90 Books Like Pride

“The river’s rhythm runs through my veins. Runs through my people’s veins.” This Caldecott Medal-winning picture book about the Indigenous-led movement to protect water as a sacred resource deserves all the accolades it has received. In a clear and powerful voice, Lindstrom’s young narrator reflects on the critical importance of water to her community, its spiritual significance, and the need to come together and stand up against an oil pipeline that threatens it.

I love how the book uses abstract language and imagery to tell a sweeping story of environmental justice and resistance that starts with one community’s fight to save its waterways and zooms out to include the whole world. At a time when environmental stories can be scary, sad, and overwhelming, Lindstrom’s poetic text encourages us to “Take courage!”

Editors Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson call their book of essays, poems, mini-memoirs, and art from fifty children’s book creators a treasury. It is a treasure, offering support, understanding, and encouragement to young readers. As Sharon G. Flake writes in her piece “When I Think of You”: “Every generation faces a series of storms that seem insurmountable,” but “hard times do not always harden people. Often, they reveal what we’re made of—who we are inside.” Those children who are scared when they observe community divisiveness or experience discrimination will feel embraced and inspired by the warm, motivating words and pictures in We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices. I wish my children were still young enough to gather around and read this inviting, honest book as a family.

This middle-grade satire was one of my favorite reads of 2021! In the not-too-distant future, seventh-grader Ahab and his friends discover what just might be the last living bullfrog in the United States. Hoping to save the species, they decide not to give Alph the frog to authorities. Instead, the crew takes off on a not-quite legal bike trip to find a mate for Alph. In the process, author Madelyn Rosenberg shows us the world as it might be, if we don’t make an effort to save the climate. A bumbling environmental police force and indoor theme park/recreation center had me giggling, even as I got the message of this brilliant climate fiction novel.

For the budding middle-grade activist on your list, this book is my 11-year-old daughter’s favorite, and I loved it too. The eighth-grade main character, Molly, starts a podcast to protest unfair dress code enforcement in her school, and her small rebellion starts a revolution. A great introduction for kids to activism, with a deft treatment of body differences, girl power, and friendships. 

This book is a joyful celebration of being a child and exploring your interests, without feeling bound by the constraints of expectations, gendered or otherwise. Books like these help our children to see that it’s okay to explore who they are, and model to adults how you can positively accept that exploration (rather than fear it). 

This is a book that communicates a sense of childhood resilience that I adore, the style of illustration is paired-back and minimal with an aesthetic that is evocative and nostalgic. The story of a child who can’t bare the cold speaks to my own aversion to cold weather. Yamamoto depicts a child who is inventive and brave and overcomes her aversion by creating her own solutions to the challenges she faces and eventually she goes on to embrace the world. With diagrams and recipes, this book is a wonderful way of promoting intelligence and the creativity to solve one’s own problems.

First published in 1960 this is a beautiful example of illustration in book form. From my contemporary perspective as an animal lover there is a sense that this book celebrates the tendency we have as humans to capture and own animals, with zoos, farms, and pet shops filling almost every page. To me, this book celebrates a naïve adoration and love of nature that doesn’t necessarily fit with the modern need to protect and preserve the natural habitats that humanity has spent generations pillaging. I’d like to think that this is a beautiful conversation starter about how we can best appreciate the natural world. 

This book is by one of my favourite nature writers of all time, Robert Macfarlane. It’s a picture book that is for humans of all ages, truly. His poetry makes for a beautiful read aloud, the illustrations by Jackie Morris are stunning and the size of it makes for an immersive experience. I absolutely loved reading it with my kids when they were a little younger and we all piled into my bed. I also believe that it works… the poems are ‘spells’ designed to bring certain words back into use since they were cut from the Junior Oxford English Dictionary. Words like acorn… kingfisher, and otter…. Please read and share this book!

This book portrays Harvey Milk as a deeply inspirational figure who rose at a time when many LGBTQ individuals remained in the closet because they were shunned by society. Milk became the nation’s first openly gay elected city official when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and as such, he had a platform to become a key figurehead and leader in the gay rights movement in this country. Milk was a fearless and charismatic leader and role model to millions of people, fueling one of the most influential political and sociological movements of the late 20th century. Milk’s influence remains today.

I found Milk to be incredibly brave. He knew his fight for gay and lesbian rights put him in physical danger, and his fears, tragically, were realized when he was assassinated by a fellow city supervisor. Author Randy Shilts details Milk’s triumphs and struggles in… show more.

This book, perhaps the most straightforwardly peace and conflict book on my list, looks at the global queer Palestinian solidarity movement.

Atshan writes, "if we pay close attention to them, it becomes clear that the activists sustaining the queer Palestinian movement along with other queer Palestinians attempting to lead their everyday lives have been engaged in compelling epistemological work to make sense of their experiences and to communicate those insights to one another and to the world."

I value this book because it considers the complexity of how queer Palestinian activists engage in boycotts and education campaigns about sexuality while also confronting campaigns of Pinkwashing from Israel. Atshan shows how queer Palestinians are refusing Zionism on their own terms, in the face of empire.