I couldn’t even guess what percentage of middle grade and young adult books use schools as their setting, but I’m sure it’s a very high number. It’s somewhat surprising that schools and schooling is just now being addressed in YA books. Here, we have spaces where young people negotiate their identities not only with each other, but the with the school institution. I went to high school once. I remember having a nascent awareness of white supremacy. I’m pretty sure I questioned reading and course selections, and the relationships my predominantly white classmates were forming among themselves and our teachers. I know I was more alert when we read materials by or Black authors for class, or questioned prejudices and stereotypes. But there are always teens who are aware, active, and engaged around issues that are meaningful to them. I remember my cousin who attended the same school walking the halls with her HUGE afro and “free Angela” purse.

Books set in schools often have a teacher who leans either far to the left or to the right, but few gone beyond that to question the role schools play in individual and cultural identify formation. The curriculum, pedagogy, power structures, invisibility, and politics are obvious, but neglected matters.

Here are a few of the books that call to question educational institutions.

All You Have to Do by Autumn Allen (Penguin Random House)

In ALL YOU HAVE TO DO, two Black young men attend prestigious schools nearly thirty years apart, and yet both navigate similar forms of insidious racism.

In April 1968, in the wake of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, Kevin joins a protest that shuts down his Ivy League campus…

In September 1995, amidst controversy over the Million Man March, Gibran challenges the “See No Color” hypocrisy of his prestigious New England prep school…

As the two students, whose lives overlap in powerful ways, risk losing the opportunities their parents worked hard to provide, they move closer to discovering who they want to be instead of accepting as fact who society and family tell them they are.” Here are Kevin and Gibran, a generation apart, tackling the same issues of class, race, education, and inequality though the circumstances have changed. And, she’s writing of the same issues for the next generation.

Fall in Line Holden written and illustrated by Daniel W. Vandever (Salina Bookshelf, 2017)

“Fall in Line, Holden! follows Holden, a young Navajo boy, through his day at boarding school. Although Holden is required to conform to a rigid schedule and strict standards of behavior, his internal life is led with imagination and wonder. Whether he is in art class, the computer lab, or walking the hall to lunch, Holden’s vivid imagination transforms his commonplace surroundings into a world of discovery and delight.

Explore the world through Holden’s eyes. Join him for the day, and celebrate the strong spirit of a boy who rises above the rules surrounding him.” This picture book inspires readers to resist, rebel, and seek joy.

Finding Junie Kim by Ellen Oh (HarperCollins, 2021)

“Junie Kim just wants to fit in. So she keeps her head down and tries not to draw attention to herself. But when racist graffiti appears at her middle school, Junie must decide between staying silent or speaking out.

Then Junie’s history teacher assigns a project and Junie decides to interview her grandparents, learning about their unbelievable experiences as kids during the Korean War. Junie comes to admire her grandma’s fierce determination to overcome impossible odds, and her grandpa’s unwavering compassion during wartime. And as racism becomes more pervasive at school, Junie taps into the strength of her ancestors and finds the courage to do what is right.” Ellen Oh says the story “calls out micro aggressions in school from both students, and teachers and administrators.”

Free Lunch by Rex Ogle (Norton, 2019)

“Instead of giving him lunch money, Rex’s mom has signed him up for free meals. As a poor kid in a wealthy school district, better-off kids crowd impatiently behind him as he tries to explain to the cashier that he’s on the free meal program. The lunch lady is hard of hearing, so Rex has to shout.

Free Lunch is the story of Rex’s efforts to navigate his first semester of sixth grade―who to sit with, not being able to join the football team, Halloween in a handmade costume, classmates and a teacher who take one look at him and decide he’s trouble―all while wearing secondhand clothes and being hungry. His mom and her boyfriend are out of work, and life at home is punctuated by outbursts of violence. Halfway through the semester, his family is evicted and ends up in government-subsidized housing in view of the school. Rex lingers at the end of last period every day until the buses have left, so no one will see where he lives.”

Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton (Macmillan)

“Eleven-year-old Ella Durand is the first Conjuror to attend the Arcanum Training Institute, a magic school in the clouds where Marvellers from around the world practice their cultural arts, like brewing Indian spice elixirs and bartering with pesky Irish pixies.

Despite her excitement, Ella discovers that being the first isn’t easy—some Marvellers mistrust her magic, which they deem “bad and unnatural.” But eventually, she finds friends in elixirs teacher, Masterji Thakur, and fellow misfits Brigit, a girl who hates magic, and Jason, a boy with a fondness for magical creatures.

When a dangerous criminal known as the Ace of Anarchy escapes prison, supposedly with a Conjuror’s aid, tensions grow in the Marvellian world and Ella becomes the target of suspicion. Worse, Masterji Thakur mysteriously disappears while away on a research trip. With the help of her friends and her own growing powers, Ella must find a way to clear her family’s name and track down her mentor before it’s too late.” Clayton uses this magical to setting to consider what young people endure to be changemakers facing systems of oppression.

Mascot by Charles Waters and Traci Sorrell (Penguin Random House)

“In Rye, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, people work hard, kids go to school, and football is big on Friday nights. An eighth-grade English teacher creates an assignment for her class to debate whether Rye’s mascot should stay or change. Now six middle schoolers–-all with different backgrounds and beliefs–-get involved in the contentious issue that already has the suburb turned upside down with everyone choosing sides and arguments getting ugly.” Waters, African American, and Sorrell, Cherokee Nation, collaborate to provide young readers a variety of ways to consider what we should hold onto and what we should let go.

Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman by Kristen R. Lee (Penguin Random House 2022)

“Savannah Howard sacrificed her high school social life to make sure she got into a top college. Her sights were set on an HBCU, but when she is accepted to the ivy-covered walls of Wooddale University on a full ride, how can she say no?

Wooddale is far from the perfectly manicured community it sells on its brochures, though. Savannah has barely unpacked before she comes face to face with microagressions stemming from racism and elitism. Then Clive Wilmington’s statue is vandalized with blackface. The prime suspect? Lucas Cunningham, Wooddale’s most popular student and son of a local prominent family. Soon Savannah is unearthing secrets of Wooddale’s racist history. But what’s the price for standing up for what is right? And will telling the truth about Wooddale’s past cost Savannah her own future?

A stunning, challenging, and timely debut about racism and privilege on college campuses.”

Miles: Morales: Spider-Man Jason Reynolds (Disney Books, 2017)

“Lately, Miles’s spidey-sense has been on the fritz. When a misunderstanding leads to his suspension from school, Miles begins to question his abilities. After all, his dad and uncle were Brooklyn jack-boys with criminal records. Maybe kids like Miles aren’t meant to be superheroes. Maybe Miles should take his dad’s advice and focus on saving himself.

As Miles tries to get his school life back on track, he can’t shake the vivid nightmares that continue to haunt him. Nor can he avoid the relentless buzz of his spidey-sense every day in history class, amidst his teacher’s lectures on the historical “benefits” of slavery and the importance of the modern-day prison system. But after his scholarship is threatened, Miles uncovers a chilling plot, one that puts his friends, his neighborhood, and himself at risk.” Miles begins to question what good is it being a superhero in the face of so much oppression?