Sofia Valdez, Future Prez

 Sofia Valdez, Future Prez

Written by Andrea Beaty

Illustrated by David Roberts

Grade Level: K-3 

Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers

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Summary:

• Andrea Beaty’s Sofia Valdez, Future Prez, tells the story of a young Hispanic girl’s fight for action after her Abuelo is injured in their neighborhood while walking past an abandoned lot turned landfill. This event inspires Sofia to take action a create a park in the space of the landfill. However, her visit to City Hall proves to be discouraging as adults inform her that she can not create a change because she is just a child. Despite this, Sofia rallies and petitions the townspeople to create a new park that is built for all to enjoy. In the classroom, this book can be used as an introduction or wrap-up for a community activism social justice unit as students are familiarizing themselves with what it means to be an activist as a town citizen and the ways that they do so in their own approach. 

Elements of Social Justice:

• When it comes to the criteria of Element 6, Sofia Valdez, Future Prez is a perfect example and resource that educators can use in order to share examples of everyday people uniting for change as they address issues of injustice in their community. Witnessing firsthand the effects of environmental injustice had on her Abuelo, Sofia’s leadership not only inspired her fellow neighbors to propose a plan for a park but to implement said plan. This is a book that encompasses the meaning of social justice via activism as students have the opportunity to read about a young girl’s challenges in her hopes and achievement for a better community area in her town. Students will also learn that despite those challenges, persistence will prevail in whatever change they aspire to create. In the classroom, educators could easily understand how this book would support their teaching of the element as it provides children the opportunity to observe the process of seeing a problem and actions that can come thereafter to change what was wrong.