A is for Activist

gave as a giftand it was perfect!

Great book.

Love it for the young activist! Priceless!

Nice work. Incredible work. This is in the rotation with all the Dr.Seuss board books. Plus I bought a half dozen for stock presents. Per people's concerns about bashing of cars guzzling dinosaur sludge on the solar page, it is important to raise children with awareness of what we are doing, so they can come up with better solutions to these problems, and not believe that traveling through suburbia in suburbans is the only way to exist. That said, I don't know what a healthy hot dog is, processed food is processed food even if it was made with plants that were only treated with a limited set of pesticides before going through the processing machines. I also don't understand why a popsicle is on that page. One author can't be an expert on everything, so I made my own page about real food, and taped it on so we can happily enjoy the other 25. And to the folks who had to look up the heroes mentioned in the book, that sounds like a win-win-win (win for you, win for your kids, win for Innosanto). I hope your kids look stuff up they don't know too - and I hope I do too! I love how it mentions MalcolmX & that history's lessons can be complex. Thank you so much Innosanto!

This book is amazing. Political agenda aside, there are so many little nuggets of goodness sprinkled throughout this book that even though my daughter brings it to me to read multiple times a day, I still find little clever things here and there in the illustrations that I had missed before. For little ones who are too young to sit through reading the whole book there are still great connections to each letter on every page, and I love seeing the ways the cats change depending on what letter we’re on, and teaching my daughter the ways the cats are hiding on some pages! We both love it. She just loves the cats right now but I know as she gets older she will make these same discoveries and it will continue to be a favorite for many reasons! It also reads like spoken word poetry which I love. Just all around a gem.

This is one of my favorite board book gifts for new trendy parents. It is not a usual Barnes and Noble pick which I love. I don't know of any other books which cover LGBT rights, Unions, and Zapatistas all in one book! The rhymes are great and my son had most of it memorized shortly after he could talk. They pictures are colorful and are great for keeping younger babies interested in the pages. If you like this one also check out Counting on Community by the same author.

It is hard to tell who this book was written for. I got it for a kindergartner who is curious about his parents' activism and wanted it to provide deeper talking points for his own, but it is simultaneously above and below his level. It would make a tween or teen roll their eyes. I think it is probably best aimed as a coffee-table kind of book for young adults to keep around as proof of their activist identities, although it has potential with kids. But oh, with kids... there's too much text on the page with too many unexplained referents for it to be satisfying in and of itself, and it's too exhausting to explain each of them with additional references. Kids will wander off. It doesn't put much meat on the bone where I might want it to be ("And Z is for Zapatista, of course!" That's it, kids! Go home! Figure out for yourselves what that means!) This is a shame, because I would like it to provide a bit more of an introduction to the concepts it names or else keep it brief and instantly comprehensible. Just a balance issue. There are a few pages where the letter focused upon is not the letter on the page (W in place of U, for instance) and that feels like a cop-out. It's altogether too much for my (very activist) spouse, who cringes to read it, finding it too kitschy. But although I've listed its problems and I know it doesn't sound like I am a fan, I rather like the book; it's colorful, energetic, and unabashedly an advocate for social action. I am hoping that my child will retain tolerance for abecedarians long enough to be willing to engage in the research project of unpacking the content as he grows, but I think it may be a tough sell. Let me qualify my review with this info: he is a kindergartner who was reading above a 4th grade level (comprehension included) at age 4 -- so little-kid appeal and big-kid content may never have a better moment than this for him.

I’ve seen some reviews about how this book isn’t “age appropriate” and while I can’t tell someone that their opinion is completely wrong I completely disagree I love this book my daughter is just 9 months old but it’s a book we will continue to read to her as she grows it teaches about justice, peace, equality, love, and much more it’s teaching our children about our real life world situation in a child appropriate way and I mean if you wanna hide the world from your child and be completely naive then this book definitely isn’t for you but in my house my children will learn from an early age I’m so happy I found this book and I actually will be purchasing it for my niece as well 🙂 we are raising mini feminist 💪🏽