My Head Is Full of Books: Nonfiction review: NO VOICE TOO SMALL

"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Saturday, February 27, 2021

Nonfiction review: NO VOICE TOO SMALL

No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans Making History is a children's nonfiction book designed to inspire our children to make a difference in their community and world.

In the book we meet fourteen young Americans who did something remarkable and helped change the world. Each activist inspired a poet who related to an an aspect of the young person's identity. The poets used different poetic styles to introduce the activist and their action. Then artist Jeanette Bradley's illustrations of the fourteen young people helped bring their stories to life.

Ziad, a Muslim, often was treated unfairly. At fourteen he held face-to-face conversations with almost everyone at his high school. "It's hard to hate someone you know." His TEDxTeen talk has been viewed all over the world.

Cierra Fields starting sharing information about her experiences with skin cancer when she was twelve. She was speaking out to help improve the health care available to the Cherokee Nation.

When Jazz Jennings was three she told her parents she was a girl not a boy. When her local soccer team banned her from the team, she and her parents took the fight to the US Soccer Federation. Now, thanks to Jazz, transgender kids can play soccer on teams aligned with their gender choice.

All fourteen students have incredibly brave and inspiring stories.

The collection is edited by Lindsay Metcalf, Keila Dawson, and Jeanette Bradley. Poetry contributions were made by Nikki Grimes, Joseph Bruchac, G. Neri, Janet Wong, and Guadalupe Garcia McCall, to name a few.

What I liked about the book:

The inspiration I received by reading about the fourteen students and their efforts to make the world a better place.
The poetry in so many forms and from such a variety of poets.

What I didn't like about the book:

I can't figure out what the age range is for the target audience for this book. I tried reading it to my grandson, age three, and he was not interested at all (too young). Many of the stories are about actions taken by teenagers but that age group would not be interested in a picture book. I'm guessing that the perfect ages for the book would be between nine and twelve.

Source: print book supplied by the publisher.

-Anne