About
ABOUT ME
I am a Puerto Rican activist, professional musician, and mother of an 8 year old (and another baby on the way). Part of the activist work I do is around prisoner justice, working with organizations such as the Albany Political Prisoner Support Committee and The New York State Prisoner Justice Network. I also compose and perform music with Taina Asili y la Banda Rebelde and Asili & Vaccaro. For more info on me check out my full bio. However, my most profound activist and artistic work is parenting and offering Love to all the children in my Life.
I started collecting radical children’s books about 10 years ago as I was touring the country with my band. Although I did not have children at the time, I worked part time at an after school program in Philadelphia. I was thirsty to find books to read to children that would truly nourish their hearts, minds and spirits. It became a hobby of mine to stop by independent (often radical) bookstores in the different cities I traveled to.
My little collection of books became even more useful when I became a parent, and so my collection slowly increased based predominately on the interests of my child. I also started purchasing more books online, and using our local libraries. However, radical children’s literature resources were scarce. It was/is hard to know what to look for and where to look.
ABOUT MY BLOG
This website represents the books I have collected over the past 10 years. I want to share radical children’s literature I have collected thus far, and review new books I discover. This collection is by far incomplete. Most of the books are I have thus far are collected based on my son’s interests and are appropriate for ages 10 and under. Part of why I am putting it online is not only to be a useful resource for parents and teachers, but also to get new ideas on literature to read. Please feel out my literature suggestion form if you have an idea of book I should check out (especially if you wrote it!).
HOW I DEFINE RADICAL
It is very difficult to define, so for now, I am letting the categories and accompanying descriptions speak for themselves. The right hand side of the site has the overall collection of books listed by category. Many books are cross listed. The category descriptions are as follows:
Roots and Culture: Provides an opportunity for children to learn about and have a sense of dignity in their culture, heritage, ethnicity/race, religion, etc. Also an opportunity for children to learn about, and have respect for, different aspects of others identities, cultures and heritages.
Self-Love: Encourages children to love their inner and outer selves, discover their courage and self-worth.
Social Justice: Teaches about racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, religious intolerance etc. and how these forms of oppression have affected different communities. Examples of movements of iconic and everyday people standing together to address the issues of social injustice.
Health/Environment: Teaches about the body and wellness. Also about environments (natural/rural/urban), eco-justice. Respect for nature.
Folklore: Literature that shares folkloric stories, particularly of marginalized people. Is generally written by someone who is of the culture from which the folkloric story derives.
Warriors: Biographical stories of people who affected positive change in our world.
WHO MADE THIS SITE?
The programming and design of this site was made with the help of my partner Gaetano Vaccaro who owns SunAngel Design, a web design company committed to making affordable, attractive and easily. Check it out!
http://radicalchildrensbooks.tainaasili.com