Global Justice Fiction Bibliography
Compiled by Elizabeth Heilman
All Souls Rising
by Madison Smartt Bell.
New York: NY Penguin Books, 1995.
A powerful novel of the 1790s Haitian slave rebellion which explores issues of class, color, and freedom.
Buru Quartet
by Pramoedya Ananta Toer.
New York: Penguin, 1996.
(A four book set: This Earth of Mankind, Child of All Nations, Footsteps, and House of Glass .) Sections of each could be used with high school students. The four books chronicle the effects -- economic, cultural, psychological -- of Dutch colonial rule in the then-Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), and the growing anti-colonial movements that grew up in response.
Chain of Fire
by Beverley Naidoo.
New York: HarperTrophy. 1993.
Fifteen-year-old Naledi fights against resettlement of her village under the apartheid South African government. (Sequel to Journey to Jo'Burg .) Gr. 6/up.
Charlie Pippin
by Candy Dawson Boyd. New York: Puffin, 1988.
Charlie, an African-American 11-year-old girl, gets in trouble for setting up an illegal store in her school. But her real trouble revolves around understanding her Vietnam War veteran father. When she sets up a "war and peace" committee in school she begins to understand a lot. Gr. 5/up.
Color of My Words
by Lynn Joseph. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.
A beautifully written book from the perspective of Ana Rosa Hernandez, a poor 12-year old girl in the Domincan Republic, who loves to write but must
steal paper to be able to do so. When the government threatens to bulldoze her village to expand the tourist trade, Ana's family and her community must come together for a life-threatening struggle. Gr. 5/up.
David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens. (various imprints), 1850.
The classic novel on child labor in industrial England.
Eating Fire, Drinking Water
by Arlene Chai.
New York: Ballantine, 1998.
Set in the Philippines at the time of the fall of the Marcos regime, a reporter investigates a student demonstration in which the army killed an unarmed man. She discovers much -- not only about the unfolding revolution, but of her own personal past. A multi-layered, powerful work.
The Farming of Bones
by Edwidge Danticat.
New York: Penguin, 1998.
Haitian writer describes the events in the Dominican Republic of 1937, when a nationalist uprising on the part of Haitian workers resulted in a little-known massacre.
Grab Hands and Run
by Frances Temple.
New York: HarperTrophy, 1992.
Set during the civil war in El Salvador, a family flees north to escape the government soldiers. Gr. 4/up.
by A Hand Full of Stars
Rafik Schami.
New York: Puffin, 1990,
A first-person account of a teenage boy who keeps a journal and becomes increasingly angry with the repressive Syrian government, which arrests and tortures his father. The boy embarks on a dangerous mission of publishing an underground newspaper. Gr. 6/up.
Journey to Jo'Burg
by Beverley Naidoo.
New York: HarperTrophy, 1986.
When her sister becomes ill, Naledi and her younger brother travel to Johannesburg, looking for their mother. Through people they meet, they discover the painful reality of apartheid. Gr. 4/up.
Lyddie
by Katherine Paterson.
New York: Puffin, 1994.
Set in an east coast mill town in the 1880s. A Vermont farm girl confronts family problems and horrible working conditions. Inspiring historical fiction. Gr. 5/up.
Memory of Fire
by Eduardo Galeano.
New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1998. (A trilogy: Genesis, Faces and Masks, and Century of the Wind.
A brilliant and poignant overview of European colonialism, neo-colonialism, and indigenous resistance. Because Galeano uses short vignettes to illustrate different episodes, sections of the books are especially well-suited to classroom use.
My Name is Maria Isabel
by Alma Flor Ada.
New York: Atheneum, 1993.
For Maria Isabel Salazar Lopez, the hardest thing about being the new girl in school is that the teacher doesn't call her by her real name. Named for her Papa's mother and for Chabela, her beloved Puerto Rican grandmother, Maria Isabel must find a way to make her teacher understand that if she loses her name, she's lost an important part of herself. Gr. 3/up.
My Name is Not Angelica
by Scott O'Dell.
New York: Dell Publishing, 1989.
A fictionalized account of an enslaved 16-year-old who risks her life for others. Set in the context of the 1733 slave rebellion on St. John Island in the Caribbean. Gr. 5/up.
My Year of Meats
by Ruth L. Ozeki.
New York: Penguin Books, 1998.
A humorous but biting tale about two women -- one Japanese, one Japanese-American -- and the production of a TV series about meat in the United States. In a cross-cultural way, the novel addresses issues of the role of media, the impact of a meat culture on health and environment, and gender bias. Mature high school students.
Naming the Spirits
by Lawrence Thornton.
New York: Doubleday, 1995.
A lyrical story told through the eyes of a survivor of a massacre of the Argentina military junta. Hgh school.
Nectar in a Sieve
by Kamala Markandaya.
New York: New American Library, 1990.
The story of Rukmani, a peasant in an Indian village who is forced to marry at age 12. Her village suffers from hunger, pollution, and other ills of industrialization. Though hunger and despair dominate much of village life, Rukmani's struggle for survival generates hope. Gr. 9/up.
The Other Side of Truth
by Beverley Naidoo.
New York: HarperCollins, 2001.
Set in Lagos, Nigeria, after the execution of environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. Twelve-year-old Sade must flee with her younger brother. Her mother is murdered by the military dicatorship and her journalist father is being persecuted. Sade and her fifth grade brother arrive in London and face the double difficulties of being refugees and dealing with their father's imprisonment. Gr. 6/up.
Petals of Blood
by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o.
New York: E.P. Dutton, 1978.
An anti neo-colonial novel about the erosion of traditional life in Kenya after "independence." Skilled high school readers.
The Poisonwood Bible
by Barbara Kingsolver.
New York: Harper Perennial, 1998.
Set against the arrival of independence in the former Belgian Congo, this novel follows the story of missionary parents and their four daughters who try to "convert the natives" of an African village. An elegantly written critique of colonialism in its many incarnations. High school.
A Small Place
by Jamaica Kincaid.
New York: New American Library, 1985.
An angry and beautifully written denunciation of colonialism and its corrupt aftermath in a Caribbean island nation. (See p. 54.) High school.
Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti
by Frances Temple.
New York: Harper Trophy, 1992.
A gripping novel about politics in contemporary Haiti as told through the voices of an injured member of Jean-Bertrand Aristide's election team and a young man assigned to record his story. Gr. 6/up.
Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe.
New York: Prentice-Hall, 1994.
The classic tale of Nigerian tribal life before and after European colonialism. A short, powerful tragedy that examines the impact of European economic and cultural domination on traditional life in Nigeria. High school.
Tonight, by Sea
by Frances Temple.
New York: HarperTrophy, 1997.
Set in Haiti in 1993 after the military coup that ousted President Aristide. Young Paulie and her uncle and grandmother make preparations to leave their homeland by boat. They must deal with the macoutes -- government thugs -- who come with guns and knives and try to stop them. A stirring account of an escape to freedom. Gr. 4/up.
Widows
by Ariel Dorfman.
New York: Penguin, 1983.
A moving tale of how widows, mothers, daughters and lovers mourn the loss of their "disappeared" loved ones. High school.
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