Allies is a collection of essays and experiences of people from different groups in society who are often considered as “Others” aka, everyone who isn’t a straight, white, cis person.

It discusses privilege, and what you can do with yours.

Telling stories of their experiences of allyship - being allies, needing them, and failing to be one - and learning from it.

This was a great, yet harrowing anthology that has made me want to step up, and speak up at injustices facing many in the world today.

This book is extremely powerful and educational. A must-read for anyone who wishes to be a better ally to marginalised communities.

A collection of personal essays about discrimination of all kinds. The writers talk about how important it is to find help and support, and how it might not come from the places you need or expect. How you’re likely, as an ally, to get things wrong sometimes but that you need to keep trying, and not let fear of doing the wrong thing keep you silent. And most of all, how unique everyone’s situation is.

Allies is a fantastic look at how we can both be and fail to be allies. Each author reminds the reader that allyship is an ever-growing, ever-changing process in which we never really arrive. I loved how each segment shares the author's joys, challenges, failures, and struggles of working to be good allies. A wonderful read for teens and adults alike.

This insightful collection of sixteen essays is an excellent resource for anyone who wishes to gain an understanding of the lives of individuals who might feel marginalised by their ethnicity, their religious beliefs, a disability or their sexual identity. It is pitched at a Young Adult readership but I think that the content is valuable for adults of any age. The goal of the book is to educate and enable the reader to use whatever privilege they might possess to become an ally to those who face challenges and perhaps discrimination, micro aggressions or outright bullying in their daily lives.

I am embarrassed to admit that I had not really encountered the terms ally or micro aggression until I attended a disability workshop run by the well-known campaigner Samantha Renke earlier this year. It was listening to her daily, lived experience of the challenges that she faces negotiating a world that is not designed to enable her, that opened my eyes to the need for support or ally-ship from those of us who can encourage change. This book fulfills the same task, with contributions from authors who generously present their own experiences of either being made to feel marginalised or their attempts to fulfill the role of ally. It explains that micro-aggressions are the constant undermining comments that seem to diminish or dismiss an individual’s worth and that we cannot ignore these if we want to be an ally.

One of the aspects that I most appreciated is the tone of gentle encouragement, and forgiveness throughout. It can be very difficult to keep up with the evolving language around ethnicity or sexuality if you are not immersed in the study of it and several of the essays acknowledge that it is easy to inadvertently use the wrong words. The advice is to listen carefully to anyone who corrects you, apologise for any unintended offence caused by your words and continue to progress on your quest to be an ally. I found this to be very reassuring as I try and sometimes fail to get the language correct. In the opening essay, Dana’s Absolutely Perfect Fail-Safe No Mistakes Guaranteed Way to be an Ally, Dana Alison Levy states:

“Being a good ally without making mistakes is like eating popcorn without dropping any on the floor: it’s possible, but let’s be honest, it rarely happens.”

My takeaways from this book were that a mindset of openness, civility, empathy and kindness are required from us all to help every member of our society feel valued and that we can all learn from and support each other. I feel indebted to the sixteen authors who were prepared to open up about their experiences to help us all develop empathy and I really like the essay (and illustrated story) format that allows you to dip in and out and refresh your mind whenever necessary. At the end of the book there is a comprehensive list of further resources to explore, suggested by each of the contributors. I think that this will be a valuable resource for anyone who wishes to play their part in making society and their workplace kinder and more inclusive and I would recommend it to all workplace, academic and public libraries.

"Allies" is a great collection of stories of allyship (examining it, showing it, and being in need of) written by a diverse group of authors. The multitude of voices and experiences is what for me was precious about this book as it allows the reader to familiarise themself with the concept of being and ally and how to do it in a way that is not self-congratulatory and performative but effective and change-promoting.

Considering the book is aimed at younger readers, I found it really valuable that the authors come from YA background, as their names would be probably known to the audience.

I also appreciate the vulnerability of the authors. Sharing such personal experiences is not always easy but they managed to do it in a self-reflective way that resonates with the reader, and in each story there is a take home message that inspires people to be better allies.

All the books I read and review start off with the full 5 stars and I'm always hopeful that I'll finish the book with all 5 stars firmly in place.

I'm already confuzzled about who this book is aimed at - it sounds like adults who are looking for someone to support them through their difficulties standing up to people who are showing prejudice against them for whatever reason, but the publisher is a children's publisher and those who are sharing their stories are authors who write for teens, so I'm not sure what sort of headspace I need to get into - the disabled grown-up or the children's author? I'll find out as I read I suppose.

Ah right, it's for teens 'cos the top of page 16 mentions "reading in school" so I know which headspace I'm in now :-)

I'm about to put what the first essay offered into practise with being a quiet ally... the second essay is an open letter addressed to "the young black queer" - the Q in LGBTQIA stands for "questioning" not "queer". There, I'm already practising being a better ally!

This book is really good and all five stars are still firmly in place. Up to section four now.

Oooh! A child needing an ally because of his wheelchair... I'll be paying particularly close attention to this bit 'cos I use a wheelchair too!

The child in the wheelchair in this section has just opened my eyes into what happens in telethons like Comic Relief and Children in Need... the people that are featured are being used as tools to get money! I've no doubt that the money *does* help those it's intended for, but like this writer has just said, instead of aiming to cure the incurable, they should be focussed on improving their lives too!

The writer who was wheelchair-bound and in need of transport after their accessible vehicle was crashed into, managed to raise the money her family needed to rent a vehicle while hers was being repaired. She set up a Go Fund Me page to raise the money and tapped into her poster-child experiences to raise the money... what an incredible girl!

Oooh! Maybe I was wrong at the start of this review when I said that the Q stood for "questioning" instead of "queer"? A J Sass has just used both words on the same page, so maybe they are suitable for use interchangably?

Now they're talking about NaNo too... even more reason to love this book!

I'm exactly half way through the book now and the eighth section was amazingly different, in a good way, from the previous seven sections.

I dunno where the last several hours have disappeared to, but this book is incredible and I'm so glad I was able to get an ARC of it from NetGalley via the publisher!

Each and every one of those 5 stars are still firmly in place at the end of the book. I reckon it's a must-read for everyone, teens and adults alike.