HOW TO BE A (YOUNG) ANTIRACIST

As Jason Reynolds did with Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (2020), a teen edition of Kendi’s National Book Award–winning Stamped From the Beginning (2016), Stone puts her own distinctive spin on Kendi’s personal exploration of anti-racism in his widely acclaimed 2019 title, How To Be an Antiracist.

The original work is part memoir, and Stone approaches this in her adaptation by addressing Kendi in the second person as she explicates and contextualizes the epiphanies that brought him to anti-racism, placing the concepts themselves center stage. She switches comfortably between informal and formal modes, even within single passages: “In the 1960s—yeaaaaaars before you were born—President Lyndon B. Johnson implemented Affirmative Action…with the aim of leveling the employment playing field (creating more equity) between White dudes and women and non-White people as a means of expanding employment opportunities for people of color and women.” Frequent faux Post-its labeled “NIC’S NOTES” offer further context and commentary. “Peep this quote from racist policymaker Thomas Jefferson,” one begins. With key concepts set in boldface, the narrative bristles with definitions as it moves back and forth from Kendi’s life to his taxonomy of racism, always touching back on how his own internalized racism inflects on it. Though it’s too easy to lose track of whether Stone is addressing “you, IXK,” or “you, dear reader,” it’s a notably effective adaptation.

Successfully broadens the reach of the original to a younger audience.