Ebook A is for Activist Innosanto Nagara Books

Product details Age Range 3 - 7 years Grade Level Preschool - 2 Board book 32 pages Publisher Triangle Square; Brdbk edition (November 19, 2013) Language English ISBN-10 1609805399

A is for Activist Innosanto Nagara Books Reviews

• Philosophy must always be critiqued. It is a necessary part of the process of determining the ethics of chosen a work. Do not fool yourselves, A is for activist is a work of philosophy, albeit, a sophomoric build on a Hegelian epistemology. For this reason, it should not be considered a work for children, unless the writer intended to propagate Kant’s corruption of noumena, by disguising reality and introducing phenomena as a priori. The work fails, even under Kant’s requirements of reason to make a valuable determination of the nature of humanism. This review cannot assume the reason for this, because it is not possible to fully understand the writer’s epistemology and thus the review has no tool by which to measure how the conflicts and confused notions can co-exist amongst its pages.
  
  The book's layout is an attempt to present a method of learning the alphabet for whom we must assume to be children. Each page is dedicated to a single letter such as “A is for…” as the title implies and goes all the way to the letter “Z”. By the letter “B” the book is already advocating the destruction of other people’s property, by suggesting an ‘activist’ (defined on the letter “A” page) when disagreeing with someone’s private practices is entitled to stop their business and force them to listen. The picture depicts a banner hung from what looks to be a crane. It is highly doubtful that the so-called activist will purchase (or rent) an expensive piece of building equipment just to hang a homemade banner from. Yet, to show the absence of a logical reason based epistemology, the letter “C” indicates it means to cooperate. Within three pages of this so-called educational book, it has already proved it is not based on a metaphysics of reality, but dances inside Kant’s phenomenal world, where only emotions are moral truth. Only Kant and through Hegel, are emotions a measure of reality. No metaphysics worth its salt would leave reality out of the equation with trying to determine what is real.
  
  The book is rife with anti-human ideals; such as political dominance by a perceived idea of majority (D is for) even when no such majority actually exists; notion of equal rights (E is for) except when someone else’s idea of rights is opposite to your own (B is for, M is for, N is for, O is for, P is for, and Z is for).
  
  What is missing from the book? F is for Freedom, an axiomatic notion the a priori value of self and the right to own all of your own ideas even those opposed by others. H is for Humanism, the love of humanity even when it is different from your own. L is for Liberty, the authority over your ideas, even if they fall outside the perception of a thing calling itself a majority.
  
  And most of all it is missing
  A is for anarchy which is from the greek, composed of two words “an” meaning without and “arkhos” meaning ruler; no rulers only the self. A book about activism is no book at all unless it stems from the center of the soul of the writer. Real activism comes from their own atmosphere and loves others regardless of their views. Activism is humanism, not the advocation of theft, violence, and destruction of other people’s liberty.
  
  This book is not a children’s book, it is propaganda with a tone of force on others. As is clear with the tone, voice, and words for the letter O that suggests when others impose systems that you disagree with that it is okay to agitate and organize. There is nothing individual or in the nature of being human in that statement. The title should have been "A is for absolutism, it is our way or else"
  
  To close, A is for activist is a philosophical work in the vain of Saul Alinsky and all anti-natural, anti-humanist communists. This book should be added to your library to help teach your children. It can be used to show them how propaganda is not education, it is not critical thinking and it is not, most importantly, about self-responsibility and the natural rights of men.
• I bought this book for my son, and there are parts of it that are wonderful. The illustrations are beautiful and overall it does a great job of introducing many justice concepts to young children. However, I think it struggles with not knowing its audience.
  
  Some pages are perfect for the board-book set. The "K" page - "Kings are fine for storytime/knights are fun to play/but when we make decisions/we will choose the people's way" - is one of my favorites. It's a great, age-appropriate introduction to anti-imperialism. The "W" page has an absolutely beautiful poem about celebrating diversity. Several pages have a very lyrical rhythm to the writing that reminds me of rap music or spoken word poetry and is very fun to read.
  
  Others, however, aren't really age appropriate. The "R" page, for example, uses a facetious/sarcastic tone that is way beyond the understanding of young children, especially when it's such a departure from the tone of the rest of the book. The "S" page has a great little poem celebrating solar power, but follows it up with "silly selfish scoundrels sucking on dinosaur sludge? Boo! Hiss!", a line I could easily imagine leading to a rather upsetting conversation for a sensitive preschooler, since right now the vast majority of families simply don't have access to fully sustainable power sources. The "D" page references, and is solely illustrated by, the donkey/elephant symbols of American party politics, which besides being internationally limiting is way over the heads of the target audience.
  
  On the more academic side of things, there's the issue that this is, ostensibly, an *alphabet* book. The page for "U" - which says "U is for..." for several "W" words before correcting itself - drives my teacher sensibilities crazy. Ditto for the illustration for the "T" page, which doesn't depict any of the objects-starting-with-T that the text lists.
  
  And while I wouldn't take off stars just for this, I do think there was a missed opportunity here for some parent education...I'd have loved to see a page in the back listing brief descriptions of the people mentioned in the text. There were some I'm not familiar with, and a little more to go on for looking them up would have been useful (there are several names on the "J" page, in particular, that I'm not sure if they're meant to reference specific individuals or not).
  
  It's a great concept, and overall I like it and intend to keep it on my bookshelf, but I'm definitely bummed about the varying quality of writing from one page to the next.
• Shouldn’t we focus on teaching our young preschoolers empathy and proactive problem solving and focus less on anger and strife? The world is an awful place, and yes we need to teach our kids to help change it, but they are still kids and it’s also our job to protect them from awful things, at least to an extent. I don’t think calling for violent revolution and demeaning the opposition do that.
  
  Many large buzzwords are used that will thrill and excite the reader, but young listeners will be lost. There are no explanations for the long strings of words far beyond the preschool comprehension.
  
  It’s a lovely message that should have perhaps been formatted and presented for a older age group with a more sophisticated sense of right and wrong.
  
  I must say I much prefer Counting on Community and the way it normalized proactive steps and highlights the good.
• I ordered this book as a gift for my friend's 2 year old daughter (another book for her collection, and I figured my friend would definitely appreciate the message). I still plan on giving it to them, but after reading the full book once it arrived, I'm not as excited about it. Some of the pages are well-done and well-written, but other pages aren't quite up to par and seem as if the author was grasping at straws to just find something to write related to the letter. The quality is great and I love the artwork on the illustrations. I'm giving this 3 stars because while I appreciate the message and the author's intent, some of the writing falls incredibly flat and a bit on the derogatory side.