Amazing Activists Who are Changing Our World
Rebecca Schiller and Sophie Beer
Walker Books

Having explained on the opening pages what activism is essentially about and the wide-ranging causes people devote themselves to, author Rebecca Schiller has selected twenty awesome activists, some familiar some less well-known, to present to younger readers. She chooses widely going back as far as the 18th century – William Wilberforce, and including several contemporary figures from various parts of the world, allocating a double spread to each one. Thereon is essential biographical information along with some words about their beliefs, the reasons they acted as they did and why each one remains important today. Included for each activist is a quote that acts as a subtitle to the spread and an activity for readers and a specially nice touch is three words describing the person’s activist powers; for Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah, a cyclist with a disability these are ‘optimistic, tough, active. 

For environmentalist, Aditya Mukarji, whose focus is reducing plastic pollution and who has prevented more than 26 million plastic straws being added to environmental waste, the words are ‘persuasive, responsible, methodical’ 

and attributed to biologist Wangari Maathai, creator (along with a team of helpers) of a tree planting project, The Green Belt Movement are ‘expert, hopeful, organiser’.

Visually alluring and with Sophie Beer’s striking illustrations, children will meet individuals who opposed racism, slavery, stood up for human rights, women’s rights, female empowerment, disability rights, LGBT+ rights, environmental causes, wildlife and freedom of speech. Offering a wealth of possible starting points for discussion as well as the ideas themselves, the book ends by asking its audience to think about the things they feel strongly about and to identify their own powers.