Social studies is concerned with promoting the greater good of society. This paper examines the value of multicultural literature as a tool for this purpose. It is argued that multicultural literature can help promote the social development necessary to address important societal problems and conditions. It can be used formally or informally to facilitate broad sociocultural understanding, critical self-examination, and commitment to action. Multicultural literature can improve the social studies curriculum by supplementing traditional materials and contextualizing disciplines like geography and history. It can also enrich subjects such as science and language arts and humanize the study of contemporary issues and events, and can also be used across grade levels and with very young children. After examining specific materials and their uses, the paper discusses general implications for practice. (Contains 38 references.) (Author/SLD)