Review: How I Resist: Activism and Hope for the Next Generation

How I Resist: Activism and Hope for the Next Generation by Maureen Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maureen Johnson, a bestselling YA author and found of the site YA for Obama, and Tim Federle, a highly lauded writer who has adapted stories like Tuck Everlasting for Broadway and Ferdinand for film, have collected a series of thirty essays, poems, and interviews about Resistance by well-known authors, performers and those in the media. Although the one thing that you'll notice is that not everyone is down with the term. There are also so many ways to resist. Rebecca Roanhorse points out that resistance is exhausting and that in fact, as an indigenous woman, every day of her life is resistance. Living authentically and not being silent about who you are is resisting. For Maureen herself, resistance is not letting [Fill in the Blank] steal your joy. For Tim it's remembering to take care of yourself. For Rosie O'Donnell it comes down to learning as much as you can (hopefully from credible sources) and showing up. For Jodi Picoult all art is political and in a prescient remark she says (paraphrasing) that young people are out outshining their elders. Sabaa Tahir offers a poem about resistance. Ali Stroker talks about what resistance means for the disabled and the difference between articulating and advocating and whether activism is resistance. And so on.

This is a book that is very easy to read through. It might be ideal to work through one entry a day for a month (sort of what I did) And certainly reading a few pieces at a time, then discussing them, might be an option for a teen activist group. But I wonder about how accessible this format is in terms of reaching its intended audience. While there are certainly still many young adults picking up books, a physical book with talking points about resistance seems if not a passé mode of delivery, one that might not reach as many young adults as say, a monthlong Reddit topic managed by Johnson and Federle with subreddits for each of these contributors thoughts.

This book aims to be inspiring to our young adults. It succeeds in the goal. I just hope many of them take the time to read it.

I received a Digital Review Copy of this book from NetGalley and a paper ARC from St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review.

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