Title: Yes You Can! Your Guide to Becoming An Activist
Authors: Jane Drake & Ann Love
Publication Year: 2010
Genre: Non-Fiction, Young Adult
Source: Review copy from Tundra Books
From the cover:
Every time our society takes steps forward, segregation becomes illegal, child labor is exposed, and companies that poison our air are called to account. Behind those steps are people who identified problems, worked together, and created change. Lifelong environmental activists, Jane Drake and Ann Love present the nine steps to social change and much more. From fascinating accounts about the founding of organizations such as Amnesty International, Pollution Probe, and Greenpeace to the nuts and bolts of how to run an effective meeting or write a petition, to words of inspiration, Yes You Can! Your Guide to Changing the World is great reading and encouragement for every person who wants to make the world a better place.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this book, but the title sounded interesting and I thought that it might be a good read for me since I try to focus on social issues with my students. Now that I’ve read it, I can definitely see it being useful for me as well as for any teenagers who are interested in fighting against social injustice.
Each chapter of Yes You Can! tells a “story” about someone who challenges the status quo and works towards something they believe in, gives detailed instructions on how to acquire and perform a skill, and gives a summarized timeline for a specific worldwide issue. An example is the chapter focusing on segregation, which included both the Rosa Parks and the Little Rock Nine stories, instructions on “preparing to face the media”, and a timeline of the American civil rights movement.
One thing that I really liked about this book was the way it was written with an adolescent reader in mind: words and sentences were kept simple, short, and sweet, stories were punchy and interesting, and bigger ideas were put forth in chunks of smaller text, usually with lots of bullet points and numbered lists.
There was a distinctly North American slant to the book, mostly using examples from Canada and the United States, even though the timelines included worldwide events, so that is probably the audience that it would be most effective with. Yes You Can! would be a good read for any teenager looking to get into activism – formally or informally – and the parents, teachers, and others who work with them. It’s definitely conducive to being used piecemeal or as a whole, and is written in the clear and concise language that is needed to hold the attention of most teenagers.
- 15/13+ for the Canadian Book Challenge 4