Don't Wait: Three Girls Who Fought for Change and Won

by Sonali Kohli Narrated by Sanya Simmons

Overview

Follows the stories of 3 young women activists of color fighting for some of today's most pressing movements of defunding the police, environmental justice, and arts education

Girls of color have always been on the front lines of the fight for equal rights-to vote, to learn, to live-even when they are the last to benefit from the outcomes of their work. In Don't Wait, journalist Sonali Kohli follows 3 teenagers' efforts to make their communities safer, healthier places.

Don't Wait highlights what propelled the teenagers into their activism to their experiences organizing and incorporates Q&As with important lessons from activists who have led the way.

The 3 teen activists include:

• Nalleli has lived across the street from an active oil well in South Los Angeles and at age 7, developed serious health problems. Nalleli and her mother take on an oil company and become environmental justice activists.
• Kahlila, following the murder of George Floyd and looking to help fight back, becomes involved with Black Lives Matter movement in Los Angeles and fights to defund school police in one of the largest school police forces in the nation.
• Sonia, an accomplished singer who was grappling with finding an creative outlet in the pandemic, strove to increase access to arts education in schools across California.

As the young women are transitioning from teen to adult activists, Don't Wait reflects the powerful lessons they've learned in their activism while building movements in their communities that will continue to live on as they move forward.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The book is a well of inspiration . . . An essential purchase for California libraries and for budding activists looking for inspiration and guidance.”
—Booklist

“Kohli’s curiosity, compassion, and strong journalistic instincts combine to create a narrative voice that’s both engaging and insightful. Her writing not only honors her subjects’ strength but also demystifies the process of creating community change . . . Empowering portraits of a diverse set of young women who have changed their worlds.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Prepare to be inspired.”
—Sara Saedi, author of Americanized

“An eminently readable resource for those not only looking to be inspired but also seeking tangible pathways to reaching their own extraordinary.”
—Christina Hammonds Reed, author of The Black Kids

“A refreshing reminder that you are never too young to use your voice.”
—Brandy Colbert, author of Black Birds in the Sky

“What divides and unites us has always been imagined through story. Sonali Kohli offers us three real-life stories that speak to both division and unity and the tools to make the most of them.”
—Anton Treuer, author of Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians but Were Afraid to Ask and Where Wolves Don’t Die

“Sonali Kohli’s Don’t Wait: Three Girls Who Fought for Change and Won is a riveting account of teenagers Nalleli, Kahlila, and Sonia and their fearless battles to remake the world as it should be. Too often, we read about activists who are fully formed adults, but here we have the rare opportunity to witness them in the process: being adolescents, becoming freedom fighters, and embarking on journeys to self that teach us all new meanings of sacrifice, justice, and hope.”
—Salamishah Tillet, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer and cofounder of A Long Walk Home

Kirkus Reviews

2024-03-23
A journalist profiles three young women of color whose activism has reshaped their communities.

Kohli has spent her career reporting on youth activism. She writes, “The reality is that as teenagers you are powerful; you’re also not saviors and shouldn’t be tasked with the burden of saving the world.” In the pages that follow, Kohli traces the trajectories of three young women whose accomplishments would be impressive at any age. Mexican and Colombian American teen Nalleli Cobo, for example, worked with her mother to successfully shut down a toxic oil field in her neighborhood that devastated community members’ health, as well as her own—at the age of 19, she was diagnosed with cancer. Sonia Patel Banker, an Indian American choir singer, fought to bring arts education to California’s public schools. Kahlila Williams, the founder of her school’s Black Student Union, helped facilitate the reduction of the Los Angeles School Police Department budget. In addition to documenting the ups and downs of these teens’ organizing, the author includes a series of discussion questions intended to help readers apply what they’re reading to their own lives and, by extension, their own potential activism. Kohli’s curiosity, compassion, and strong journalistic instincts combine to create a narrative voice that’s both engaging and insightful. Her writing not only honors her subjects’ strength but also demystifies the process of creating community change.

Empowering portraits of a diverse set of young women who have changed their worlds. (author’s note, endnotes, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159265791
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	06/04/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos