UN Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by all UN member states in 2015 as a global 15-year project to achieve progress in 17 key areas related to improving life on planet Earth for everyone. Since 2019, the UN has been curating “UN SDG Book Club” booklists, to encourage children to understand and embrace the principles of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) had partnered with the International Publishers Association (IPA) in this SDG Book Club project. The selection of books related to each SDG are in the six official UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish) – (#GlobalGoals / #SDGBookClub). On their blog the UN SDG Book Club encourages groups around the world to share information about local book club initiatives. 

UN SDG Book Club – Reading List Catalogue (March 2023) (in English, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Spanish, French)

This AFCC booklist is the start of our contribution, which we hope can be used as a springboard for engagement and action by inspiring reading our world, from picture books to books for young adults, with a focus on Asia and making a difference. In addition to identifying titles to support learning about the 17 UN SDGs, each title is tagged according to the five interconnected key competencies of Social Emotional Learning (SEL): self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management, and responsible decision-making.

You can help build on this online resource by recommending titles. Please use the link below. The booklist will be updated every few months.

There are other online resources with SDG booklists. 

• Global Literature in Libraries Initiative (GLLI, March 2021): SDG booklists (in English)
  Recommended books in a month of posts on international children's literature and the UN SDGS in the GLLI blog.
• UN Norway – Interdisciplinary Learning Resources About Sustainable Development & the SDGs (in English)
• Storyweaver – SDG booklists (various languages)
  Storyweaver is a free, online reading platform and digital repository of multilingual stories for children from Pratham Books in India.
• Simbi.io – SDG book club list (various languages)
  Simbi.io is a free, online platform from Canada that is committed to turning the act of reading into the act of giving.