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mitzee's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
This series of essays is a great starter of stories that help people understand the value of allyship, what it looks like to be an ally, what it looks like to fail to be a good ally.
While I understand it’s intended to be fitting for YA audiences also, I give it a 5 because it doesn’t hit hard enough for me. The tone is generally softer and I think that’s great to not make people feel alienated from the concept of becoming an ally, but I wanted it to be more explicit in criticism of what the systems of oppression.
While I understand it’s intended to be fitting for YA audiences also, I give it a 5 because it doesn’t hit hard enough for me. The tone is generally softer and I think that’s great to not make people feel alienated from the concept of becoming an ally, but I wanted it to be more explicit in criticism of what the systems of oppression.
bickie's review against another edition
4.0
Several essays in this collection could be used in English, History, or Enrichment classes. There is something for nearly everyone, with most of the essays being helpful for people both sharing identities with the author and not. Designs along the bottom of the page change with each story, making it easy to find when one stops and the next one starts.
Dana's Absolutely Perfect Fail-Safe No Mistakes Guaranteed Way to Be an Ally by Dana Alison Levy - a conversational introduction to the concept of allyship including anecdotes about the author's attempts and sometimes failures with the message that you just need to keep trying and learning and trying again.
An Open Letter to the Young Black Queer by Cam Montgomery - Cam describes discovering labels for what she was feeling, opening up to being "queer" in college after attending Baptist Christian school and growing up in a Black family where LGBTQ+ people and issues were simply not discussed.
Hey Kid, Choose Your Battles by Eric Smith - Smith, a "Latinx/Middle Eastern kid adopted by a white family," describes being bullied in school, not understanding why, and how his friends helped him embrace his identity.
Round and Round We Go by Kayla Whaley - Whaley grew up participating in Muscular Dystrophy Association telethons as one of "Jerry's Kids." She discusses the complexity of being used for getting watchers to donate money while also benefiting from the experience, not just for the work done by the MDA but also for the social aspect of seeing friends at the annual telethon. She concludes that, "it's only when we come together with our personhood intact on both sides that true allyship is possible."
This is What it Feels Like by A.J. Sass - Non-binary Sass recounts the year they came out with their chosen name and how different friends' comments and allyship helped him feel more comfortable in public and in the men's locker room at the gym. Told in sections labeled fall, winter, spring, summer, and a year, at the end, Sass fast-forwards two years, five years, six years, eight years, ending with "A year might not feel like a long time, but years add up. Every single one has brought me closer to the person I am now."
A Bus, a Poster, and a Mirror by Brendan Kiely - White, Catholic Kiely begins with an incident from 7th grade when he participated in bullying a classmate he refers to as "Z" and Colin, "one of the most popular guys in our grade," stood up for Z, telling Kiely, "it's not funny...how do you think he feels? ... and you're an @$&#^%, Brendan." He continues to discuss being at an "all-boys Catholic high school" and being uncomfortable with discussions about girls "as though the person didn't exist--only the body did." This experience taught him about complicity, and how "doing nothing is a behavior," too. He encourages readers to "take a good look in the mirror and decide" who they will be.
Travel Logs of a Black Caribbean Woman: Embracing the Glitches" by Shakirah Bourne - Bourne compares moving from ignorance to awareness with regard to racism to Neo's awakening to the Matrix after experiencing "glitches." "Beware, the agents that protect systemic racism in the real world may be operated by your sweet old neighbor who bakes you cookies, a beloved family member, or your closest friend. And allies can be those who you least expect..." She shares anecdotes from Barbados (1997 and 2004), Edinburgh, Scotland (2010 and 2011), Philadelphia (2012), New York (2012), and then Barbados in 2020.
Stutter Buddy by Derick Brooks - A brief comic describing how talking can be like walking through a maze, and how for people who stutter, it can be like walking right into an invisible barrier. Brooks concludes with "it's worth the wait" for the person talking to make their way around the barrier.
The Unsafe Space by Adiba Jaigirdar - Jaigirdar, a Muslim woman who moved from her native Bangladesh to Dublin at age 10, describes her experience creating a website, magazine, and podcast with three white college friends that would "be inclusive of minority voices who are often unheard in popular media." Time and again, her voice was spoken over, and "even in what was supposed to be a 'safe space,' and 'feminist space,' women like me were just a point of discussion rather than reality." Complicated issues such as Moana as Disney princess with no love interest, Muslim veiling written about by a white non-Muslim woman, Gal Gadot's activism as an Israeli, and white tears feature.
Dismantling Judgment by Lizzie Huxley-Jones - Huxley-Jones describes her experiences having seizures in public and "The Look," the moment that a person looks at you, sees something they think is strange, and so turn themselves away. It lightning-flashes over their features." Huxley-Jones also talks about "quiet" signs of disability and how to spot them in order to take ally behavior, such as offering a seat to someone on a crowded bus or train car. She provides advice for how to "dismantle that instinctive judgment and grow your compassion if you didn't grow up surrounded by disabled people:...accept that you probably know less about their experiences than you think you do, ...start listening, ... [and] practicing catching your judgmental brain making an assumption, and interrogating it." Each suggestion is accompanied with explanation.
"Why Didn't Anyone Else Say Anything? by Naomi and Natalie Evans - Told in alternating points of view with subheadings "Natalie" and "Naomi," the authors (children of a Black Jamaican and white Briton) focus their story around an incident when Natalie, on a train from London to a small town in Kent, witnessed two white drunk men refusing to provide tickets to the conductor, a Black man, culminating in one of their asking him, "'Did you get a f***ing passport to get into the country?'" Natalie had felt something off with the interaction and started filming it on her phone from the near beginning, and she finally decided she needed to say something. Both sisters asked, as they often did after a racist encounter, "Why didn't anyone else say anything?" Natalie discusses some of the racist incidents in her past, in which people who could have been allies, such as a teacher, weren't. They started Everyday Racism, UK, to draw attention to the fact that racism is not "a thing of the past."
From Author, to Ally, to Co-Conspirator by I. W. Gregorio - Dr. Gregorio is a urologist and author, who describes her experience with being an ally to the intersex community. In her essay, she provides information about intersex people, medical paternalism, and non-consensual surgeries. She also discusses the complexities of being a non-intersex person who wrote a novel about an intersex character which increased visibility but also might not have been her story to tell. Gregorio plugs Sol Santana's Just Ash as an #Own Voices book with an intersex main character. Gregorio knows that she's finally moved from ally to "co-conspirator" "because by fighting for what I believe in, I've pissed off many of my doctor friends and colleagues, possibly to the point of damaging my professional reputation."
Lupe by Aida Salazar - Salazar describes how her mother, a "very Catholic, very straight, and cis gender traditional Mexican woman surrounded herself" with many gay male friends. Salazar grew up with these friends in her family's Los Angeles-area home, performing drag shows. One of these men was a close friend from Mami's childhood in the "same pueblo in Mexico," Lupe, whose family disowned him, "beat him and even sent him to jail ... simply for being gay." Lupe and Mami were like family, and both fully supported Aida when she began presenting herself in a more masculine manner at age 6-7. In 5th grade, Aida kissed a girl, then they both washed their mouths out with soap in the girls' bathroom, and she "buried my feelings of bisexuality and my boyish gender expression down deep." Around the same time, Lupe and several friends arrived at the house after having been beaten up, and she learned "the world was actually cruel to folks whose genders or gender expressions were fluid or who were queer in any way." When Lupe contracted AIDS, Mami steadfastly stayed by his side, giving "him sponge baths, chang[ing] his bedsheets and began, and spoon-fe[eding] him," defending him "against anyone who dared speak poorly of him."
Did You Know Gandhi Was a Racist? by Sharan Dhaliwal - Using an incident where a white friend came roaring in to a coffee shop rendezvous asking her the title question, Dhaliwal, a "British Indian woman," meditates on the anti-Black racism and colorism in her South Asian culture and how exhausting it can be to have educational discussions with (primarily white) people when she really just wanted to catch up on gossip.
Lifting as She Climbs by Andrea L. Rogers - Rogers, a "citizen of the Cherokee Nation," discusses Native representation (and historical lack thereof as well as misrepresentation) in children's book publishing as well as its impact on young children such as her daughter. Recognizing that perhaps she should write stories she wants to see, Rogers attends a white-led writer's workshop and goes with a white author to a conference, where she feels isolated as an outsider. Things change when she attends a children's literature conference sponsored by Kweli Journal, led by an African American woman, Laura Pegram. Surrounded by other authors of color, Rogers found "the space and the support to find a nurture a writing community."
Counting on Esteban by Marietta B. Zacker - Freshly arrived in the United States from Puerto Rico in a January of elementary school, Marietta struggles to learn English, watching Sesame Street with her abuelo, and taking refuge in numbers, counting everything. One day, Esteban sits next to her on the bench where she waits for her sister every day after school. Although he does not speak fluent Spanish, he pronounces her name "as it was meant to be said...as beautiful as the sound of the ocean waves on the shores in Puerto Rico." They become friends, and when she says "three" like "tree," a student appears out of nowhere, saying "'It's three, not tree. You're in America now, and you have to speak English, Mary.' Then a forceful pull of my ponytail jerked my head backward, throwing me to the ground." Esteban yells, "'It's Marietta, imbécil.'" Zacker talks about how it was easy for Esteban to sit on the bench next to her an say hi, and it was harder for him to stand up to the bullies, but he did it, and it made all the difference.
Includes content warning at the beginning and, at the end, robust listings of "Stuff to think about, further reading, and more resources" Also includes blurbs about the authors and acknowledgements in the form of text bubbles exchanged between editors Bourney and Levy.
Dana's Absolutely Perfect Fail-Safe No Mistakes Guaranteed Way to Be an Ally by Dana Alison Levy - a conversational introduction to the concept of allyship including anecdotes about the author's attempts and sometimes failures with the message that you just need to keep trying and learning and trying again.
An Open Letter to the Young Black Queer by Cam Montgomery - Cam describes discovering labels for what she was feeling, opening up to being "queer" in college after attending Baptist Christian school and growing up in a Black family where LGBTQ+ people and issues were simply not discussed.
Hey Kid, Choose Your Battles by Eric Smith - Smith, a "Latinx/Middle Eastern kid adopted by a white family," describes being bullied in school, not understanding why, and how his friends helped him embrace his identity.
Round and Round We Go by Kayla Whaley - Whaley grew up participating in Muscular Dystrophy Association telethons as one of "Jerry's Kids." She discusses the complexity of being used for getting watchers to donate money while also benefiting from the experience, not just for the work done by the MDA but also for the social aspect of seeing friends at the annual telethon. She concludes that, "it's only when we come together with our personhood intact on both sides that true allyship is possible."
This is What it Feels Like by A.J. Sass - Non-binary Sass recounts the year they came out with their chosen name and how different friends' comments and allyship helped him feel more comfortable in public and in the men's locker room at the gym. Told in sections labeled fall, winter, spring, summer, and a year, at the end, Sass fast-forwards two years, five years, six years, eight years, ending with "A year might not feel like a long time, but years add up. Every single one has brought me closer to the person I am now."
A Bus, a Poster, and a Mirror by Brendan Kiely - White, Catholic Kiely begins with an incident from 7th grade when he participated in bullying a classmate he refers to as "Z" and Colin, "one of the most popular guys in our grade," stood up for Z, telling Kiely, "it's not funny...how do you think he feels? ... and you're an @$&#^%, Brendan." He continues to discuss being at an "all-boys Catholic high school" and being uncomfortable with discussions about girls "as though the person didn't exist--only the body did." This experience taught him about complicity, and how "doing nothing is a behavior," too. He encourages readers to "take a good look in the mirror and decide" who they will be.
Travel Logs of a Black Caribbean Woman: Embracing the Glitches" by Shakirah Bourne - Bourne compares moving from ignorance to awareness with regard to racism to Neo's awakening to the Matrix after experiencing "glitches." "Beware, the agents that protect systemic racism in the real world may be operated by your sweet old neighbor who bakes you cookies, a beloved family member, or your closest friend. And allies can be those who you least expect..." She shares anecdotes from Barbados (1997 and 2004), Edinburgh, Scotland (2010 and 2011), Philadelphia (2012), New York (2012), and then Barbados in 2020.
Stutter Buddy by Derick Brooks - A brief comic describing how talking can be like walking through a maze, and how for people who stutter, it can be like walking right into an invisible barrier. Brooks concludes with "it's worth the wait" for the person talking to make their way around the barrier.
The Unsafe Space by Adiba Jaigirdar - Jaigirdar, a Muslim woman who moved from her native Bangladesh to Dublin at age 10, describes her experience creating a website, magazine, and podcast with three white college friends that would "be inclusive of minority voices who are often unheard in popular media." Time and again, her voice was spoken over, and "even in what was supposed to be a 'safe space,' and 'feminist space,' women like me were just a point of discussion rather than reality." Complicated issues such as Moana as Disney princess with no love interest, Muslim veiling written about by a white non-Muslim woman, Gal Gadot's activism as an Israeli, and white tears feature.
Dismantling Judgment by Lizzie Huxley-Jones - Huxley-Jones describes her experiences having seizures in public and "The Look," the moment that a person looks at you, sees something they think is strange, and so turn themselves away. It lightning-flashes over their features." Huxley-Jones also talks about "quiet" signs of disability and how to spot them in order to take ally behavior, such as offering a seat to someone on a crowded bus or train car. She provides advice for how to "dismantle that instinctive judgment and grow your compassion if you didn't grow up surrounded by disabled people:...accept that you probably know less about their experiences than you think you do, ...start listening, ... [and] practicing catching your judgmental brain making an assumption, and interrogating it." Each suggestion is accompanied with explanation.
"Why Didn't Anyone Else Say Anything? by Naomi and Natalie Evans - Told in alternating points of view with subheadings "Natalie" and "Naomi," the authors (children of a Black Jamaican and white Briton) focus their story around an incident when Natalie, on a train from London to a small town in Kent, witnessed two white drunk men refusing to provide tickets to the conductor, a Black man, culminating in one of their asking him, "'Did you get a f***ing passport to get into the country?'" Natalie had felt something off with the interaction and started filming it on her phone from the near beginning, and she finally decided she needed to say something. Both sisters asked, as they often did after a racist encounter, "Why didn't anyone else say anything?" Natalie discusses some of the racist incidents in her past, in which people who could have been allies, such as a teacher, weren't. They started Everyday Racism, UK, to draw attention to the fact that racism is not "a thing of the past."
From Author, to Ally, to Co-Conspirator by I. W. Gregorio - Dr. Gregorio is a urologist and author, who describes her experience with being an ally to the intersex community. In her essay, she provides information about intersex people, medical paternalism, and non-consensual surgeries. She also discusses the complexities of being a non-intersex person who wrote a novel about an intersex character which increased visibility but also might not have been her story to tell. Gregorio plugs Sol Santana's Just Ash as an #Own Voices book with an intersex main character. Gregorio knows that she's finally moved from ally to "co-conspirator" "because by fighting for what I believe in, I've pissed off many of my doctor friends and colleagues, possibly to the point of damaging my professional reputation."
Lupe by Aida Salazar - Salazar describes how her mother, a "very Catholic, very straight, and cis gender traditional Mexican woman surrounded herself" with many gay male friends. Salazar grew up with these friends in her family's Los Angeles-area home, performing drag shows. One of these men was a close friend from Mami's childhood in the "same pueblo in Mexico," Lupe, whose family disowned him, "beat him and even sent him to jail ... simply for being gay." Lupe and Mami were like family, and both fully supported Aida when she began presenting herself in a more masculine manner at age 6-7. In 5th grade, Aida kissed a girl, then they both washed their mouths out with soap in the girls' bathroom, and she "buried my feelings of bisexuality and my boyish gender expression down deep." Around the same time, Lupe and several friends arrived at the house after having been beaten up, and she learned "the world was actually cruel to folks whose genders or gender expressions were fluid or who were queer in any way." When Lupe contracted AIDS, Mami steadfastly stayed by his side, giving "him sponge baths, chang[ing] his bedsheets and began, and spoon-fe[eding] him," defending him "against anyone who dared speak poorly of him."
Did You Know Gandhi Was a Racist? by Sharan Dhaliwal - Using an incident where a white friend came roaring in to a coffee shop rendezvous asking her the title question, Dhaliwal, a "British Indian woman," meditates on the anti-Black racism and colorism in her South Asian culture and how exhausting it can be to have educational discussions with (primarily white) people when she really just wanted to catch up on gossip.
Lifting as She Climbs by Andrea L. Rogers - Rogers, a "citizen of the Cherokee Nation," discusses Native representation (and historical lack thereof as well as misrepresentation) in children's book publishing as well as its impact on young children such as her daughter. Recognizing that perhaps she should write stories she wants to see, Rogers attends a white-led writer's workshop and goes with a white author to a conference, where she feels isolated as an outsider. Things change when she attends a children's literature conference sponsored by Kweli Journal, led by an African American woman, Laura Pegram. Surrounded by other authors of color, Rogers found "the space and the support to find a nurture a writing community."
Counting on Esteban by Marietta B. Zacker - Freshly arrived in the United States from Puerto Rico in a January of elementary school, Marietta struggles to learn English, watching Sesame Street with her abuelo, and taking refuge in numbers, counting everything. One day, Esteban sits next to her on the bench where she waits for her sister every day after school. Although he does not speak fluent Spanish, he pronounces her name "as it was meant to be said...as beautiful as the sound of the ocean waves on the shores in Puerto Rico." They become friends, and when she says "three" like "tree," a student appears out of nowhere, saying "'It's three, not tree. You're in America now, and you have to speak English, Mary.' Then a forceful pull of my ponytail jerked my head backward, throwing me to the ground." Esteban yells, "'It's Marietta, imbécil.'" Zacker talks about how it was easy for Esteban to sit on the bench next to her an say hi, and it was harder for him to stand up to the bullies, but he did it, and it made all the difference.
Includes content warning at the beginning and, at the end, robust listings of "Stuff to think about, further reading, and more resources" Also includes blurbs about the authors and acknowledgements in the form of text bubbles exchanged between editors Bourney and Levy.
raylovesya's review against another edition
5.0
This is a really excellent read and I highly recommend it! Everyone could benefit from reading these essays.
zellm's review against another edition
4.0
Great for younger audiences who want to learn sbout allyship and being intersectional and accepting. Showcases authors from different backgrounds in an accessible way. The highlighting of quotes in boxes that are right next to the box in the text was annoying and didn't do anything for me.
typedtruths's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Bullying, Islamophobia, and Sexism