What “This Book is Anti-Racist” is About
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?
In “This Book is Anti-Racist,” 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.
My Honest Review
This Book is Antiracist by Tiffany Jewell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’ll be honest. I didn’t realize this was a young adult book until I was maybe halfway through. And even then, I couldn’t put it down. Tiffany Jewell manages to tackle some of the most challenging, most necessary conversations happening right now, and she does it with such care and clarity that the book ends up feeling accessible to just about anyone who picks it up.
Racism, systemic oppression, and intersectionality can feel overwhelming, even paralyzing, especially when you’re first starting to reckon with them. But Jewell handles all of it with an openness and warmth that makes the material genuinely digestible. She meets her readers where they are without ever talking down to them, and her delivery is, simply put, outstanding.
And then there’s the art. Aurelia Durand’s illustrations are bold, joyful, and full of color in a way that feels deliberate and meaningful. The visual language of the book does real work alongside the text, and it makes the whole thing feel alive in a way that a lot of nonfiction simply doesn’t.
I learned a lot from this book and the author. There is always something new, something I should have known and didn’t, something that asks me to look more honestly at the world and at myself. That’s the point, I think. And this book makes that process feel less like a confrontation and more like an invitation.
If you’re at the beginning of dismantling the racist ideas that have been quietly embedded in all of us by systems larger than ourselves, this is a really good place to start. It’s foundational without being reductive. It’s honest without being alienating. For a young person, I think it would be essential. For the rest of us, it’s a worthwhile reminder of how much there still is to unlearn.
Highly, highly recommend.
