‘An ABC of Equality’ by Chana Ginelle Ewing is an educational book that introduces complex concepts of social justice to young children. From A to Z, it explains ideas like ability, belief, and privilege in simple terms. The colourful illustrations and bite-sized text make it accessible for kids to learn about treating everyone fairly, regardless of their background or appearance.

I really wanted to like this book. The premise is great, and the word choices for each letter are perfect (especially where they build on each other, such as T for Transgender following S for Sex). However, there are a number of issues in the text that are quite problematic for a book that's supposed to be promoting equality and justice...

- On the H is for Human Being page, the text reads, "We're all human beings because of abilities like standing, talking, laughing, and pointing your finger." So if a person is unable to stand, or is nonverbal, or doesn't laugh or point, that makes them less human?? This ableist message totally counteracts all the positive statements about different abilities elsewhere in the book, and even in the following sentence (which is totally confusing given that we've just defined human beings based on a specific set of abilities). There were so many other ways you could have defined human... why??

- Also on the H is for Human Beings page, the statement "We're all human: men, women, and children like you!" negates the lovely description of gender on the previous page ("the inside feeling of being a boy, a girl, both, neither, and everything in between").

- On the L is for LGBTQIA page, the Q is defined as "questioning" rather than "queer" (though at least they got the A right!). Also including the statement "It's okay to be whoever you want to be" on this page kind of borders on implying LGBTQIA identities are a choice, which is problematic too. And none of the identities listed here are actually defined; might have been better to just make L stand for LOVE (as another reviewer suggested) and go into more depth about how anyone can love anyone (and define lesbian, gay, and bisexual).

- On the Q is for Question page, the text says "A question is the opposite of a belief" - which doesn't seem like a great definition to me, since there are lots of other reasons to ask questions besides questioning beliefs. Similarly on V is for Value, values are defined as "an expression of how to live a belief", which doesn't necessarily seem accurate either. Values and questions can come from lots of sources, not just personal beliefs.

More generally, many of the descriptions felt overly wordy and/or used vocabulary that would fly over the heads of the intended age group. J is for Justice says, "Human beings have a set of rules to keep each other safe. Justice is when everyone that those rules protect receives fair treatment, and no human being receives an advantage or disadvantage because of a category like class or gender." Why not just say, "Justice is when everyone is treated fairly." Or even, "Sometimes people are treated unfairly because of a group they belong to, like their class or gender. Justice is when everyone is treated fairly as they should be."

Overall, this book is a great concept but the execution falls short. The illustrations are cute and the alphabet word choices are lovely, but with the clumsy and at times even problematic text, I'm unlikely to share it with the young justice-seekers in my life.

Lists ages baby to 5 year olds. Can also be read to older children as not an ABC book but to touch on topics addressed in the book. I would recommend it as a great introduction to these topics but definitely need other age appropriate books to accompany for further information.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review! This was a good ABC book with lots of colors! Children who tend to "read" board books will not understand the difficult words, but it is a good introduction to equality! I have a 2.5 year old and will probably hold off on letting him read this book! Thank you again, NetGalley!

I really enjoyed this book and it is relevant to today. The book has some great images and they really help bring the book to life. It is definitely a book I will be sharing with my daughter when she is a little older and will understand the phrases, etc a little more. It is 4 stars from me for this one - highly recommended!!

Very cute picture book that makes these term accessible to older, maybe middle-school children. I am not so sure about very young readers, though.

I wish this book would have been around when I was younger. My daughter is a bit too young for the age range, but it is something I will enjoy reading to her when she’s older. I love the bright colors and the concept of the book. This book offers parents the opportunity to have important conversations with their kids,

First, those illustrations! So bright and colorful and fun, filled with all kinds of happy people getting along! I want to live in this world!
Second, the text. I mostly like it, it means well, but it gets confusing at times, and is sometimes a bit off. Also, it seems geared toward children older than those that the illustrations are geared toward. Will a toddler really grasp concepts like transgender or oppression? Will an older child who would maybe understand these concepts want to read an ABC book? I'm not sure. I do love how hopeful the text is, giving children a vision of how the world could be, and I can definitely see this opening up conversations about the ideas presented. This book is really trying to do good, and while it's not perfect, at least it's made a good effort.

#AnAbcOfEquality #NetGalley

I was excited to see An ABC of Equality offered on Netgalley. Diverse books for kids are one of my passions, and this little picture book carefully spelled out so many important concepts that relate to equality and diversity. I was sure it would be perfect. And honestly? It’s pretty good. Like I said, there’s so many topics that are important to introduce children to early, and to have honest conversations about them with the kids, if we want to raise better future generations. Accompanying each topic are illustrated humans that represent a large spectrum of humanity–girls, boys, and non binary, mothers with infants, Muslim, Hindu, LGBTQ+, blind, wheelchair-bound, Asian, Latinx, and African/ African American, dressed in traditional clothes from several different regions around the world, and illustrated with skin tones ranging from bright white to cheerful pink to rich browns and other colors in between. Many characters have glasses and/or freckles, and clothing depicted are not correlated to or limited by perceived gender.

The format does confuse me a bit. The book is formatted board book style (sturdy cardboard pages, in a small, nearly square shape, with glossy pages). But I can’t imagine that the children who are primarily read board books by the adults in their life are old enough to begin to comprehend paragraphs on topics like immigration, multiculturalism, feminism, xenophobia, sex, and consent. Perhaps I’m mistaken in this concern, not being a parent or children’s teacher or librarian. The bright, colorful, relatively detailed art might be a way to engage older children than would typically enjoy a board book. Given the small font of the paragraph definition of each term, though, it is not something that an early reader is likely to read to themselves. However, for children who are being read to, the definitions are as clear and simple as they can possibly be. Chana Ginelle Ewing has found ways to boil complex topics down into uncomplicated, accessible definitions.

My only other concern is a personal art preference. The way each character’s head is drawn is unappealing to me. Their facial features–eyes, nose, mouth, freckles, glasses, etc– are all crowded very high up on large heads, leaving what looks like chins that are as big as the rest of the face. I found it unsettling and disproportional. But that may just be my preference.

If you are looking for a bright, simple, accessible book on important, serious topics, though, to share with children in your life, this might be a good place to start. And while you’re discussing these important issues with your audience, you can reinforce learning their ABCs as well. Win win!

Thank you to #Netgalley and Quarto Publishing for letting me read an #advancedcopy of #AnABCofEquality in exchange for my honest opinion.

The concept is good, and the illustrations are bright and pleasing. The execution... is a miss, unfortunately.

It's very wordy for a board book, first of all. I always wonder how useful these "woke" titles actually are for the supposed target age range?

Then, there are some issues with the given definitions for some of the terms. Examples:
➼"C is for Class" was... just weird. It's basically like 'all the classes are okay!' which completely ignores that class differences aren't a GOOD thing?? Class is something imposed on people in an unjust and unequal society-- it's completely different from intrinsic qualities like race/skin color or chosen identities like faith.
➼"H is for Human Being" says that we're humans "because of [our] abilities" which seems ableist, and "We're all human: men, women, and children like you!" which leaves out genders outside of the binary (which is especially weird since the previous page "G is for Gender" addresses non-binary genders).
➼"L is for LGBTQIA" ignores the existence of the 'plus' and states that Q stands for "questioning" rather than Queer.
➼"R is for Race" conflates race and ethnicity.
➼"S is for Sex" conflates sex and gender.

In short: good idea, poor execution.

The perfect book to explain diversity and differences. From race, gender and religion this is a great book for preschoolers and beyond

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Frances Lincoln Children’s Books for An ABC of Equality by Chana Ginelle Ewing. This book talks about how “we all have different abilities.” It goes through each letter of the alphabet such as H is for Human Being, K is for Kindness, and N is for No. Each page covers one letter, first you get the simple sentence about the letter and then a paragraph with more information.

This book is easy to read and very colorful. It is a simple, but very thoughtful and way of looking at equality in a way that all children should be able to understand and appreciate.

<em>An ABC of Equality</em> by Chana Ginelle Ewing and illustrated by Paulina Morgan takes important issues and sets out with the goal of introducing them to young children. And in many ways, I do believe that this book does succeed. In some other areas, it misses its mark. I am willing to be a little bit more forgiving of those factors, however, due to the fact that the exposure to specific ideas impressed upon in the book is the most important thing.

Far too often, young children do not have the opportunity to learn about things like gender, sexuality, and diversity. Instead, people, often the intolerant sort, have a tendency to suggest that such themes should not be introduced to those at a young age. The greatest thing that <em>An ABC of Equality </em>does is to break the barrier that some in society have tried to set in place and to teach kids to be accepting.

This isn't the end-all piece of a child's education nor does it accurately represent equality as it should, but I believe it is a great place to start. I don't imagine that the children reading this book are going to understand everything in it and therefore will require supplemental conversations and information to go alongside it. Especially as, unfortunately, some things were left out or missed the mark.

When we get to H, <em>Human Being</em>, the text, unfortunately, leans toward a rather ableist viewpoint. My biggest problem with this comes down to the fact that it negates a little bit of the equality that the book advertises and leaves exposure to understanding disabilities sorely lacking. As we move through the alphabet to L, to my knowledge the information given regarding the letter Q in the acronym LGBTQIA is incorrect (though please correct me if I am wrong).

Despite having Gender and Transgender discussed briefly in the book, some of the text uses phrases like "men and women" which almost negates the message the book is trying to send. And there is a confusing message sent about being "who you want to be" that could have the potential to accidentally sent the message that gender identity is a choice rather than who someone is, a piece that could be fixed with a little bit of rephrasing to "be who you are."

Overall, I appreciate the fact that this book exists and believe wholeheartedly in the message it is trying to send. For now, I do believe that parents will need to further support their children through learning about and understanding these topics. In general, this book is a bit advanced for the age group I would picture it going to, however, I can also see some older children reading it for the more difficult content. It's kind of a lot to unpack, but I did appreciate the way the book presents the term and then provides a quick explanation or definition for it.

The artwork overall worked well. It was colorful, engaging, and cute.

I feel like this book is a good foot in the door to developing young minds into building an understanding of equality and diversity. It's a great starting point, though not without its flaws. But the great thing about that is the fact that hopefully the next time a book of a similar nature is published, it will be even better and that developing mind will be able to further their understanding.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

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This does not align with my personal beliefs about gender and other things. I would not suggest this for Christians and many other religious groups that would find this offensive and inappropriate for children. It is unfortunate because the illustrations are very beautiful and many portions I do agree with. This digital copy was provided for me by NetGalley.

I'm all for baby books that are beneficial to parents and loved ones of the baby, not just the baby themselves.

I like the idea of introducing kids to ideas they probably aren't ready for. If we can give small kids the very basics of an idea they are better prepared to handle it in dept later. And because small children are by nature accepting, this is especially true of social issues. Books like this one serve to create a basic level of acceptance, to normalize differences.

This is a lovely and well illustrated picture book. Definitely something to return to more than once, to have discussion about equality and inclusivity.
Had a small issue with the continued use of "men" and "women", especially directly after just reading G for gender. Just feel that H needs some rewording. But overall, a great book which discusses important issues. And really LOVE the bright illustrations.

'An ABC of Equality' by Chana Ginelle Ewing with illustrations by Paulina Morgan is a board book with a definite agenda. If you agree with that agenda, you will love this book. If you don't, you won't. My review is asking if it works as a board book for toddlers.

Teaching equality is a noble aim, and I understand what the author is attempting. Unfortunately, I think it conceptually fails on a few levels. One function of an ABC book is to teach the very young the letters we use to form words. Usually these are accompanied by illustrations that help serve as mnemonic devices to remember, like an apple or a zebra. Here the illustrations are for concepts like belief or ability. While I like the illustrations, they don't convey anything memorable for little readers.

Secondly, each entry is accompanied by text to explain things, and for the very young, I think these are a bit wordy and don't actually explain things well enough. I'm not sure how a three year old would get the concept of transgender or xenophobia. Books can inform conversations, but concepts like these are not be as easy.

I like the concept and the colorful illustrations. I just don't think it works as a book for the very young.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Quarto Publishing Group - Frances Lincoln Childrens, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

An ABC Of Equality is an interesting book which aims to show even the youngest children that everyone should be treated equal, whoever they are and wherever they come from. I found this an intriguing sounding book and was pleasantly surprised with what the book contained. I liked the idea of an A to Z but didn't know how that would be possible on such a specific topic, it does work though!

Each page has a large capital letter on one side and on the other there is a brief description of what the word means. I like this layout as it is not too busy and easy to see the idea of the word through pictures and words. Each description is done in a simplified and child friendly way which makes even the more complicated words in the book seem a very understandable concept.

The illustrations in the book are great to keep children engaged and interested in what is happening on each page and as the concept of the book is equality there are many diverse people shown throughout which is great for children to see. Although this book claims to show even the youngest children about equality I personally would not say that it would work with really young children. I wouldn't read it to any children under four as I feel it would go straight over their heads! Even with the simplest of descriptions they are still at an age that they believe they are the most important person so I think trying to get them to empathise and learn about so many different diversities and shows of equality is a bit overwhelming and quite confusing! If it was in story form I think it would be different but as it is as effectively a list I think they'd get bored pretty quickly.

Overall I think this is a great book for primary school aged children and would be great to show the range of different people that there are in our countries and across the world but maybe not for the youngest children as the description implies.

This was just the cutest educational book. All kids should read this and should be in every classroom. I will definitely be buying it for my nieces. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.