North and the use of census data, statistics, eugenics, etc., to condemn blackness as a dangerous threat to be contained.

There is no way to truthfully understand race and crime in America without consulting this essential text. 

By Khalil Gibran Muhammad ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Condemnation of Blackness as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of the John Hope Franklin Prize
A Moyers & Company Best Book of the Year

"A brilliant work that tells us how directly the past has formed us."
-Darryl Pinckney, New York Review of Books

How did we come to think of race as synonymous with crime? A brilliant and deeply disturbing biography of the idea of black criminality in the making of modern urban America, The Condemnation of Blackness reveals the influence this pernicious myth, rooted in crime statistics, has had on our society and our sense of self. Black crime statistics have shaped debates about everything from…


If you love Children of the Stone City...

Book cover of India Muerte and the Ship of the Dead

India Muerte and the Ship of the Dead by Set Sytes,

India Muerte and the Ship of the Dead is the first book in a pirate fantasy adventure series, featuring the thrilling exploits of India Muerte in an exotic yet dangerous world.

After a night of misadventure, a roguish street lad from Mexico Island wakes up aboard a legendary ship crewed…

Book cover of Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do

Zara Stone Author Of Killer Looks: The Forgotten History of Plastic Surgery in Prisons

From my list on how pretty privilege has infiltrated America.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated by the way people respond to physical beauty since childhood—my teachers heaped praise on the pretty kids, reserving hard words for the less genetically blessed. This experience drove me to explore the pervasive ways in which unconscious beauty bias perpetuates injustice, and how it intersects with racism and privilege. Prison plastic surgery might sound like a punchline but for many, it was a lifeline. UK-born, I now live in San Francisco and have a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, New York. My work has been published by The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired, and Fast Company, among others.

Zara's book list on how pretty privilege has infiltrated America

Zara Stone Why Zara loves this book

For months, Asian women in Oakland, CA, reported a nonstop stream of harassment and muggings by local youth. The problem: their harassers were Black. In a lineup, the women couldn't identify their attackers, and they walked free. To counter this, women in the community received cross-racial training...which failed. The robberies stopped when cameras were installed and the police didn't need a victim to ID anymore. Eberhardt’s book is full of gems like this, smart snippets of life, and the innate biases that run it. This smart examination of cognitive biases goes further than pointing out how racial biases influence criminal justice — it also offers some solutions, especially for unconscious prejudices. These take the form of unconscious bias training, and forcing people to deal with uncomfortable subjects.

By Jennifer L. Eberhardt ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Biased as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Poignant....important and illuminating."-The New York Times Book Review

"Groundbreaking."-Bryan Stevenson, New York Times bestselling author of Just Mercy

From one of the world's leading experts on unconscious racial bias come stories, science, and strategies to address one of the central controversies of our time

How do we talk about bias? How do we address racial disparities and inequities? What role do our institutions play in creating, maintaining, and magnifying those inequities? What role do we play? With a perspective that is at once scientific, investigative, and informed by personal experience, Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt offers us the language and courage we…


Book cover of Abolition for the People: The Movement for a Future Without Policing & Prisons

James Kilgore Author Of Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People's Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time

From my list on mass incarceration.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've been a social justice activist all my life. In my younger years, I turned to violence to bring about liberation. That landed me a federal arrest warrant which I avoided for 27 years by living as a fugitive. I spent most of that time in southern Africa, joining freedom movements against apartheid and colonialism. Arrested and extradited to the U.S. in 2002 I spent 6 1/2 years in California prisons while observing the impact of mass incarceration. I vowed to direct my energy to end mass incarceration through grassroots organizing. Since then I've been a writer, researcher, and activist in my local community of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois as well as being partner and father to my two sons.

James' book list on mass incarceration

James Kilgore Why James loves this book

If we are to reverse, dismantle, or eliminate mass incarceration we need an alternative model for addressing a reality where harm and injustice exist. We can never eliminate harm, but this book, through short writings by well-known authors constructs not only a clear case for eliminating prisons, jails, and policing but helps us to imagine how we might get to such a world through our own collective actions. Brought together by the most famous person to be banished by the National Football League, this volume stirs the soul and takes us on what may perhaps be an uncomfortable but very necessary journey. I have one essay in this book, entitled "Challenge E-Carceration" which contests the notion that electronic monitors and other punitive technologies are an alternative to incarceration. 

By Colin Kaepernick (editor) ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Abolition for the People as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Edited by activist and former San Francisco 49ers super bowl quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Abolition for the People is a manifesto calling for a world beyond prisons and policing.

Abolition for the People brings together thirty essays representing a diversity of voices―political prisoners, grassroots organizers, scholars, and relatives of those killed by the anti-Black terrorism of policing and prisons. This collection presents readers with a moral choice: “Will you continue to be actively complicit in the perpetuation of these systems,” Kaepernick asks in his introduction, “or will you take action to dismantle them for the benefit of a just future?”

Powered…


Book cover of Don't Label Me: How to Do Diversity Without Inflaming the Culture Wars

John G. Stackhouse Jr. Author Of Woke: An Evangelical Guide to Postmodernism, Liberalism, Critical Race Theory, and More

From my list on overlooked books on the culture wars.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve spent my life in North American higher education as a student and professor, so I have experienced many of the cultural shifts associated with “woke” culture. These books share the virtues of deep scholarship, sensible advice, and sprightly writing—virtues I have tried to emulate in my own writing. I have tried hard over my career (I’m in my 60s now) to be open and fair toward even the most diverse of my students and colleagues. These books have helped me do so—and I hope they have improved my teaching and writing along the way. 

John's book list on overlooked books on the culture wars

John G. Stackhouse Jr. Why John loves this book

Irshad Manji is one of the most courageous people I know. Her earlier book, The Trouble with Islam Today, sounded such a bold call to her fellow Muslims to modernize their faith that Irshad had to live behind bulletproof glass for years.

Her newest book challenges not only her fellow believers but people like me (and you!) to respectful, sensible, courteous, and productive conversations rather than furious confrontations. In the storm of overheated polemics about diversity, equity, and inclusion, this book offered the sound, practical advice I’ve been seeking.

By Irshad Manji ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Don't Label Me as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In these United States, discord has hit emergency levels. Civility isn't the reason to repair our caustic chasms. Diversity is.

Don't Label Me shows that America's founding genius is diversity of thought. Which is why social justice activists won't win by labeling those who disagree with them. At a time when minorities are fast becoming the majority, a truly new America requires a new way to tribe out.

Enter Irshad Manji and her dog, Lily. Raised to believe that dogs are evil, Manji overcame her fear of the 'other' to adopt Lily. She got more than she bargained for. Defying…


If you love Beverley Naidoo...

Book cover of Scout and the Rescue Dogs

Scout and the Rescue Dogs by Dianne Wolfer,

The summer holidays have finally arrived and Scout can’t wait for her adventure in the big rig with Dad. They’re on a mission to deliver donations of dog food to animal rescue shelters right across the state. There’ll be dad-jokes, rock-collecting, and a brilliant plan that will make sure everyone’s…

Book cover of The Assignment

Shirley Vernick Author Of The Sky We Shared

From my list on MG/YA fiction books based on true events.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been a voracious reader of the news and history, consuming everything from Johnny Tremain to Slaughterhouse-Five, from old-fashioned newspapers to online news feeds. I’ve also always loved writing fiction. I aligned my interests in history, the news, and writing in my first novel, The Blood Lie, based on a hate crime in my hometown in the 1920s. Since then, I’ve written two other novels based on true events: Ripped Away and my novel, listed below.

Shirley's book list on MG/YA fiction books based on true events

Shirley Vernick Why Shirley loves this book

I love how this book portrays young people intelligently speaking truth to power…even when that power is the teacher grading you…even when that teacher is well-liked…even when some oppose your ideas.

This novel showed me what antisemitism (and bigotry in general) can look like in a contemporary high school, a place already brewing with emotions, factions, and hormones. The characters are so nuanced and realistic that I felt I was right there with them in the classroom and beyond.

This book inspired many productive conversations with my family and friends.

By Liza Wiemer ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Assignment as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

Inspired by a real-life incident, this riveting novel explores the dangerous impact discrimination and antisemitism have on one community when a school assignment goes terribly wrong.

Would you defend the indefensible?

That's what seniors Logan March and Cade Crawford are asked to do when a favorite teacher instructs a group of students to argue for the Final Solution--the Nazi plan for the genocide of the Jewish people.

Logan and Cade decide they must take a stand, and soon their actions draw the attention of the student body, the administration, and the community at large. But not everyone feels as Logan…


Book cover of They Called Me a Lioness
Book cover of A Little Piece of Ground
Book cover of The Lemon Tree

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