The Book of Radical Answers

Introduction

When I was young, I had ten billion questions. I wanted to know everything about everything. 

I had questions about my body: Will I have big boobs because Grandma AND Aunt Julia have them? I had questions about rules we seemed to have for boys and girls: Why do we say boys can t cry? I even had questions about how we were treating the planet: Why don t we recycle? The most frustrating thing about having all these questions was that no one ever seemed really excited to answer them. The truth is, sometimes people acted downright annoyed by all my questions. 

Luckily, I didn t let adults irritation with my list of curiosities stop my questions from coming. When they didn t have an answer for me, I went looking for my own. I read books, watched the people around me, and, most importantly, I started taking guesses at answers. I used the information I saw in the world and my intuition (that hard-to-describe feeling inside all of us that helps us know what to do), and I came up with ideas. I always double-checked my answers by looking for more information in books, and from adults I trusted. But what I started to realize back then was that I was a smart human who already knew so much about life. 

Guess what? So are you, and I hope that after reading this book, you will feel more certain about that.

Today, I have lots of jobs. One of them is writing books like this one, but the most important job I have is the work of spreading the idea of radical self-love. Radical self-love is the love we had for ourselves when we landed on this big spinning rock we call earth. And that love is still with us. It is the energy that reminds us that we are already good enough, smart enough, awesome enough just as we are. Radical self-love is here to call our attention to the fact that we have massive knowledge already inside of us to tackle the big issues that may arise as we grow up.

After spending years doubting

Sonya Renee Taylor is a world-renowned activist, award-winning artist, transformational thought leader, author of six books including the New York Times bestselling The Body is Not an Apology, and founder of the international movement and digital media and education company of the same name whose work has reached millions of people by exploring the intersections of identity, healing, and social justice using a radical self-love framework. She continues to speak, teach,write, create, and transform lives globally.

* In a sea of social media overload and misinformation, tweens could use a source of honest, trustworthy information that even adults can refer to. Speaker and activist Taylor has compiled answers on 12 topics from emotions, gender, and sexuality to racism, government, and climate change. . . . Taylor always encourages adolescents to ask questions and speak their truths while being kind to themselves and others. This work supports critical thinking and should be embedded in lessons on Indigenous rights, biology, current events, media literacy, and in social studies about antiracism. A concise place for tweens and teens to find accessible answers to questions that everyone has pondered at some point, updated for the 21st century. Essential for SEL and social studies shelves. School Library Journal, starred review