My Protest

This book must be purchased and read to young children. As an educator, I found this book nurturing and truthful. My grandchild, 3 years old, loved the pictures and the storyline. When I completed reading the story, the question session began.MY

A True Story & an Exciting Read!

Imagine the curiosity, fascination, and life lessons a young child would experience as a participant in a powerful protest! Teamwork, participation in government, current events, following directions, writing, art, civil rights, and the list continues! As a public school educator for over 35 years, the learning potential connected with the book is enormous!

I highly recommend this true story to be shared with family, friends, and anyone who knows someone with a young child.

I look forward to a book series to follow!

The picture book and early reader My Protest, written by Linda Gaston-Bessellieu and co-authored by Tawana Bessellieu and Jaliyah Bessellieu-Webb, describes from a first-person perspective how a little girl, Jaliyah, together with her mother, aunt, and cousin Camille, attends a Black Lives Matter protest. She describes how they walked together, carrying poster signs supporting the aim of the protest, which was to help prevent black people from getting killed. Jaliyah describes how they all wore masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. She also shares the instructions given by the leader of the march and tells of the helpful bystanders’ reactions. The book ends with a photo of Jaliyah and her mother picketing in the street.

My Protest by Linda Gaston-Bessellieu, Tawana Bessellieu, and Jaliyah Bessellieu-Webb is about a little girl who went to a black lives matter protest with her mother, aunt, and cousin. She notices that she’s not the only kid at this protest but there are others with their parents also. Defining it the best way that she can, she tells us that they are walking and saying things so that black people will stop being killed. Since this happened during the covid outbreak, the little girl, her cousin, and everyone around them had to wear masks so they don’t catch the virus. As they were walking, they were shouting ‘No justice, no peace’ and ‘black lives matter. Signs were being held up as well as fists. Our little narrator had her sign that said ‘my life matters’, which her mother helped her make. She noticed how people driving by as well as police officers were looking at them, then there were nice people offering water and rides to those protesting. The girl ended up liking the experience, but it had been very tiring for her and she was exhausted by the time she got home.

My Protest by Linda Gaston-Bessellieu, Tawana Bessellieu, and Jaliyah Bessellieu-Webb is a fitting story for times like these where racism is at an all-time high. Told from a child's perspective, it recounts her experience of going to a Black Lives Matter protest. This unique true story is brilliantly inspired by the author's 4½-year-old granddaughter, who had joined the protest with her mother during the Coronavirus pandemic. Having heard her granddaughter's perspective on the event, the author realized that we rarely think of how children perceive perplexing and problematic events that can be troublesome even for mature adults. Armed with this new knowledge, the author decided to share this story, hoping it would shine a light on the complexity of racism for young children. With eye-catching illustrations, this short story has a way of getting to your heart.

My Protest, written by Linda Gaston-Bessellieu and illustrated by Juanita Taylor, is a non-fiction children's book centered around the Black Lives Matter protest attended by the primary author's daughter and grandaughter, Tawana Bessellieu and Jaliyah Bessellieu-Webb. Told through the eyes of four and a half-year-old Jaliyah. The experience is further underscored by the prevalence of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, as Jaliyah describes what she saw, heard, and felt when she joined family members in one of the many powerful Black Lives Matter marches. Written in the first person and with the raw honesty that only an innocent child has the capacity to convey, Jaliyah recounts masks and raised fists, signs declaring that her life matters and the forms of support offered by allies, and the emotional and physical exhaustion as the day came to a close.

Linda Gaston-Bessellieu, with her daughter Tawana Bessellieu and granddaughter, Jaliyah Bessellieu-Webb, has written a timely and important story called My Protest. Told from a child’s point of view, My Protest tells the story of attending a Black Lives Matter protest during the time of Covid. Our young protester explains what protesting means to her. She also explains why she is wearing a mask. We see the protest through her eyes. She shares the words they are chanting as they walk and talks about the people they meet and see along the way. A very powerful picture shows the sign she carries, ‘My Life Matters’.