The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on January 20, 2020 is a day of service that celebrates the Civil Rights leader’s life and legacy. To mark this day that prompts us to reflect about raising socially conscious children (and how we can use children’s books as a starting point to do so), Tandem sat down with Innosanto Nagara, bestselling author of five children’s books including A is for Activist, Counting on Community, and M is for Movement, to talk about his books and what he’d like children and adults to take away from them.

Why did you write A is for Activist and M is for Movement?

I wrote A is for Activist because I wanted to have the book I wanted to read to my kid. Because I live in a community with four families and my kid was the youngest of eight to be born into our community, I had been reading children’s books to children for a long time. It seemed there were books for all kinds of families, but ours is a community of organizers and teachers, and I couldn’t find the book about social justice and organizing that I wanted. So I wrote it!

It was originally just a short run for friends and family, but it turns out there are a lot more of us out there than I recognized. That book’s success launched my writing career, and I discovered that I have a particular ability to talk to little kids about big issues. M is for Movement is my fifth book, and it’s an early middle grade chapter book that is highly illustrated as well.

What would you like children (and the adults who read with them) to take away from these books? 

As with all my books, the common thread is agency. First and foremost, the story needs to be engaging to kids. And I don’t shy away from talking about tough subjects. After all, we live in a world where things are not always exactly how we would like them to be. And our kids know that. But the question isn’t whether or not bad things happen—the question is, what do you do about it. The takeaway theme for me is that of agency. That even under bad circumstances—and many have and have had it worse—there is a path to change. Not always an easy path, or one of immediate success. But through collective action, change is possible.

What are your favorite children’s books? Why do you like them? 

There are so many! In recent years a movement has emerged in children’s books. Led largely by QIPOC writers and illustrators, many self-publishing or working with small independent publishers, the #ownvoices movement has been changing the genre. I’d mention Maya Gonzalez, Robert Trujillo, Janine Macbeth, Zetta Elliott, and Cheryl and Wade Hudson as some of those working hard to break new ground, but there are so many more. Check out The BullHorn Blog, a “magazine” about social justice themed children’s books and their creators that I’m on the editorial team of for more.

Where can people buy your books?   

I usually tell folks to go to (or call) their local independent bookseller. Or order from Powell’s or another independent source online.

Thank you, Innosanto!

Innosanto Nagara was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia, and moved to the U.S. in 1988 to study zoology at UC Davis. But instead of becoming a zoologist he became an activist and a graphic designer. He also writes and illustrates social justice themed children’s books.