GENERATION BRAVE

More than two dozen individual and collective profiles sing the praises of young activists in the U.S. along with a handful from around the world.

Well-known activists like Greta Thunberg and the Parkland Survivors join names worthy of more recognition, like menstrual equality campaigner and author Nadya Okamoto and transgender activist Sage Grace Dolan-Sandrino, in this collection of short biographies. Each four-page treatment features a bold, bright portrait and enthusiastic text exhorting readers to take action in areas that matter to them. The subjects all belong to Generation Z, people between the ages of 12 and 22, and the work of those like gun reform advocate Thandiwe Abdullah and Helena Gualinga (Kichwa), who rallies people to protect Indigenous rights and fight climate change, makes for inspiring reading, especially alongside well-chosen quotes from the subjects themselves. The group is diverse in race and sexuality, though the narrative assumes a White middle-class reader with ready internet access, directly addressed as someone who finds it easy to take their rights for granted. It’s refreshing to see corporate actions blamed for climate change instead of individual choices—but frustrating that a facing paragraph then recommends only individual, not collective, responses. One chapter discusses mental illness, but physical disability is notably missing. The absence of Mari Copeny, Little Miss Flint, is jarring considering the paragraphs spent on Jaden Smith’s activism for Flint.

A hopeful call to action.