Good work is being done all the time to change circumstances for the better. This collection is full of inspirational reads to raise your voices across a number of causes and genres. Find that you learn better through indirect means, like poetry or fiction, rather than non-fiction? We’ve got you! Don’t worry, there are plenty of non-fiction heavy hitters on this list, too. Whether you’re after something uplifting for a young person in your life, a searing look at Canadian feminist history, or a gentle reminder of the beauty and inspiration in birds, we think you’ll find what you’re looking for here.
Minnow: The girl who became part fish by Willie Poll, illustrated by Bailey Macabr (Medicine Wheel Publishing)
This illustrated book is designed to teach kids aged 6-10 about activism in an age-appropriate way. A young Indigenous water protector named Minnow goes on an underwater journey; learning from our ocean-living relatives. When she returns to the surface, she gathers her community to help make a change.This story is told in lyrical rhyme and helps children gain a better understanding of Indigenous water and land protectors, the environment and the world around them, and helps show children activism at an early age.
Out now!
Every Child Matters by Phyllis Webstad, illustrated by Karlene Harvey (Medicine Wheel Publishing)
Suitable for ages 6-10 (and above), this book is the story behind the creation of Orange Shirt Day by founder Phyllis Webstad. It honours the history and resiliency of Indigenous Peoples on Turtle Island and moves us all forward on a path toward Truth and Reconciliation. If you’re a Residential School Survivor or an Intergenerational Survivor – you matter. For the children who didn’t make it home – you matter. Orange Shirt Day may be September 30, but we would all due well to remember and fight for a good future all year long.
Out now!
Feminism’s Fight: Challenging Politics and Policies in Canada since 1970 edited by Barbara Cameron & Meg Luxton (UBC Press)
Looking for a modern history of women in Canada? Written by professors from York University, this non-fiction book tells the crucial story of a transformation in how feminism has been treated by governments and asks how new ways of organizing and emerging alliances can advance the feminist goal of social and economic equality. Covering 50 years of Canadian women’s history, the book tackles events from the 1970 Report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women to how the COVID-19 pandemic has simultaneously exacerbated misogyny and related systemic inequalities, yet it has also revived feminist mobilization and animated calls for a new and comprehensive equality agenda for Canada.
Out now!
The Solidarity Encounter: Women, Activism, and Creating Non-Colonizing Relations by Carol Lynne D’Arcangelis (UBC Press)
Are you aware of, and want to change, how you behave as a white woman in organizing and movements? Do you want to know how to participate in organizing in social movements with a lens of non-colonizing solidarity, even in unequal power contexts? The Solidarity Encounter gives a constructive framework that people, especially white women, can apply so they can decentre their own goals and frameworks as they participate in activism with Indigenous women and groups. In addition to this useful framework, the book provides recent history and examples of where movements have gone wrong.
Out now!
Badass(ish) by Jaymie Heilman (Ronsdale Press)
This is a YA book about three teens who set out to stop a pipeline. Davis, the main character, is reeling from an online Hatestorm after she blamed Alberta’s oil industry for the devastating FortMac forest fire that destroyed her home and killed her dog. Will the teens’ secrets, anxieties, and one very obnoxious ex-boyfriend explode their friendship first, or can they save their friendship and block the pipeline? Perfect inspiration for a teen confronted with the hard future and the even harder actions that need to be braved to make positive changes.
Out now!
I Am Everything in Between by Sydney Sunderland (Rebel Mountain Press)
Sometimes it’s not as simple as being a boy or a girl. Author Sydney Sutherland wrote this book when she was 18 for a younger audience, aged 4-8, to teach them that regardless of biological gender, it’s OK to feel like a boy, or a girl, or even both! I Am Everything In Between highlights kids who may not fit into stereotypical gender ideals, and celebrates how they do identify by sending positive messages about gender identity. This is a great book to read to kids to introduce them to gender identity concepts.
Out now!
Dare to Bird: Exploring the Joy and Healing Power of Birds by Melissa Hafting (Rocky Mountain Books)
This photo book does more than just showcase the beautiful colour images of birds from the continental United States, Hawaii, and Canada that author and photographer Melissa Hafting has taken. It also is a look into how Melissa has used this connection to her passion to heal and cope from loss. Melissa explores the joy that birding and photography has brought to her life and how both have allowed her to foster meaningful connections with young birders from diverse backgrounds, along with the conservation community, eco-travel advocates, rare bird enthusiasts, as well as BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ people. Being relatively small, at 8×10 inches, this book is comfortable enough to lay on your lap to peruse.
Available June 18, 2024!
The Longest Shot by Chad Soon & George Chiang, illustrated by Amy Qi (Orca Book Publishers)
A middle grade illustrated book telling the story of the first player of Asian descent to play in the NHL, The Longest Shot records the important history of an inspirational figure in Canadian hockey history. Learn how Larry Kwong went from playing in Vernon to playing in leagues in North America and Europe, including in that one minute with the New York Rangers in 1948.
Out now!
The Secret Pocket by Peggy Janicki, illustrated by Carrielynn Victor (Orca Book Publishers)
Based on the author’s mother’s experience at residential school, The Secret Pocket is a story of survival and resilience in the face of genocide and cruelty. But it’s also a celebration of quiet resistance to the injustice of residential schools and how the sewing skills passed down through generations of Indigenous women gave these girls a future, stitch by stitch.
Out now!
We Follow the River by Onjana Yawnghwe (Caitlin Press)
We Follow the River is a poetry collection about the story of one family’s escape from military violence in Myanmar, their exiled existence in Thailand, and their immigration to Canada with only a pile of beat up suitcases on a luggage cart. It is about growing up as a foreigner in a foreign land, sifting through family history and grief, and alighting across cultures and continents to find a home. Written over 20 years, the collection has been written and rewritten through the retroactive prism of experience, polished and honed, eroded and erased.
Out now!
Blood of Stone by Tariq Malik (Caitlin Press)
In this poetry collection, Tariq Malik revisits Kotli, the 1,000-year-old city of his formative years in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. Marked by the traumas of dislocation and migration, the city and its inhabitants share secrets and longings, chronicled and imagined by Malik as he gives voice to a personal history that precedes his experiences as an immigrant in Canada. As the inhabitants of Kotli are forced to branch out in search of home, their stories expand to encompass the diaspora of Malik’s fellow mohijar. Named for the earthy, familiar scent present after rainfall, Blood of Stone is a compelling, luminous celebration of people and place.
Out now!
Gaman – Perseverance: Japanese Canadians’ Journey to Justice by Art Miki (Talonbooks)
In this memoir, Art Miki vividly recollects his past experiences and family history, revealing the beliefs and attitudes that shaped his life’s journey as a youth in British Columbia, an educator in Manitoba, and a community leader across Canada. Author Mr. Art Miki is an active leader in the Japanese Canadian community, having served as president of the National Association of Japanese Canadians from 1984 to 1992. He led the negotiations to achieve a just redress settlement for Japanese Canadians interned during World War II. He has received the Order of Canada, the Order of Manitoba, and recently, the Order of the Rising Sun from the government of Japan.
Out now!
The Boys’ Club by Martine Delvaux, translated by Katia Grubisic (Talonbooks)
A study of the social impacts of visual media, The Boys’ Club looks at the history of gentlemen’s clubs and male fraternity on a global scale. Examining popular media produced about men by men, Delvaux seeks to challenge the positioning of women as ‘object’ and men as ‘subject’. The Boys’ Club exposes a culture of consumption which profits off the female experience while disregarding the female voice.
This activist text is also a work of cultural scholarship: The Boys’ Club is deeply informed by Delvaux’s long engagement with the work of feminist scholars, film critics, historians, writers, and journalists.
Available June 25, 2024!
A Fate Worse Than Death by Nisha Patel (Arsenal Pulp Press)
A Fate Worse Than Death is a stunning poetic investigation of the worthiness of disabled life as told through the author’s evaluation of her own medical records over the course of a decade. Living with treatment-resistant diabetes, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and complex chronic pain, Nisha Patel reveals how her multiple disabilities intertwine with her day-to-day life, even when care and treatments are not available. As she works through bouts of illness, neglect, and care, Patel reveals how poetry provides her a way to resist the sway of medical hegemony and instead offer complex accounts of pain, sickness, and anger, but also love.
Out now!