Skip to Main Content
 

United Nations: Sustainable Development Goals

Recommended books for middle and high school on topics related to the UN SDG

Books related to Goal 5: Gender equality

Fast Pitch

Shenice Lockwood, captain of the Fulton Firebirds, is hyper-focused when she steps up to the plate. Nothing can stop her from leading her team to the U12 fast-pitch softball regional championship. But life has thrown some curveballs her way.   Strike one: As the sole team of all-brown faces, Shenice and the Firebirds have to work twice as hard to prove that Black girls belong at bat.   Strike two: Shenice's focus gets shaken when her great-uncle Jack reveals that a career-ending--and family-name-ruining--crime may have been a setup.   Strike three: Broken focus means mistakes on the field. And Shenice's teammates are beginning to wonder if she's captain-qualified.   It's up to Shenice to discover the truth about her family's past--and fast--before secrets take the Firebirds out of the game forever.

Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists

August 26, 2020, marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which granted American women the right to vote. And while suffrage has been a critical win for women's liberation around the world, the struggle for women's rights has been ongoing for thousands of years, across many cultures, and encompassing an enormous variety of issues. Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists is a fun, fascinating, and full-color exploration of that important history, tracing its roots from antiquity to show how 21st-century feminism developed.

Lupe Wong Won't Dance

(Middle school)

Lupe Wong is going to be the first female pitcher in the Major Leagues. She's also championed causes her whole young life. Some worthy.like expanding the options for race on school tests beyond just a few bubbles. And some not so much.like complaining to the BBC about the length between Doctor Who seasons. Lupe needs an A in all her classes in order to meet her favorite pitcher, Fu Li Hernandez, who's Chinacan/Mexinese just like her. So when the horror that is square dancing rears its head in gym? Obviously she's not gonna let that slide.

The Green Bicycle

Spunky eleven-year-old Wadjda lives in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with her parents. She desperately wants a bicycle so that she can race her friend Abdullah, even though it is considered improper for girls to ride bikes. Wadjda earns money for her dream bike by selling homemade bracelets and mixtapes of banned music to her classmates. But after she's caught, she's forced to turn over a new leaf (sort of), or risk expulsion from school.

Feminism Is...

(High school)

Today's feminism is more diverse than ever before and asks all kinds of questions. Combining insightful text with graphic illustrations, Feminism Is...tackles topics including intersectionality, the gender pay gap, the male gaze, and mansplaining. Find out what equality for women really means, get a short history of feminism, and take a look at the concerns affecting women at work, in the home, and around sex and identity.

Rainbow Revolutionaries

Rainbow Revolutionaries brings to life the vibrant histories of fifty pioneering LGBTQ+ people from around the world. Through Sarah Prager's (Queer, There, and Everywhere) short, engaging bios, and Sarah Papworth's bold, dynamic art, readers can delve into the lives of Wen of Han, a Chinese emperor who loved his boyfriend as much as his people, Martine Rothblatt, a trans woman who's helping engineer the robots of tomorrow, and so many more!

Like Spilled Water

(High school)

Nineteen-year-old Na has always lived in the shadow of her younger brother, Bao-bao, her parents' cherished son. Years ago, Na's parents left her in the countryside and went to work in the city, bringing Bao-bao along and committing everything to his education. But when Bao-bao dies suddenly, Na realizes how little she knew him.