Arreola’s book, “J Is for Justice! an Activism Alphabet,” was published in 2023 by Sunbird Books. The small, colorful board book isn’t the typical banned book, mostly because parents are usually either doing or directing the reading. It introduces simple, appropriate words for things associated with activism, but not only with activism; “Q is for quilt” pictures the AIDS Memorial Quilt, “F is for folding chair,” nods to Shirley Chisholm‘s quote “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” “I wanted this book to be a way that adults could have difficult conversations with kids. Kids see things, and they want to know why,” says Arreola, a Chicago activist (and, full disclosure, a longtime friend and colleague). “The example I’ve been using is that when my daughter was 5, she recognized that we had homeless encampments in one part of the city, and there were a lot of empty buildings in our community. She was like, ‘Why don’t we let homeless people live in those empty apartments?’ It’s hard to explain [why] to a 5-year-old, [especially] while we, as a society, are trying to teach them to be kind and share.”
