Book Review: Do Something! A Handbook for Young Activists by Nancy Lublin
I let my daughter flip through it as she's quite concerned with the state of the world, especially all the homeless she sees on a daily basis. At seven, I think she's note quite ready for this book. At the same time she took quite an interest in it too. But when she's ready to take on an issue whether it's petitioning her school for something or rallying our neighbors to clean up the park, Do Something will be what I point to as a first step.
Do Something guides young activists through the imagining process to the planning process to the doing and of course the evaluation of actions/campaigns.
I say that this should be sitting on your shelf because the book is written for kids and thus cuts to the chase of what you should be doing when planning any action. There's even sections on project and meeting management.
The downside is that to entice kids to think that doing good is cool, the book and companion website rely on celebs who do good. I like to see my fave movie star out doing good too, but I also want kids to know that doing good is good into itself, not just cause it's cool. Then again, if having a picture of a Jonas brother in the book will give a kid that needed boost to start educating her friends about cruelty-free make-up, so be it. Save the bunnies, Nick!
Get the kid in your life a copy from an indie bookstore or Powells.com. Cause really, are you going to buy an activist book from a big giant company?
Disclaimer: The only payment I received was the copy of the book which will sit on my daughter's book shelf waiting for her to save the world.
* Book links are affiliate links. If you buy your book here I could make a very small amount of money that goes towards this blog.
