Challenge Everything

December 1, 2020

Gr 8 Up-This passionate, informative guide to creating meaningful change tackles the myriad issues connected to climate change. Sandford, a British teen activist and the coordinator for Extinction Rebellion (XR) Youth London, implores readers to challenge big business, government, and themselves. She breaks down ways to take action and fight for a better future. The text details the how-tos of boycotts: what to consider boycotting, how to start or grow a movement, organizing publicity, justifying and defending actions, and utilizing petitions. The text also examines industries and items to boycott due to environmental impact (such as pollution, waste, emissions, and deforestation). Sandford details the power of voting, strikes, protest, nonviolent direct action, and visual outlets like street art and murals. Finally, focusing on challenging personal choices, she emphasizes that each choice a person makes directly contributes to climate change and destruction. Each of the main sections includes space to take notes, with prompts to help readers reflect on their thoughts, morals, and actions. Black-and-white graphics, slogans, and statements (including an unfortunate "Find Your Tribe" spread) break up the text and add to the overall DIY punk-zine aesthetic. The conversational and deeply impassioned approach clearly depicts Sandford's beliefs, practices, and actions while showing readers how they can get involved. VERDICT An educational, empowering, and persuasive call to action and meaningful change that will resonate with burgeoning activists.-Amanda MacGregor, Parkview Elem. Sch., Rosemount, MN

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 15, 2020
A youth activist's blueprint for mitigating climate catastrophe. Although Sandford, a 17-year-old Extinction Rebellion Youth London coordinator, knows the relevant research, she isn't concerned with making the case for anthropogenic climate change in her authorial debut. Per scientific consensus, ecological collapse is a pressing reality that demands action, and writing--or reading--a manifesto isn't akin to activism. Indeed, it's a form of greenwashing: making a superficial improvement (taking a reusable tote to the grocer) while perpetuating systemic issues (purchasing unsustainable products). To make meaningful change, one must acknowledge complicity and take ultimate responsibility for individual decisions. This concise, personable, and unpretentious book contains three illustrated sections, each concluding with a self-questionnaire to aid readers in gauging their own engagement. The first, on combatting big business, shares primers on boycotting, petitioning, and conscientious consumption relative to agriculture, beauty, fast fashion, and travel. The second, on inadequate governmental responses, urges civic participation and outlines procedures for protesting, striking, and taking nonviolent direct action. The third models self-sufficiency through reclamation and rewilding; scavenging for food and goods; community-building; and consuming art, the natural world, and human experiences rather than commodities. Throughout, Sandford implores readers to constantly interrogate and amend their own beliefs: question what you're told, choose your own morals, and know that your opinions matter. All merits aside, a bibliography is sorely lacking. Immediately actionable: use less, think more, and do something. (Nonfiction. 12-18)

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