Let’s Talk About It is a graphic novel (comic-style) book by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan and is published by Penguin Random House. On the front cover the book is described as, “The teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human.” On the back, it states the book is, “Open, modern, and intelligent. An essential addition to any library.” Those are the claims but, is it appropriate for school libraries, public libraries, and children? As always, that is the question I want to answer for parents as I review the book.

Gender Queer is the graphic (comic-style) memoir of Maia Kobabe, published by Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group and released in 2022. We are told that the 256-page book was originally written for adults but it seems to this reader that it is aimed directly at middle-grade students. The book won the American Library Association Alex Award for its “special appeal” to teenagers, but is it appropriate for school libraries and children? That is the question I want to answer for parents as I review the book.

It’s disturbing that we live at a time when parents must check the content of their children’s pre-school and kindergarten books but as A is for Activist shows—they must. Written and illustrated by Innosanto Nagara, A is for Activist masquerades as a board book for teaching ABCs but as it states on the back cover, the book is for “families who want their kids to grow up in a space that is unapologetic about activism, environmental justice, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, and everything else that we believe in and fight for.”

If a valid idea rests upon a solid grounding of facts then Stamped, by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi rests upon nothing more than sand. Within its pages, I found repeated generalizations. Inconvenient facts were glossed over and there were repeated factual errors.

Stamped (For Kids) is an adaptation of Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You. This book makes Critical Race Theory (CRT) accessible for children. That alone would be troublesome, but this book generalizes, glosses over inconvenient facts, and in other places is factually incorrect.