As conflicts over what is right and wrong, just and unjust, swirl over our cities, states and world, the jobs of parents and educators have gotten more daunting. How do we teach our kids to be compassionate and respectful but also ready to stand up for the defenseless? How do they that without resorting to hatred or violence?
Educating children on such rituals of democracy as using their voices, votes and right to peacefully protest are getting trickier. Standards for appropriate educational reading materials are the subjects of legislation and censorship attempts, and peaceful protests have gotten pushback from law enforcement.
But a beautiful new book by former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, grippingly illustrated by Iowan Sue Cornelison, puts peaceful protest into inspiring context for kids. Called "Justice Is..." and labeled "a guide for young truth seekers," the Random House Kids title is aimed at 4- to 8-year-olds. It scored an Amazon Books No. 1 new-release rating for children's reference books.
The book is written sparely, the historical truths depicted in Cornelison's stunning visual depictions. Of mob rule and peaceful protest. Of ordinary people who used their voices and won: anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells; former slave, abolitionist and suffragist Sojourner Truth; anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela; Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi; and trailblazing gay elected official Harvey Milk.
The inclusion of schoolgirls Elizabeth Eckford, a school integration activist in Arkansas, and Malala Yousafzai, crusader for women's and girls' rights in Pakistan, drives home this point: Courage and righteousness know no age or geographic boundaries, even if the path is risky and lonely.
"Sometimes people worry that there is no justice in the world but don't lose hope. Justice is always there waiting for good people to find their voices, waiting for brave people to stand up together," writes Bharara amid illustrations of Japanese Americans forced into camps during World War II; Holocaust killing sites, and the Trail of Tears displacements of Native Americans.
Children's books about equality, justice and history are harder to find
The author of the 2019 grown-up book "Doing Justice: A Prosecutor's Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law" says that the publisher of "Justice Is..." suggested he do this one because there aren't a lot of books for youth that put equality and justice into a historical context, or highlight the inspirations for getting involved.
Bharara, who teaches criminal justice at New York University School of Law, was U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017, when he was, along with others, dismissed by then-President Donald Trump. As a federal prosecutor, he cracked down on insider trading and securities fraud cases among Wall Street executives and shut down multiple hedge funds, convicting Democratic and Republican politicians alike for corruption.
His children's book, he says, "introduces them to historical figures who have shown courage." Born in India, he said, he grew up hearing his father's stories of being inspired by Gandhi's courageous struggle for independence from the British. Children, as he pointed in a recent phone interview, are often the first to react to unfairness in a sporting event, for example. Why not broaden those concerns to other human interactions? And, since young people also see stories of superheroes swooping in and saving the day for the underdog, why not expose them to real-life heroes through history who stood up against injustice? The book features Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and more contemporary figures like the late Congressman John Lewis.
It also recognizes investigative journalists who risked their careers to uncover Richard Nixon's Watergate cover-up, and Black Lives Matter marchers filling the streets seeking justice for George Floyd and others.
Cornelison, the artist who illustrated these luminaries and circumstances, lives in St. Charles, Iowa, with her jazz musician husband, Ross. Bharara calls her work iconic ”They’re not caricatures and not paintings, but a midpoint, somewhere in between. They make the stories come alive."
Calling her the clear choice among the illustrators his publisher had offered samples from, he said: "Her work just jumped off the page to me. It took my breath away." Among other children's books she had illustrated was a Golden Book on King for Random House.
Born in Toledo, Ohio, and raised in Libertyville, Illinois, Cornelison got an art degree from Drake University at a time when, she says, there were few jobs for artists. Even calling herself one felt wrong at first. She opted to do further in science at Iowa State University in hopes of becoming a veterinarian, but took some art classes on the side. Eventually, an art teacher recognized her talent and zeal for art and told her, "It's OK to follow your passion."
The book jacket says she found her “shaking yet defiant voice very early, standing up to bullies and other childhood injustices." Today she likes illustrating books that inspire children to be brave. She worked for Meredith Corp. and was a full-time illustrator for Perfection Learning books in West Des Moines, switching to freelance work when the company switched to photographs, she says. A friend connected her with a New York literary agent, which opened many doors for book illustrations. Her books include "The Twelve Days of Christmas in Iowa," published by Sterling.
Awed by the heroic change-makers she was entrusted to portray, she said, "Some books you know right off the bat they're important. I knew I wanted to give it my whole heart and soul." That included researching every person she illustrated "to the nth degree because she felt she owed it to both the leaders and the young readers "to be accurate."
And, "I wanted Preet to love it."
He does, calling her work, "evocative and beautiful."
As we're seeing both here and around the world, incursions on human rights don't necessarily stop because we have democratic institutions. Reflecting on recent activism for Black lives, women's rights, against gun violence and climate change, Bharara said he's optimistic because young people are more sophisticated these days.
"I wrote it," he said of the book, "to inspire them to do something other than making money in their lives. … A young person's perspective should be, 'It's my responsibility to fix all the stuff the grown-ups screwed up.'"
