Innosanto Nagara is a children's author, activist, and graphic designer. He is the author of the bestselling alphabet book A is for Activist as well as the other children's booksCounting on Community, My Night in the Planetarium, and the newly released The Wedding Portrait. He is also the founder of Design Action Collective. According to NPR, Nagara began writing children's books upon realizing that he could not find "a fun book" that "talked about the importance of social justice."
Career
Nagara was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia, and moved to the US in 1988. He studied zoology and philosophy at UC Davis, after graduating he moved to San Francisco Bay Area, where he worked as a graphic designer for a range of social change organizations, before founding the Design Action Collective, a worker-owned cooperativedesign studio in Oakland, California. A is for Activist, Nagara's first children's book, was published by Seven Stories Press’ children's imprint Triangle Square in 2013. In 2015 Counting on Community was published, described by Publishers Weekly as "a counting book that celebrates active communities" and emphasized "that close-knit communitieshave real power." It was followed by My Night in the Planetarium in 2016, based on a night when Nagara and his mother hid from the police in a planetarium. The Wedding Portrait is Nagara's next book, based on the events surrounding his own wedding day, was published in October 2017.
Reception
Nagara's A is for Activist has received acclaim for its "progressive message has made its way into material aimed at little ones" in a particularly unique and straightforward manner. The Washington Post likewise published an interview with Innosanto Nagara in its parenting section discussing the necessity of progressive messages in young children. An American Library Association review of A is for Activist took issue with the introduction of complex issues at the level of an alphabet book, pointed out that families "may need to undergo hours of explanation and long, ongoing conversations about ideas raised on every single page." Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and the School Library Journal were all appreciative of Counting on Community. My Night in the Planetarium received positive reviews from Publishers Weekly, who said it was "a stirring tribute to the power of the arts to challenge injustice," and Rethinking Schools, whose Rachel Cloues said that the "engaging art, humor, and a warm, colloquial style" made it a "gift" for "helping parents and educators explain complex issues to our children." Brandon Greene, writing for HuffPost, asked readers "what books are you using to prepare your children?"
