A review by bookiesncookies
Hope Nation: YA Authors Share Personal Moments of Inspiration by Rose Brock

4.0

There were some stories that will stick with me. Like David Levithan's at the Women's March, Libba Bray surviving a car crash immediately after high school, Marie Lu's family leaving Communist China after the Tiananmen Square protests and continuing to protest in America, Nicola & David Yoon's struggles of racism within their own family, Gayle Forman finding courage to continue to travel and live without fear immediately after 9/11 (hit differently while reading through a similar collective experience like this pandemic), Atia Abawi's about not letting assholes have any say or influence on your decisions, Alex London dancing with his friend wearing a dress to their junior prom and how it helped him come out a year later, Howard Bryant sharing "Find the people who take an interest in your success. Spend time with them. Learn from them," Romina Garber not letting labels as an immigrant take away her "infinite potential," Renee Ahdieh not "chahmuh" (grin and bear it). Aisha Saeed defining what a true apology is and how it impacted her as a Muslim American after 9/11, Julie Murphy sharing how her family had their home foreclosed while she was graduating high school and how she can find home with the family she's hand-picked, and finally Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely talking about the hopes of young people they saw while on tour for All-American Boys.

The fact that I.W. Gregorio and James Dashner were included leaves a bad taste in my mouth based on Gregorio's book that was transphobic, homophobic, and had characters outed without their permission and Dashner who was accused of sexual harassment and dropped from his publisher for it (just to be picked up by another one).