Abe Lincoln Book Award 2022: Stamped

Stamped : Racism, Antiracism, and You: a Remix of the National Book Award-Winning Stamped from the Beginning by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi 

Reynolds continues his prolific streak with an absorbing young reader's adaptation of Kendi's National Book Award-winning title, Stamped from the Beginning (2016). "This is not a history book" declares Reynolds at the outset, an announcement that instantly absorbs readers, displaying the author's singular way of communicating with young people. Reynolds' "remix" begins in 1415 and travels into the present in five well-paced sections, following the general outline of Kendi's comprehensive title. Through figures like Cotton Mather, W. E. B Du Bois, and Angela Davis, among others, the thought patterns of segregationists, assimilationists, and antiracists, respectively, are elucidated, along with the impact such ideas have on all aspects of American life. Throughout the book, Reynolds inserts literal pauses ("Record scratch"), and interjects with commentary ("Let that sink in") and clarifications, a way of insisting that the pages are not merely text, but a conversation.