Yimby: Yes! In My Back Yard!

by Sheryl Recinos, Amanda Ravensdale (Illustrator)

Overview

YIMBY: Yes In My Backyard teaches children how to take care of unhoused members of our community through kindness. It shows young readers how providing housing for everyone who wants it will allow people to rejoin our community. The book also includes advocacy tips and resources for young readers and their families.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781951542627
Publisher:	Sheryl Recinos
Publication date:	07/08/2024
Pages:	36
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.25(d)
Age Range:	6 - 8 Years

Editorial Reviews

2024-06-27
Communities work best when people make room—and safe housing—for everyone.

“Everywhere, everywhere people…need our help,” the book begins, introducing the idea that some need assistance because they don’t have a safe place to live. With spare text and full, two-page spread illustrations, Recinos and Ravensdale depict white and BIPOC people of various ages, shapes, and abilities living in many different places across the U.S. Notably, unhoused people are indistinguishable from housed people in an effort to humanize everyone. As the book progresses, it’s clear that some of the families are building new spaces in their own backyards, like tiny houses, where someone could live. These families also share food and clothing with neighbors in need. The characters come together to restore a decrepit shopping mall into housing, holding signs that show they envision a world where everyone works together to end homelessness. Recinos has written about her own experience being unhoused in a memoir for older readers (Hindsight [2018]), and her compassion shines throughout this humane tale. Ravensdale’s painterly digital images illustrate people modeling widespread community care, ably depicting kind faces and expressions.

A gorgeously rendered, heartfelt picture book with an important mission statement and helpful calls to action.

Kirkus Reviews