YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist

A CCBC Choice

More than 250 women have played on the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team, and most contributed to the battle for equal pay. This narrative nonfiction book by the award-winning author and journalist Elizabeth Rusch traces the evolution of that fight, bringing this important rights issue in sports and in our culture to the attention of young readers. Features extensive back matter.

With the passage of Title IX in 1972, the doors opened for young women to play sports at a higher level. But for the women on the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team, being able to compete at an international level didn't mean fair treatment and fair compensation.

From economy-class airplane seats and inadequate lodging to minimal marketing and slashed wages, the women representing the United States at the Olympics, the World Cup, and other tournaments had reason to be fed up. They were expected to--and did--win, but they weren't compensated for their talent and dedication. With the help of their union and in collaboration with the men's team, they secured an equitable contract in 2022 that ultimately benefited both national teams as well as athletes of the future.

Elizabeth Rusch's A Greater Goal chronicles how members of the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team fought to receive fair treatment and equal pay despite the intense pushback they received from U.S. Soccer, the governing body of soccer in the United States. With a narrative that includes player profiles and vignettes framed from team member perspectives, A Greater Goal illuminates the work, support, and grit needed to be treated with equality in a world that often undervalues the contributions of women.

Features extensive back matter, including a call to action, additional resources, and an index.

Girls of color have always been on the front lines of the fight for equal rights--to vote, to learn, to live--even when they are the last to benefit from the outcomes of their work. In Don't Wait, journalist Sonali Kohli follows 3 teens navigating the complexities of growing up while working to make their communities safer, healthier places.

-Nalleli lives across the street from an active oil well in South Los Angeles. She and her mother take on an oil company and become environmental justice activists.

-Kahlila, following the murder of George Floyd and looking to help fight back, becomes involved with the Black Lives Matter movement in Los Angeles and fights to defund school police in one of the largest school police forces in the nation.

-Sonia, an accomplished singer grappling with finding a creative outlet in the pandemic, strives to increase access to arts education in schools across California.

Don't Wait highlights what propelled the young women into their activism, to their experiences organizing, and incorporates Q&As with important lessons from activists who have led the way. Tracing their journeys from teens to adults, Don't Wait reflects on the powerful lessons they've learned in their activism while building movements in their communities that will continue to live on as they move forward.

★ This is a well-told and highly informative read. Highly recommended for young adult graphic novel and nonfiction collections. - School Library Journal (STARRED review)

Winner of the 2024 Global Literature in Libraries Initiative Translated Young Adult Book Prize

California Eureka Nonfiction Award Winner

The patriarchy is falling. It's time to smash it. This graphic novel shows you how.

Patriarchy means the rule of the father and describes a system where men are in control. At least since the time of Aristotle, loud-mouthed men have called women weak and inferior. In entertaining comic book form, Smash the Patriarchy shames the culprits and salutes more than 100 inspiring women--from Pharaoh Hatshepsut to Mary Wollstonecraft to Petra Herrera--who stood up to them.

The book is not afraid to examine some of the worst crimes--public shaming, medical examinations, and the widespread murder and jailing of feminists around the world--as it calls on readers to finally smash the patriarchy forever.

These men get embarrassed: Aristotle, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Woody Allen and many more...

These women are celebrated: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Emily Dickinson, Queen Christina of Sweden, Arundhati Roy, Amanda Gorman, and many more...

Jamie Margolin is among the powerful and inspiring youth activists leading a movement to demand urgent action on the climate crisis. With determined purpose and moral clarity, Jamie is pushing political leaders to develop ambitious plans to confront this existential threat to humanity. Youth To Power is an essential how-to for anyone of any age who feels called to act to protect our planet for future generations.
--- Former Vice President Al Gore
Climate change activist and Zero Hour founder Jamie Margolin offers the essential guide to changemaking for young people.
The 1963 Children's March. The 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests. March for Our Lives, and School Strike for Climate. What do all these social justice movements have in common?They were led by passionate, informed, engaged young people.
Jamie Margolin has been organizing and protesting since she was fourteen years old. Now the co-leader of a global climate action movement, she knows better than most how powerful a young person can be. You don't have to be able to vote or hold positions of power to change the world.
In Youth to Power, Jamie presents the essential guide to changemaking, with advice on writing and pitching op-eds, organizing successful events and peaceful protests, time management as a student activist, utilizing social and traditional media to spread a message, and sustaining long-term action. She features interviews with prominent young activists including Tokata Iron Eyes of the #NoDAPL movement and Nupol Kiazolu of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, who give guidance on handling backlash, keeping your mental health a priority, and how to avoid getting taken advantage of.
Jamie walks readers through every step of what effective, healthy, intersectional activism looks like. Young people have a lot to say, and Youth to Power will give you the tools to raise your voice.

The modern age has provided ever-more-effective ways of spreading lies, but it has also given us the scientific method, which is the most effective tool for finding what is true. In the book's final chapter, Kurlansky reveals ways to deconstruct an allegation. A scientific theory has to be testable, and so does an allegation.

BIG LIES soars across history: alighting on the noble lies of Socrates and Plato; Nero blaming Christians for the burning of Rome; the great injustices of the Middle Ages; the big lies of Stalin and Hitler and their terrible consequences; the reckless lies of contemporary demagogues, which are amplified through social media; lies against women and Jews are two examples in the long history of othering the vulnerable for personal gain; up to the equal-opportunity spotlight in America.

Belief is a choice, Kurlansky writes, and honesty begins in each of us. A lack of caring what is true or false is the undoing of democracy. The alternative to truth is a corrupt state in which the loudest voices and most seductive lies confer power and wealth on grifters and oligarchs. We cannot achieve a healthy planet for all the world's people if we do not keep asking what is true.

At age eleven, Jessica Markowitz learned that girls in Rwanda are often not allowed to attend school, and Richards Rwanda took shape.

During his sophomore year of high school, Zach Steinfeld put his love of baking to good use and started the Baking for Breast Cancer Club.

Do you wish you could make a difference in your community or even the world? Are you one of the millions of high school teens with a service-learning requirement? Either way, Be a Changemaker will empower you with the confidence and knowledge you need to affect real change. You'll find all the tools you need right here--through engaging youth profiles, step-by-step exercises, and practical tips, you can start making a difference today.

This inspiring guide will teach you how to research ideas, build a team, recruit supportive adults, fundraise, host events, work the media, and, most importantly, create lasting positive change. Apply lessons from the business world to problems that need solving and become a savvy activist with valuable skills that will benefit you for a lifetime!

Young people are inheriting a world of climate catastrophe. Young people are also one of the strongest forces leading movements for climate justice, and to halt the fossil fuel emissions that are making our Earth unlivable.

As Greta Thunberg and the Fridays for the Future movement have made clear, solutions offered by adults are far too little, far too late: the measures in unenforceable international agreements won't halt our reliance on fossil fuels, or take the drastic steps humans need to take in order to keep our planet livable.

What kinds of drastic steps are needed? What kind of bold actions can the climate justice movement begin using to bring a stop to climate destruction, and that can be employed alongside existing strategies of mass protest, awareness, and legal appeals? Why does our society consider profit for oil companies more important than the future of young people and the health of our shared environment?

In this adaptation of Andreas Malm's best-selling book on the need for a bolder, more confrontational climate justice movement, these urgent questions are brought to the most important audience of all: those who are growing up in a world on fire.

The modern age has provided ever-more-effective ways of spreading lies, but it has also given us the scientific method, which is the most effective tool for finding what is true. In the book's final chapter, Kurlansky reveals ways to deconstruct an allegation. A scientific theory has to be testable, and so does an allegation.

BIG LIES soars across history: alighting on the noble lies of Socrates and Plato; Nero blaming Christians for the burning of Rome; the great injustices of the Middle Ages; the big lies of Stalin and Hitler and their terrible consequences; the reckless lies of contemporary demagogues, which are amplified through social media; lies against women and Jews are two examples in the long history of othering the vulnerable for personal gain; up to the equal-opportunity spotlight in America.

Belief is a choice, Kurlansky writes, and honesty begins in each of us. A lack of caring what is true or false is the undoing of democracy. The alternative to truth is a corrupt state in which the loudest voices and most seductive lies confer power and wealth on grifters and oligarchs. We cannot achieve a healthy planet for all the world's people if we do not keep asking what is true.

[Breaking the Chains] will force many readers to reexamine their assumptions about American history....Young adults will be fascinated and better informed for having experienced this book. -School Library Journal, starred review

Generations of American history students have grown up believing that enslaved people accepted their lot and became attached to their enslavers, that rebellion was rare, and that liberation from slavery happened thanks to the enslavers.

Celebrated historian and children's book author, William Loren Katz offers a thoroughly researched look at the lives of enslaved people in the United States in Breaking the Chains. From their African abductions through their brave resistance to and escape from the ships and harsh plantation life to their roles in the Civil War, those given voice here show that enslaved people themselves were a driving force behind their emancipation.

This compelling look at history is an educational eye-opener for history buffs of all ages, and offers clarity on one of the most turbulent periods of US history. This new paperback edition features a new introduction by historian Robin D. G. Kelley.

Katz masterfully steers the reader step by step through the astonishing forms of resistance, both active and passive. . . . powerful and authentic. -Publishers Weekly

This powerful and unflinching examination of racism in America by award-winning historian Ann Bausum deconstructs the warped history of the Civil War for teen readers, perfect for fans of STAMPED, JUST MERCY, and ACCOUNTABLE.

Warning: This is not your average U.S. history book.

After the Civil War, the Confederates may have laid down their arms, but they were far from accepting defeat. By warping the narrative around what really happened during and after the Civil War, they created an alternate history now known as the Lost Cause. These lies still manifest today through criticism of Critical Race Theory, book banning, unequal funding for education, and more.

This book sets the record straight and explains the true history of the Civil War, and its complex and far-reaching aftermath. Written by historian and award-winning author Ann Bausum, WHITE LIES is an impeccably researched chronicle filled with photos, robust back matter, additional resources, and more that fans of Howard Zinn's A Young People's History of the United States will enjoy.

A voice is only as powerful as the message it carries.

Diversity & Inclusion celebrates the accomplishments of remarkable BIPOC youth that are offering their gifts to uplift our communities.

Hear directly from them as they describe their experiences being: artists, business titans, scientists, mental health advocates, social justice reformers, financial investing experts, dancers, poets, business owners, architects, and LGBTQ activists.

We invite every reader to not only applaud the incredible achievements of each person in our book but also encourage those that are inspired to use their gifts to amplify the experiences of all people.

How to be a Global Citizen covers topics such as politics and voting, how to be responsible with online communication, preventing unfair discrimination, and protecting our environment. You'll find:

- Creative illustrations and clear text simplify challenging topics
- Advice for parents and teachers on explaining tricky social and environmental issues to children
- Steps to contribute to society at an individual level
- Features on inspirational young role models leading the charge on different causes around the world

Inspire youth with tales of their peers

Young people are leading movements around the world, influencing their communities, and illuminating issues that have plagued our societies for far too long. Each chapter of How to be a Global Citizen provides information and ideas on how children can have important conversations amongst friends, family, and the wider community to affect change.

Children are inspired by the stories of young leaders such as LGBTQ+ rights activist, Jazz Jennings, and environmentalist, Greta Thunberg. And each of their stories serves to be an example of what it means to be a responsible citizen, how to make the world a better place, and how to care for our societies and environment.

Other titles to Help Your Kids

DK's Help Your Kids series is aimed at young readers ages 11 + years, parents, and teachers. These books are an excellent resource to help children understand complex topics. Other books in this series include Help Your Kids with English, Help Your Kids with Study Skills, and Help Your Kids with Dyslexia.

Glimmer of Hope illustrates how a group of teenagers channeled their rage and sorrow into action and went on to create one of the largest youth-led movements in global history. With personal essays from survivors and a close look at how their collective activism turned conversation into action -- via rallies, social media postings, televised town halls, voter registration drives, and ultimately a march on Washington to mobilize for national reform -- Glimmer of Hope offers a roadmap for meaningful, youth-led change.

Glimmer of Hope provides a blueprint for launching social change.--NPR.org
*A Seventeen Magazine Best Book of 2018*
This is a clarion call to action for teens, by teens, and is moving and powerful.--Booklist, Starred Review

March For Our Lives Action Fund is a nonprofit 501c4 organization dedicated to furthering the work of March For Our Lives students to end gun violence across the country. In keeping up with their ongoing fight to end gun-violence in all communities, the student leaders of March for Our Lives have decided not to be paid as authors of the book. 100% of net proceeds from this book will be paid to March For Our Lives Action Fund.

The full list of contributors, in alphabetical order, are: Adam Alhanti, Dylan Baierlein, John Barnitt, Alfonso Calderon, Sarah Chadwick, Jaclyn Corin, Matt Deitsch, Ryan Deitsch, Sam Deitsch, Brendan Duff, Emma González, Chris Grady, David Hogg, Lauren Hogg, Cameron Kasky, Jammal Lemy, Charlie Mirsky, Kyrah Simon, Delaney Tarr, Bradley Thornton, Kevin Trejos, Naomi Wadler, Sofie Whitney, Daniel Williams, and Alex Wind.

A powerful guidebook for healing and resistance for young girls and gender-expansive youth of color on how to unite, heal, protect, and lead their communities.

Turn Up For Freedom helps youth leaders hone their skills to build personal, emotional, and collective freedom. It centers youth leadership through principled positions, such as being a healer, a protector, a scholar-activist, a community organizer, and being radically joyful, in order to build personal emotional and collective freedom. Through memoir, story telling, and political education, E Morales-Williams grounds these principles in the material experiences of working-class youth and reflects on the possibilities and challenges in practicing them as a collective in under-resourced communities.

These were the principles of leadership and lessons learned from a Black and Brown girls and gender expansive youth-collective called TUFF Girls (Turning Up for Freedom), based in North Philadelphia. Morales-Williams carefully guides young readers through the challenging issues that confront their lives, helping to identify the traumatic impact that structural violence has on Black and Brown communities, restoring traditions of healing and collective care, and recentering leadership in community as an abolitionist and decolonizing practice. Turn Up For Freedom calls on young people to unite, heal, protect, and lead.