Rise Up and Write It: With Real Mail, Posters, and More! by Anoosha Syed, Nandini Ahuja
Published by HarperFestival on January 5, 2021
ISBN: 0063029596
Pages: 48
Format: Picture Book Nonfiction
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This non-fiction picture book,  for readers in 3-6 grades, lays out the steps needed to community organize through the story of Farah Patel.  Farah wonders why there are no butterflies where she lives in the city. She does a casual assessment of her neighborhood and then contacts the mayor with a solution.  The steps to success require Farah and her enthusiastic friends to write a petition, attend a public forum, make slogan signs and create their own activist program.   Interspersed between the bright illustrations are large pockets that represent addressed envelopes that hold removable examples of each type of correspondence, signs and buttons that Farah uses throughout the book.   Useful for letter writing curriculum, community issues and civic units. Libraries will need to evaluate if the book’s loose pieces will hinder circulation.

Reviewed by Sheila Dube, Youth Services Librarian, Springvale Public Library