Public Library Of Youngstown & Mahoning County: 5 YA Non-Fiction Books About Human Rights

Press release from the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County:

Cindy Beach

January 4th, 2022

5 YA Non-Fiction Books About Human Rights 

December is National Human Rights Month, but that’s not the only time you’re allowed to read these books. With International Human Rights Day falling on December 10th this year, you are just in time to get started on your journey of self-education and reflection in regards to civil and human rights worldwide. If you’re interested in learning your rights in accordance with the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, you can find the document here on the United Nations website, and in over 500 languages, in video form, or on audio. 

Starting off our journey with our top 5 YA non-fiction titles, we encourage you to check out the following books:  

Jason Reynolds, author of books like Long Way Down and All-American Boys, remixed Ibram X. Kendi’s iconic book Stamped from the Beginning in this formative text about racism and how it impacts all of Earth’s global citizens. In the words of Jason Reynolds, his version of Stamped “takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited.” This book is much acclaimed, topping the chart of the New York Times bestseller list and many other bestseller lists.  

Human Rights Topics Covered: Civil Rights (Racism, Antiracism, Critical Race Theory) 

Banned Book Club is a graphic memoir about author’s Kim Hyun Sook life going to college in South Korea in the mid-1980s. The book discusses the Fifth Republic of South Korea, a military regime that focused on censorship, torture, and eventual murder of anyone who protested the Fifth Republic. In 1983 politically charged South Korea, Kim Hyun Sook wanted to escape through literature, though much of it was banned. When she was invited to a reading group by the editor of her college’s newspaper, she didn’t expect a hidden club in a dingey basement whose goal was to create an underground, guerilla banned book club devoted to finding light in the increasing darkness.  

Human Rights Topics Covered: Political Rights (Authoritarianism, Political Unrest), Economic/Social/Cultural Rights (Censorship, Anti-Intellectualism) 

In George Takei’s graphic memoir, They Called Us Enemy, he outlines his childhood growing up during World War II when his family was displaced into different concentration camps. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese military, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared war on Japan and, in turn, all Japanese and Japanese-American citizens living in the United States. Families with ancestry from Japan were rounded up and sent to “internment camps” where they were forced to work and live under near-constant surveillance. George Takei discusses growing up in these camps from the age of four, watching his family struggle and adjust, and how this experience impacted the rest of his life.  

Human Rights Topics Covered: Civil Rights (Immigration, Racism), Political Rights (Concentration Camps, Forced Labor, Detention) 

Malala Yousafzai is the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded for her work and activism in women’s education in the Middle East. She became known when the Taliban attempted to assassinate her for her activism efforts, shooting her in the face as she rode home on a public bus. After her recovery, Malala continued her activism in the world of women’s education. She has met with multiple world leaders and other prominent activists, like then-President Barack Obama, and climate activist Greta Thunberg. On July 12, 2013 – Malala’s 16th birthday – the United Nations dubbed the date “Malala Day”, which is now celebrated internationally every year as a salute to her efforts and activism. This was her first non-fiction work, but she has since written many more, spanning across age ranges and translated into multiple languages. 

Human Rights Topics Covered: Civil Rights (Education, Feminism), Political Rights (Terrorism, Assassination Attempts, Anti-Intellectualism) 

Ink Knows No Borders is a YA poetry collection containing the stories of immigrant and refugee families from familiar authors like Elizabeth Acevedo, Chrysanthemum Tran, Safia Elhillo, Carlos Andrés Gómez, Joseph O. Legaspi, Ada Limón, and Emtithal Mahmoud. It tackles subjects like cultural and language-based difficulties, isolation, and home sickness, along with things like the joys of finding family, discovering new cultures and traditions, and finding a sense of safety that was once lacking. 

Human Rights Topics Covered: Civil Rights (Immigration, LGBTQIA+), Political Rights (Political Unrest, War, Censorship, Refugees) 

This press release was produced by the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County. The views expressed here are the author’s own.