Cirrus@Austlit

'In this vital and accessible survey, a prominent activist for racial justice answers questions from real children, giving them the tools and the confidence to shape a more just society.

'Using questions canvassed from children around the United Kingdom as her framework, writer, activist, engineer, and broadcaster Yassmin Abdel-Magied provides a clear overview of racism's history, what it looks like today, and how to recognize, resist, and disrupt racist conversations and attitudes that can appear anywhere. This book is a practical guide for taking actionable steps, but it acknowledges that talking about racism invites complex feelings and offers tips and tactics for expressing those emotions safely, stepping back when needed, and prioritizing self-care. The book's warm and assured tone, friendly illustrations, and supplementary charts, sidebars, infographics, and glossary offer an authentic way to open a dialogue with middle-grade readers, providing an eloquent call to nurture compassion and change, challenge inequality, and strive toward racial justice for all.' (Publication summary)

'With her trademark optimism, sass, boldness and search for answers, across a collection of new and revisited essays, Yassmin Abdel-Magied explores resistance, transformation, and revolution.

'Yassmin Abdel-Magied started out a dynamic, optimistic, naive, youthful grass-roots organiser and oil rig worker and without intent, was suddenly taking on the heft of the Australian political and media establishment. She left Australia to rebuild a new life, away from family and friends, and with no employment, in London. In the UK she has been broadcasting on the BBC, consulting to multinational corporations, writing for stage and screen, and publishing successful books for young readers.

'In TALKING ABOUT A REVOLUTION, a collection of new and revisited essays, Yassmin explores resistance, transformation, and revolution. The Private and Public Self', includes essays on her crazy passions for cars, cryptocurrency and other unexpected things, as well as the personal challenges and grief around her activism and leaving Australia. She provides a hearty defence of hobbies (that are not turned into money-making side hustles), expands on the value and process of carving out a private life and self in an incredibly public facing world (linking to the concept of keeping her body private through hijab). Yassmin tackles the concept of identity when one is a forever migrant- by ancestry, and by choice. What does it mean to organise for social justice when untethered to place?

'In Systems and Society' Yassmin shares how her thinking on activism, transformative change and justice has evolved. This section contains articles on cultural appropriation, the myth of the model minority and her incredibly popular TEDx talk on unconscious bias. She challenges and interrogates the contemporary social and political landscape- on how consistently tech companies are replicating the same inequalities (and inequitable structures) online as offline, on how to bring an 'abolitionist' lens to social justice work, on the value and challenges faced by younger generations of activists who are taught to work towards 'empowerment' rather than 'power'.

'In all these essays, written with the passion, lived-experience and intelligence of someone who wants to improve our world, the concept of revolution is ever-present.'  (Publication summary)

'Layla has ended the school year on a high and can’t wait to spend the holidays hanging out with her friends and designing a prize-winning Grand Designs Tourismo invention. But Layla’s plans are interrupted when her grandmother in Sudan falls ill and the family rush to be with her.

'The last time Layla went to Sudan she was only a young child. Now she feels torn between her Sudanese and Australian identities. As political tensions in Sudan erupt, so too do tensions between Layla and her family. Layla is determined not to lose her place in the invention team, but will she go against her parents’ wishes? What would a Kandaka do?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'I'd like to believe that I wasn’t jumping on the bandwagon. But don’t we all tell ourselves little white lies to keep our self-worth intact?' (Introduction)

'My Sudanese grandmother couldn’t fathom why I read books full of dragons and danger but in them I saw the person I could be.'  (Introduction)

'Layla's mind goes a million miles a minute, so does her mouth – unfortunately her better judgement can take a while to catch up! Although she believes she was justified for doing what she did, a suspension certainly isn't the way she would have wished to begin her time at her fancy new high school. Despite the setback, Layla's determined to show everyone that she does deserve her scholarship and sets her sights on winning a big invention competition. But where to begin?

'Ushered out of my job, my mental health spiralling, reputation in shambles, I felt a deep, cavernous sense of loss for my once optimistic self.' (Introduction)

'Frank, fearless, funny, articulate and inspiring, Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a dynamo, a young Muslim dynamo offering a bracing breath of fresh air - and hope.

'At 21, Yassmin found herself working on a remote Australian oil and gas rig; she was the only woman and certainly the only Sudanese-Egyptian-Australian background Muslim woman. With her hijab quickly christened a 'tea cosy' there could not be a more unlikely place on earth for a young Muslim woman to want to be. This is the story of how she got there, where she is going, and how she wants the world to change.' (Publication summary)

'‘We must stop the boats.’ It’s a phrase every Australian has heard, ad nauseam. It’s been the theme of election campaigns and political advertising. It’s a statement so often uttered on the nightly news that a time when politicians showed empathy to asylum seekers and refugees seems like a fading dream. For over a decade, but particularly for the last five years, this simple saying has sent a blunt message: ‘We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come.’' (Introduction)