Book Nook: You Are Revolutionary

 

I recently had a chance to review a new book by by Cindy Wang Brandt.

You Are Revolutionary is an inspiring children’s book with engaging, brilliant illustrations by artist Lynnor Bontigao. The book does an excellent job of featuring diverse children working to bring their individual gifts to change the world. It's a perfect book for kids who feel like they don't have much to offer, or kids who want to dream big and figure out how they can make society wonderful.

You can learn more in this interview.

What inspired your story? I have “faith shifted,” meaning I’ve left the faith of my childhood. This has caused significant anxiety and trauma in adulthood. As I’ve sought to understand the source of my angst, much of it was having power wielded over me when I was a child. A big part of my own healing is to become an advocate for children today, that they be afforded full autonomy because they are human beings, not any lesser than adults. If kids are to be treated and respected as adults are, then what excludes them from becoming revolutionaries, people who make a change in the world? It is a human right to have a say in the way we live our lives, and yet we exclude kids from this work. I think our world still has a long way to go to extend children the rights they deserve, and I hope my book helps move progress. 

What causes are most important to you? Which ones have you been involved with? I served on the board of One Day’s Wages, a grassroots organization that fights global poverty. Economic inequity across the world is the root of many social problems so ODW is a good fit to address a wide range of issues by niching down on global poverty. But I care about inequality of any kind, when people of power wield that power unjustly over marginalized people, it fuels my anger and stirs me to action. 

Who do you hope will read your book? I work with parents and I want parents to know that their responsibility isn’t just to raise happy and healthy children, but that we have an awesome responsibility to raise conscious citizens that together create a better world for all. The best way to love our kids is to create a world that is kind to all kids. Parenting is a revolution in itself, an act of changing the world. I hope parents who feel this responsibility deeply will pick up my book and read it for their inner child as well as their own kids.