As usual, Gayle Pittman did a wonderful job. I would recommend this to anyone! Beautiful cover as well.

Stonewall Riots: Coming Out in the Streets by Gayle E Pitman was an amazing story that follows the real life Stonewall Riots that took place in 1969. This was a huge turning point of the LGBT community and it really hit home for me. Highly recommended.

I love books like A History of Gardening in 50 Objects or A History of the World in 6 Glasses. Which is why I absolutely adored this book because it could be subtitled A History of the Stonewall Inn in 50 Objects. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and my students (I am reviewing after print book cake out and after my classroom copy arrived) and I have loved this one because readers who don't have a lot of time can just pick it up and either go to a specific object listed on the index and read about it or turn the pages until they find an artifact that speaks to them and learn more.

I read a lot of LGBT fiction but one thing that I haven’t read enough about is the history of the LGBT community. I am seriously behind on my non-fiction. From what I have learned through research after reading things in fiction I have picked up bits and pieces but I really need to expand my knowledge of the LGBT+ community and the ongoing battle for equality. This year I plan to change this. My non-fiction reading journey has begun with The Stonewall Riots by Gayle E. Pitman.

I had heard the term ‘Stonewall’ but never quite understood what it meant and its root. After reading The Stonewall Riots I now see how hard the initial fights for rights were and just how institutionalised the homophobia was…and sadly still is.

Pitman’s easy style means that the book can be read and enjoyed by all. It is a book that should be a feature of every school library and be used in PSHE lessons when discussing LGBTQIA+ issues.

If, like me, you are new to the non-fiction element of the history of LGBTQIA+ rights then The Stonewall Riots is a great book to start you off on that journey.

The Stonewall Riots by Gayle E. Pitman is available now.

For more information regarding Abram Kids (@ABRAMSbooks) please visit www.abramsbooks.com.

I admit to knowing not a lot about the history of LGBT+ activism. This book is a great introduction to one of the main events that led to the movement gaining traction. It included a brief history of what led up to the Stonewall Riots in New York and eyewitness accounts of what happened on those nights and a timeline of main events in history (across the 60s and 70s) that moved the activismfrom the shadows and into the spotlight, explaining why we have pride today.

Great text for students. Information was clearly written and in a very engaging and kid appropriate tone.

This book presents the Stonewall Riots to middle grade readers in an accessible way. The text is clear and concise, and everything is broken up nicely into easily digestible chunks. A fantastic addition to collections as the 50th anniversary of the riots approach.

This history of the Stonewall Riots is intended for middle grade readers. Pitman does a lovely job of setting the stage for the world that the riots occurred in, with pictures of locations, people, and items, as well as back stories of the individuals and institutions involved. The prose is clear and easy to follow, if a bit dry, in my opinion.

While I liked the book, it was a little different than I expected. Some of the weirdness was the digital galley--it looked strange on the page with words appearing in multiple fonts and sentences breaking across different pages. The other part is that was laid out like an Eyewitness-style book, rather than a narrative, which is a very particular kind of reading experience. An Eyewitness book is designed to be dipped into at random rather than read straight through. I found it off-putting and it was harder to engage with the material this way.

I had thought that I could share this with my older elementary child as a good primer on the event, but I think I'll put it on my list of books to check out with her in a few years. Right now, I think she's still too young to want to wade through some of the prose. Again, the words are clear, but I think she'd prefer more of a story style retelling rather than reference book.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book via NetGalley in order to facilitate this review.

I love that books about LGBTQIA+ history are being made accessible to younger ages! This history is important, and I think people of all ages can enjoy this book, and learn about these fascinating events that impacted this community. Not to mention this cover is to die for!! I'll definitely be sharing this one with my students!

The Stonewall riots were a crucial, era-defining moment in the struggle for equality. In the early hours of June 28 1969, The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the West Village of Manhattan, became the epicentre of an event that changed the course of LGBT history.

As the world celebrates 50 years since the riots and as Pride month (June) approaches, Pitman has compiled the known details into a book which is a lot less dry than its competitors. There is plenty of colour and the way it is structured keeps youngsters engaged. Not only are there bold and beautiful illustrations throughout but there are newspaper clippings, photographs and interviews with some of the people who were key players in the LGBTQ+ movement.

Although targeted at youngsters this is the perfect introduction to the mood leading up to the riots and what came after. It is an important topic, and despite not being part of the LGBTQ+ community myself I have many friends who are and I support the notion of equal rights for all. The book is a great way to see how far we've come in terms of acceptance, but we still have so much further to go.

I feel strongly that children should be introduced to the existence of LGBTQ+ issues from a young age due to the horrendous prejudice I have witnessed when spending time with friends. This is an essential addition to the bookshelf in schools, libraries and home collections. Many thanks to ABRAMS Books for Young Readers for an ARC.

This book did not format well on my kindle. I will have to wait until it is published to read it. But it seems like a very good accounting of the history.

This book should be in all schools; it provides a clear and detailed description of the events leading up to and following the Stonewall Riots bringing to life not just the historical events but the emotions and issues surrounding them. The characters involved are vividly realised and engaging without sentimentality or hero worship - the struggle is real and detailed in its breadth of concerns . Gayle Pitman manages to give meticulously researched historical detail whilst retaining the strong narrative and also provides further fascinating notes at the end. I thought I was fairly well informed about the riots but learned a lot from this reading and gained a greater depth of understanding. Highly recommended.

I’ve read books about the Stonewall Riots before, but this was a whole other ballpark. Instead of the usual dry, ambiguous factual information that authors tend to present alongside maps, Pitman presents the lead-up and aftermath of the Riots through pieces of evidence she calls “Objects”. Those objects are news clippings, photographs, buttons, testimonials, and even more.

She discusses movements such as the GLF and the Mattachine Society, and how they failed lesbians and trans folks and drag queens. How much of the liberation movement was focused on white, middle-class gay folks. She discusses ambiguity of the Stonewall Riots, such as when Marsha P. Johnson showed up, and whether Storme Delarverie was actually present. Not only that, but she discusses the lingo of the time, and how terms such as “transgender” were not really in existence, though those experiences were.

Filled to the brim with photographs and an additional timeline and citation section, this book certainly asserts its validity, and is written in a way that neither shies away from the difficulties nor overly dramatizes them–after all, this is a book perfect for middle grade students, and if they’re part of the lgbt community, this book should inform and comfort them, not scare them!

It’s overall just a really great and informational text. I learned a lot from it, and makes me even more excited for this coming June!

This was superbly done. Building a non-fiction LGBTQ+ section in my middle school library is somewhat of a challenge, but this book will go into the collection as soon as it's released.

In 2008 my family and I visited New York, and my aging-hippy father desperately wanted to visit Greenwich Village and Bleecker Street--to walk where musicians he loved walked. When I explained to him the we could absolutely do that, but he should know that Greenwich Village was also a community full of LQBTQ+ businesses, bars, and restaurants. He replied, "Oh, right. We need to go check out Stonewall." (RIP, Daddy.)

So I know a little bit about the Stonewall Riots (and not just because I also watched that one Drunk History episode), but I learned so much from this little book. Focusing on photos, clippings, and other items from LGBTQ+ activism, Pitman gives us a pretty comprehensive history accessible to all. And it's not just Stonewall--Pitman goes back to the turn of the 20th century when brave men and women began standing up for themselves and takes us beyond the Stonewall Riots to the activist groups that paved the way.

"This was just another battle. Nobody thought of it as History, Her-Story, My-Story, Your-Story or Our-Story. We were being denied a place to dance together. That's all."

1 Star
Many thanks to NetGalley and Abrams Kids for providing me with an eARC of this title for review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Reviewing a book that isn’t published is sometimes difficult. You don’t know if more edits will be made or if this is the finished product. With that being said, I really wanted to like this book but just couldn't get there. The book starts out very informative about the origin and history of Stonewall Inn. I found that the beginning of the story is easy to follow and well put together until the actual riot is addressed. At that point there was a shift in how the book flowed. I understand that there is very little factual information on the actual Stonewall Riots. And this book didn’t change that undisputed fact. However, after it gets to the riots the information begins to feel unfocused and even confusing at times. The author breaks off into tangents that either didn’t flow well or had little relevance to the story. The book does however, try to highlight how the riots pushed the LGBTQ movement forward, politically. The book closes with historic changes such as, in 1999 the Stonewall Inn was added to the NRHP (National Register of Historic Places) with historical significance to the LGBTQ community. And in 2016, Stonewall was designated a National Monument.

Again, I really wanted to enjoy the information this nonfiction title delivered. However, it wasn’t put together very well and seemed scattered at best. At this time, this title will not be high on my recommended list for my students. I will read it again when it is officially published and hopefully it will read better at that time.

Pitman’s newest nonfiction foray is timely as the Stonewall Riots celebrate its 50th anniversary this year. Within, Pitman has done copious research, conducted interviews, and collected various primary resources to support the context of the Stonewall Riots. However, it seems, from this eARC, that it is a first draft and not well organized. The timeline jumps around, introduces people multiple times, and overall is a mess. Hopefully, this can be corrected before publishing in May. Additionally, it is quite dry. I didn’t ever feel very invested in the people portrayed, despite many of them being ripe for empathy and characterization. Nevertheless, I did learn a lot about the Stonewall Riots and the birth of the LGBTQIA+ movement.

Geared for young readers, this history of the Stonewall Riots and the events leading up to them is fascinating. The author does a wonderful job of clearly setting out the history of the gay rights movement and its earlier incarnations (The Mattachine Society, the Gay Liberation Front, The Daughters of Bilitis, etc.). Slowly, but surely, the reader sees just how pivotal the Stonewall Riots were in creating public awareness of gay rights. I also like how the pictures of various objects give readers a picture of the times (old matchbooks, pictures of the early Stonewall Inn, protest posters, etc.)

My only comment is that at times the text is repetitive with events described several times. But overall, this is an very good non-fiction book for young readers (and readers of all ages) who want a good understanding of the Stonewall Riots and their importance in our nation's history. 4 stars.

The Stonewall Riots have been in the news a lot lately, particularly with accusations of a recent film whitewashing the history of the LGBTQ+ Rights movement. The more research I've done on this time, the more questions it's raised-- what really happened, and when, and who was there? Those questions remain, even after reading this book, but I'm now clearer on what we can and can't know for sure.

Author Gayle Pitman arranges the history of the Stonewall Riots around 50 artifacts dating from the early LGBTQ+ rights movement and the surrounding culture. While I admire the author's interest in accurately portraying the differing firsthand accounts and disagreements within the movement, the nonlinear narrative really hinders the book. Structuring the story around the artifacts (called "objects" in her book) means that some ideas are repeated while others are mentioned pages before the in-depth explanation they deserve (for example, Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson's STAR house). As it jumps from object to object, the narrative also jumps across time, from the 1950s through the 1970s and beyond. This structure would not be a problem for readers with a grounding in the history of the movement; as an introductory history, however, particularly one geared at a middle grade audience, it doesn't live up to its goal.

What Pitman does very well is present the many confusing and uncomfortable things about the early LGBTQ+ rights movement. Many people used aliases to avoid being identified as gay or lesbian, and this makes it difficult to correctly identify participants or track down eyewitness accounts. Additionally, although today's progressive movements strive towards ideas such as inclusivity and intersectionality, this has not always been true. The early days of the Mattachine Society and other gay and lesbian rights groups actively shut out many members of the LGBTQ+ community, particularly trans people and anyone gender nonconforming, in the hopes that society at large would find them less threatening if they "looked normal." Pitman includes such histories while noting the people who were excluded, making certain to give them a voice as well.

I'll be interested to see the final design of the book, since it centers so much on real artifacts and historical photographs. The cover art I saw on my digital ARC was eye-catching and colorful, but also extremely stylized. I hope the publishers and designers find a way to integrate the cover design with the historical artifacts.

Overall, I think this is a useful middle-grade history of the Stonewall Riots and the early days of the American LGBTQ+ movement, but I wouldn't include it in a library collection on its own. I'm going to continue looking for a more straightforward resource for this age group.

Disclaimer: I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Stonewall Riots: Coming Out in the Streets is a middle grade non-fiction book about the events before, during, and after the Stonewall Riots in New York City in 1969.

This non-fiction book is designed around artifacts of major events pertaining to the Stonewall Riots. Each document may be something like a newspaper article, a button, an arrest sheet, or pictures. When I first started reading, I was a little hesitant about this style, but I quickly became fascinated by it.

It was extremely well put together, and together, it told a very cohesive recounting of the key events in recent LGBT+ history. At no point did the text seem disjointed. The author also solidly explained some of the terminology that was used as slurs then (and are still used now as slurs), and while I wish that the author had chosen not to include them, I can understand why they would.

Overall, this is a very good introduction to those in the middle-grade category about this historic event and will keep them engaged with the short chapters and pictures.

This is a much needed book for classrooms and libraries. I especially appreciated that details and occurrences were not toned down for the audience, and I loved that the book not only dealt with the Stonewall Riots, but the history that lead into them, as well as what happened after. It was a nice look at society as a whole and how it affected LGBTQ+ individuals through a lens that is both for younger readers, but doesn't talk down to them.