Thank you NetGalley for this ARC of The Talk in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

The essays, poems, and stories help promote honest and necessary conversations about race, racism, and identity. The heartfelt stories offer guidance on how to navigate the racism children will encounter and lets children know that they are not alone.

Reading this book will compel you to have difficult conversations.

A collection of essays, poems, and illustrated stories about race and the conversations that need to happen, The Talk takes an incredibly daunting topic and makes it accessible for younger readers. It gives kids permission to ask the questions they want while giving them the tools necessary to engage in difficult conversations about racism, race, ethnicity, identity, and personal experience. Very thoughtful and well put together.

Inspiring book that deals with conversations that my be tough to deal with. Even as an adult, I felt connections to some of the stories and felt that the writers cared for me by writing them. Highly recommend for every young adult.

Well known YA authors write short stories based around the topics of racism, anti-racism, truth and love. Some are stories written for their children, others are recollections and all of them are impactful and important. Read one story, read them all and share them with others. Highly recommended.

This book of anti-racist essays was incredibly moving. I’d already read books by about half of the thirty featured authors, so I knew it would be great. However, it was so beautifully written and I couldn’t get enough. Readers will come face to face with powerful voices acknowledging that we live in a racist world and revealing what that often looks like in various scenarios. More importantly, the essays make it obvious that we must all take action if we have any hope of lasting change. Nevertheless, it felt less like a “how to” book and more like sitting with a friend and listening to engaging stories from their life. I’m grateful this book is out in the world and I hope it has found a place in homes and libraries of all types! My thanks to Crown Books and to NetGalley for providing a review copy.

This stellar lineup of anthology contributors bring a myriad of valuable, accessible short stories. Each one is different but still offer messages of keeping safe, love, hope, and support for families of color. A must for all schools and libraries, and even better in each home.

This book provides the reader with personal and heartfelt contexts for conversations about race. My heart was alternately squeezed and stretched reading these conversations--just the exercise we need to move towards justice and healing in America. This book belongs on shelves in libraries, classrooms, and homes.

This book touches on important topics needed in education today. I would recommend educators introducing this into their classroom library.

A powerful book on a powerful topic. Though it feels more aimed at adults/educators, rather than kids, I can see educators using it for sharing some of the pieces in the classroom.

I’m so incredibly grateful to all the writers who contributed to this book. Each contribution was unique, powerful, and at times heartbreaking. A necessary addition to every school and classroom library.

Thank you to Random House Childrens for sharing an eARC with #BookAllies in exchange for an honest review.

The Talk is a collection containing essays and poems by 30 diverse authors. These works are addressed to their children or about children. The central theme of all of the entries in this collection is race and talking to children about loving themselves BUT understanding that racism exists in the world. The authors offer guidance to the children on how to navigate in the world.

This collection is important, moving, sad but at the same time inspiring. It is sad that we still live in a world where a Black mom needs to tell her son how to handle himself during interactions with the police. It is sad that we live in a world where people still feel the need to tell young Chinese girls that they look like "China Dolls" or that schools chose to make a caricature of a race or tribe their mascot. This book touches on all of these points. There is also a lot of love and hope for a better future woven throughout.

The Talk: Conversations About Race, Love & The Truth by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson is the book we all need right now. You know what “the talk” is, right? The talk includes all of the conversations Black and brown families have to have with their children to help them navigate a world and a country that will not see them as children and will see them as a threat. This book is a collection of essays written to spark conversations about race, identity and self-esteem. I am the proud mama of two brown boys and it’s hard sometimes. Reading these essays had me all in my feelings and a few of them had me in tears. The very first essay is an ode to Black girls. “And when the weight of being a Black girl feels like a burden and not a blessing, remember this. Black girl, you are a miracle. Know that you can survive what feels impossible to survive because someone somewhere prayed for you, is praying for you. Because someone somewhere already survived, is surviving. Remember Lucille Clifton and Maya Angelou. Remember Fannie Lou Hamer and Shirley Chisholm. They will teach you how to love the kink of your hair, the width of your hips, the brown of your skin.” Whew. This may be for kids, but it touched me too. All of the essays are beautifully written and timely. I definitely plan to use this book as a conversation starter for my boys. Special thanks to Netgalley and Crown Books for Young Readers for the digital review copy.

Thank you to Crown Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children's, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this e-ARC.

Love is only a third of the title, but it's what this book is all about: authors moved by love for their children to write the powerful poems, letters and short stories in this amazing anthology.

The one that haunts me is the story of a father whose daughter asks if their family has any racist friends. I think she expects the answer to be "no, of course not," but her father tells her a story about a man who took advantage of newly freed slaves, having them sharecrop on his land. This man grew rich on the labor of others. He used his wealth to give his own children advantages in life: education, homes, financial security. The man is the little girl's great-grandfather and her father eloquently explains white privilege without ever calling it that. He gently explains to his daughter how he tries to come to terms with their family history and what he is doing to make the world a better place.

Derrick Barnes' contribution is a joy to read, a black father listening to his 3rd-grade son describe an incident that took place in his classroom. The boy talks about an ignorant comment made by one of his classmates. He tells his father how he responded. The little boy is not bragging, but he talks about responding calmly, with facts and with pride in his family and his heritage. The father says little, just making brief comments of approval for the way the boy comported himself. Clearly this family has taught their children to know their history, to value themselves, to speak up for themselves. It is a short piece, but powerful and thought-provoking.

I read books and ask myself, "would I put this book in the hands of a student in the elementary school where I am a library assistant?" Many of my young students lack the fluency and reading skills to appreciate The Talk on their own. But their teachers don't, and I hope that every one of them will share parts of this book with their classes.

This is such an incredible book. From the introduction through the last piece, it is filled with beauty and honesty and love. It is filled with insight and truth. I look forward to sharing this with kids and to recommending it to families. I look forward to the conversations it will launch, ones that may not have yet taken place in homes or at school. This book nestled itself into my heart and will live there for a very long time.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5. Wow, wow, wow. This is a collection is powerful stories and poems about race, racism, and being the change our world needs. This volume would make a fantastic resource for both reading and writing in any middle or high school classroom, but it is also a great volume to circulate to students in the library as well. I ordered my own copy to flag and mark up, and will be ordering more for my school library as well.

With seventeen messages as distinctive as their contributors, The Talk prompts frank conversations around emotionally complex subjects: racism, identity, heritage, power structures, self-esteem, peer relations and more. Multiple writing styles—including poems, fictional essays, affirmations, and personal reflections, each only a few pages long and paired with an equally impressive array of artistic renderings—assure the content is accessible and appealing to the widest range of readers. Contributors include numerous Newbery, Caldecott, and Coretta Scott King Award winners sharing their own voices, lived experiences.

These essays and illustrations model for parents and caregivers how such sensitive conversations might be led. They’re also a teaching tool for educators to guide middle grade readers through an exploration of self and community. It’s a book for families who have no choice but to have had ‘the talk’ with their children, and an invitation to allies to take active part in the dialogue for change.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random Children’s House for providing me with a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was one of my favorites reads of all time, at only one hundred and thirty pages. The many authors that contributed to this compilation of stories gave insight into conversations that take place in homes of immigrants and minorities around the country. “The Talk” opens the door to an understanding that can allow people to begin to look at the world from a more anti-racist view. The stories are not heavy handed or forceful. You can tell in the writing alone that they are written out of love and truth, their truth.

As a woman of color who has had “The Talk” with my own parents and later with my own children, reading this book made me feel validated. I finally felt as if I wasn’t the only one that needed to inform and be informed about what the world may throw our way simply due to our race. It is a balancing act of loving your race and the skin you’re in, while trying to understand why so many hate you because of it.

The thing I loved the most about this book (other than everything), is it is a read that can be digested and understood for the youngest of children to the oldest of adults. As our country tries to come to grips with the inequalities that people of color face, books such as this need to be out there in the forefront teaching all of us a better way. Making us realize that until we begin to see the heart of a person before their race and economic status we can’t fully become a truly great nation. As a librarian, I would love to see this book become required reading in schools across the country. My hope would be that it could help even our youngest understand the work that needs to be done to better race relations in America.
HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for any and all ages.

The Talk is a powerful collection of poems, stories, essays, and letters to contributing author's children that tackle what it means to identify as a minority population / person of color in current political times. There are gorgeous illustrations that accompany each story. The most powerful contribution, in my opinion, is "Ten" by Tracey Baptiste; it is about a woman of color teaching her young child ten rules to follow when being pulled over by the police. This needs to be an addition to every classroom library (ages 10 and up) and home libraries. "We wish we had the space to capture all of these conversations within these pages, because we know they are happening and we know people are hurting... we can all begin to build a more accepting world for each other."

Advanced reader's copy provided courtesy of #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“The Talk” is a series of essays, letters, poems, and short stories to children about race and racism. The editors explain in the forward about the different talks parents have with their children, sex, lifestyle, careers but the hardest one is about race.
The illustrations are beautiful and go well with the words they proceed.
A little boy standing up to a racist comment from a classmate or a grandmother’s letter about her father who flew as a Tuskegee airman and being a decorated war hero but being pulled over for no reason once home.
A mother learning the past to help raise a bi-racial child for the future. A mother’s letter about how a “compliment” is not a compliment
All the entries are amazingly told with a diverse group of authors. The reader can delve into the different aspects of what each person has dealt with and what they want their child(ren) to learn from the talk.
I highly recommend this book, not only for children but for adults who are unaware of how to begin a talk like this with their own children.
I would like to thank Crown Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for having the opportunity to read and review this book.

I loved everything about this book. It is a collection of essays, letters, poems, short stories from various authors. These vignettes are incredibly moving and personal. I was moved to tears many times. I highly recommend this book. As a teacher, would be great to do as read aloud accompanied by the author’s own text. This book will stick with me for a long time.