Do you have a little one who you just know will move mountains? Or, maybe a class full of budding activists? A student you want to inspire? I fully recommend adding Step Into Your Power to your library to empower all the students (and even the adults) in your life!
The dynamic duo that brought us Young Gifted and Black: Meet 52 Black Heroes from Past and Present teamed up to write another brilliant nonfiction book. Step Into Your Power: 23 Lessons on How to Live Your Best Life is written by Jamia Wilson and illustrated by Andrea Pippins. Wilson’s words and Pippin’s illustrations creates an engaging and informative piece. Pulling from their own experiences, Wilson and Pippins’s book leads the readers through steps, activities, and advice, to help the audience achieve their best selves. It is perfect for all grades K-12, but the text will mostly be independently accessible for grades 5-12.
Step Into Your Power is the embodiment of empowerment for children (and people of any age!). Wilson categorizes her mentoring into five sections: Power, Community, Choices, Act!, and Self-Care. The first four sections build on from each other, but the book ends with Self-Care as the last one. I appreciate that Self-Care is the last because often activists, even adult activists, forget about what it truly means to take care of oneself in this work. By including it at the end of this book, Wilson is ensuring that every student is integrating Self-Care in their routines from the beginning (or early part) of their powerful lives.
On The Spectrum of Multicultural Literature, Step Into Your Power is categorized as a Representation book. It is a Representation book because it features illustrations of people of color without a focus on culture or racism, discrimination, and prejudice.
This is a must-have Colorful Pages because of how it will empower every student, but especially our students of color. We all know how POWERFUL it is for a student of color to see someone who looks like them in an influential role. Now, we can provide a book written and illustrated by fellow POCs that tells them exactly how to become that hero themselves.
Thank you, Jamia and Andrea, for creating this incredible book! I wish I had this book growing up because I probably would have started my own activist pathway MUCH sooner! Readers, tell us how you are planning to use Step Into Your Power in your classrooms, librarians, and homes.
Colorful Pages 