This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell and illustrated by Aurelia Durand

Summary from Goodreads:

Who are you?
What is your identity?
What is racism?
How do you choose your own path?
How do you stand in solidarity?
How can you hold yourself accountable?

Learn about identities, true histories, and anti-racism work in 20 carefully laid out chapters. Written by anti-bias, anti-racist, educator and activist, Tiffany Jewell, and illustrated by French illustrator Aurélia Durand in kaleidoscopic vibrancy.

This book is written for the young person who doesn't know how to speak up to the racist adults in their life. For the 14 year old who sees injustice at school and isn't able to understand the role racism plays in separating them from their friends. For the kid who spends years trying to fit into the dominant culture and loses themselves for a little while. It's for all of the Black and Brown children who have been harmed (physically and emotionally) because no one stood up for them or they couldn't stand up for themselves; because the colour of their skin, the texture of their hair, their names made white folx feel scared and threatened.

It is written so children and young adults will feel empowered to stand up to the adults who continue to close doors in their faces. This book will give them the language and ability to understand racism and a drive to undo it. In short, it is for everyone. 

Review:

This wasn’t exactly the book I was expecting it to be. As I said on Goodreads: This felt more middle grade than YA. And it works more as a second person workbook, than a straight forward narrative. After finishing Jason Reynold’s Stamped, it’s nowhere near as good...But, I can see the style and writing appealing to a lot of young people. The images/graphics were gorgeous. And I found it informative and to the point. It was a little preachy, and I wanted a little more story. But the topic was powerful and inspirational.

It was definitely more of a workbook than a book. There were a lot of moments where I was supposed to pull out my notebook and complete an exercise…. I didn’t do this. I was not ready for this. Maybe this would be a good book for a youth group or after school club. I do think competing the exercises would be beneficial and could genuinely help people.

Important topics were addressed. I definitely think Jason Reynolds did a more thorough job of addressing these topics. Jewell doesn’t go into history at all. This all about what is going on now, and how you feel about it, and how to handle things. This is important too. It’s just not as interesting, necessarily to read about. I almost wish I read this book first, so I wasn’t comparing it so closely to another anti-racist book that just spoke so much more strongly to me personally. That’s not this book’s fault. And I do think this might be a better book for a younger audience. I could easily see giving this book to a 9 or 10 year old, where as Stamped is definitely meant more for 13+.

I also have to mention the illustrations. They are so cool. They are bold and beautiful. I keep finding myself drawn to them, even as I’m writing this review. They definitely make the hard topic of racism a little bit easier to digest. And I’m glad they were there. All in all I give this book a 7/10.