This introductory and queer-inclusive book is aimed at offering young readers a sense of their own agency in the faced of the injustice and other ills of the world. Unfortunately, it fails to clearly convey what it really means to be an ally.
The book opens by noting that sometimes the news can be sad or scary. We see images of a family standing in front of signs about climate change, listening to news about “400 homes lost” (in an unspecified disaster), and another watching a TV report that announces, “Vigil for young black trans girl killed by police.” Sometimes the news is even wrong, the next page tells us, as we see a spread showing people’s upraised fists at a protest and two signs, one with Martin Luther King, Jr.’s quote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” and another saying “Where is the love?” It’s unclear exactly what is “wrong” here; young readers might assume MLK’s quote is incorrect; adults may want to clarify that the people are (presumably) protesting that the news got something wrong.
The next page promises “great news,” though: every person can do something to create change. We see four children: a White child in a pink, white, and blue striped dress, who feels cued as a transgender girl; a Black child of ambiguous gender; a White girl using a wheelchair; and a South Asian girl wearing a hijab. Over the next few pages, we learn and see that these children can “change the world” by sharing, saving, joining, and creating.
The images are vague, however. For “Sharing,” we see a child donating food, clothes, and toys, but it’s unclear who they’re going to. For “Saving,” we see a child collecting donations for an unspecified cause with a rainbow banner, which might seem to be an LGBTQ cause, but is also in front of the signs about climate change). For “Joining”, we see a Pride parade, as the trans girl and two men, presumably her dads, and a woman with purple hair march with rainbow flags, which is fine, although the woman’s thumb is drawn on the wrong side of her fist. For Creating, a child draws pictures that say “Change the World” and show a woman’s symbol, but it’s unclear how the drawings will change the world.
Only after all that do we get to any information about being an ally, which means, the text tells us, standing up if someone is being treated unfairly, saying sorry if you did something hurtful, even unintentionally, and also “asking big questions,” even if they’re tough, so that we can learn for ourselves and future generations. “Together, we are allies!” the book proclaims.
But wait. Is any of that really allyship? Allyship isn’t just standing up for someone if they are being treated unfairly, or saying sorry, or asking big questions. It’s being supportive of someone different from yourself, particularly if they are part of a marginalized group that has been treated unfairly and you have privilege (based on one or more aspects of your identity) that can make a positive change. The book fails to convey this. The spread about standing up for someone shows the girl in a hijab, crying, as fingers point at her, followed by the Black child with an arm around her, standing under a sign that says “Bullying has no home here.” Children may see this as one Black child standing up for another. (Although I read the girl in a hijab as South Asian, some may see her brown skin and black hair and think she is Black—and even if they don’t, they may still read it as one person of color supporting another and not get the idea of allyship across difference.) Furthermore, simply saying “sorry” isn’t really allyship, nor is asking “big questions” like “Do I make my friends feel included?” “How can I be kind to someone today?” or “How can I support my community?” (Depending on how one defines “my community,” that could even be the opposite of allyship.)
Author/illustrator Taimani Emerald is more successful in an Author’s Note in which she describes her two biracial children as the motivation for the book and explains that allyship must be an everyday habit of saying, “I am someone who uses my privilege to stand up and take action for others.” Unfortunately, this message doesn’t come across in the heart of the book, which, while well-meaning, never quite conveys what it means to be an ally as opposed to just a nice person.
