Three and a half stars, rounding up to four. I don't know why on Earth Reynolds keeps insisting that this isn't a history book, because it plainly is. It only isn't a history book if you think of history as something discrete in time, that doesn't have direct consequences for the world today - but history isn't that at all. It's a continuum, and the racist practices of history that are detailed here are neither discrete nor done with. Sadly, they continue today in not much different form than they ever did.

I read this book for task 2 in the Read Harder 2021 challenge, which was to read a nonfiction book about racism. And while I enjoyed it and thought it had a lot of valuable things to say, I wish that my library had had the original Stamped by Ibram X. Kendi rather than this, the YA version. Reynolds has done a good job re-interpreting for younger people, or so I presume (not having read the original), but I wonder if the adult version is more in-depth in its content. I enjoy reading nonfiction, even the more academic nonfiction, but this came from a small town library and the more academic nonfiction is not so much the priority there. Well, fair enough. If I were the librarian and had to choose between the two books on my limited budget I'd pick the YA one too, if only to encourage more kids to read it. Reynolds has made this book very accessible for younger readers, both in his language and in his broad approach. For all the protestation that this isn't a history book, it covers the genesis and motivation behind racism in the United States over a period of several hundred years in a clear and convincing manner, and the book makes a concise argument for the necessity of activism. I just wanted more history, please!