Theme: Organizing

Organizing

Underground Man

Book — Fiction. By Milton Meltzer. 2006. 288 pages.
An historically accurate novel on abolitionists and the Underground Railroad for middle school readers.
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Freedom Riders

Film. Written, produced, and directed by Stanley Nelson. 2011. 120 minutes.
A first-hand look at the 1961 rides from the Freedom Riders themselves and others who were there.
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The Killing Floor

Film. Directed by Bill Duke. 1985. Digitally restored in 2020. 118 minutes.
Set during World War I, two African-American men deal with racism in the workplace and the labor union.
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Maquilapolis (City of Factories)

Film. Directed and produced by Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre. 2006. 68 minutes.
The impact of globalization as told through the lives of the women who experience it in Tijuana, Mexico.
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Kids on Strike!

Book — Non-fiction. By Susan Campbell Bartoletti. 2003. 208 pages.
Describes the conditions and treatment that drove working children to strike, from the mill workers' strike in 1834 and the coal strikes at the turn of the century to the children who marched with Mother Jones in 1903.
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Uprising

Book — Fiction. By Margaret Peterson Haddix. 2007. 352 pages.
Three young women march against unfair labor practices in the Shirtwaist Strike of 1909-10, only to find themselves engulfed in the raging flames consuming the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.
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The Bobbin Girl

Picture book. By Emily Arnold McCully. 1996. 36 pages.
Historical fiction for upper elementary based on a true story about the Lowell textile workers.
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Nadarín

Picture book. By Leo Lionni. 1973 (Spanish translation 2005). 24 pages.
A classic tale for young children about the power of organizing. Also in English.
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Aani and the Tree Huggers

Aani and the Tree Huggers

Book — Historical fiction. By Jeannine Atkins. Illustrated by Venantius J. Pinto. 2000. 32 pages.
Based on an event that took place in India in the 1970s, children and women in the village hug the trees to save them from being logged.
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Sacred Leaf

Sacred Leaf

Book — Fiction. By Deborah Ellis. 2009. 206 pages.
A story based in Bolivia about a group of peasants who organize against the military.
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The Streets are Free

Picture book. By Karusa. Illustrated by Monica Doppert. 1985 (reissued 2008). 48 pages.
A group of children organize to convince the mayor that they need a playground.
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