Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of “The View” by Ramin Setoodeh

Ladies Who Punch is great fun. Its the kind of book that takes on pop culture in a smart way, but doesn’t take itself too seriously. The author, Ramin Setoodeh, is a journalist and a fan of The View and it comes through in the way the book is crafted and the details he shares with the reader.

As fan of The View myself, getting to revisit the history of the show I loved for years was a joy. Hearing how and why Barbara Walters started the show, and how it was cast was interesting and added so much to my understanding of the show itself. I also loved thinking back on major moments like Rosie O’Donnell’s take down of Donald Trump, and her fight with Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Not to mention Whoopi and her own dramatic moments. There is so much history from the show crammed into this book.

What impressed me most about this book is how Ladies Who Punch also is a commentary about women in entertainment. The View has been a staple of daytime TV for over 20 seasons and doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Setoodeh looks at how the lack of respect given to The View comes from a sexist media that covers the co-hosts and their “cat fights” as something less than the arguments we might see on CNN or MSNBC.

The main frame for the book is the 2016 election, not only because of what a shock it was and how incredibly transformative that moment was in America. But more because both Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump were recurring guests on The View and their stories are deeply rooted in the success of the show, just as the show’s success is connected to them. The use of this event as a catalyst to tell the story roots Ladies Who Punch in something more than just a behind the scenes look at a successful TV program, but rather cements it in the moment of American culture.

If you’re not a fan of The View this book might not be as resonant for you, though I think it is still a good book. But if you identify as a fan of the show, this book is a must read. It gets into the nitty gritty of famous moments and feuds and spotlights all the ladies you love to hate.

To hear more about this Ladies Who Punch from the author himself, check out Ramin Setoodeh on The Short Stacks.

  • Hardcover: 336
  • PublisherThomas Dunne Books; April 2, 2019
  • 4/5 stars
  • Buy Ladies Who Punch Amazon or IndieBound

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thestacks). We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of The Stacks.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

The Merchant of Venice is one of William Shakespeare’s more famous plays and is best known for being the play about “the Jew” but little more is said about this extremely complex and nuanced play. I was so glad to actually get a chance to reread it and attempt to examine the layers in this story.

What is always so powerful to me in the reading and rereading of Shakespeare’s plays is what these stories from hundreds of years ago say about the world we’re living in now. I couldn’t help but draw many connections between the anti-semitism in the play and racism and othering of Black and Brown bodies, and those that practice Judaism and Islam, that has been on full display in The United States in the last few years.

In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock, the Jew, lends out money and it isn’t repaid per the terms of the loan, and Shylock is ready to collect on the debt he is owed (pound of flesh anyone?). However once it turns out that he plans to fully collect everyone becomes incredulous and begs him to show a little mercy and compassion. This is an extremely common narrative in today’s society. After the murder of nine Black people at a church in Charleston, SC there was an immediate cry for the Black community to forgive the White Supremacist who murder these innocent people. We even saw the Black President of The United States, Barack Obama, sing “Amazing Grace” in his eulogy. This cry for mercy and forgiveness is often asked of “the other”.

Shakespeare is essentially asking his audience if it is fair to ask more of the aggrieved if they are outside the systems of power of the given society, weather it be Whiteness, Christian, or male?

He compounds all of this when the person who comes to defend the White Christian patriarchy in The Merchant of Venice is Portia disguised as a young male lawyer. She is the only person clever and even tempered enough to see a way around Shylock’s contract and save the day. Of course its very complicated because her actions essentially lead to humiliation for Shylock, who, while maybe a little rigid (or vidictive), is only following a contract he and his debtor agreed to.

When we talk about the power of the arts to change the world, I think, without sounding too hyperbolic, this play certainly has that ability. It asks the viewer (or reader) to look around and see the hypocrisy that we allow into our everyday life. To see that we are only willing to cling to the rule of law when it serves those in power. When the laws favor the marginalized we see the calls for mercy and forgiveness. We see the vitriolic language of hatred that leads to violence, embarrassment, and more internalized othering of those who are our most vulnerable.

There is a lot more that could be said about The Merchant of Venice, so far in my journey through Shakespeare’s cannon (#ShakeTheStacks Challenge) it feels like the most layered play. It feels urgent and painful and unfortunately more timely than I would like.

If you’ve seen or read this play I would love to hear you thoughts in the comments below.

Next month for #ShakeTheStacks Challenge, I’ll be reading Henry IV Part 1

  • Paperback: 103 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; Reprint edition (August 1, 2000)
  • 4/5 stars
  • Buy The Merchant of Venice on Amazon or IndieBound

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thestacks). We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of The Stacks.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

How We Fight White Supremacy: A Field Guide to Black Resistance by Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin

The Stacks received How We Fight White Supremacy from the publisher. For more information click here

This book is a collection of essays, poems, playlists, interviews, comics, and art pieces all answering the question “how do you fight White supremacy?”. A unique and inclusive work, How We Fight White Supremacy, does a fantastic job of showing the diversity and vastness of Black resistance.

What I loved most about this book is how dynamic it is. Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin have done a fantastic job of finding unique and differing voices within the Black community. The commitment to showing the vastness of Black experience pays off in a book that is not about any one thing, and yet still remains connected to the central idea of fighting White supremacy. From comedian to survivalist to author to Black Lives Matter co-founders, this book proves the point that Black people are not and have never been a monolith.

Solomon and Rankin have not only complied the words and images of Black activists and artists, but they too have lent their voices to this book in the form of ten essays each. These essays anchor this book. They tie together the ten chapters with reflection and give the reader a sense of who created this book, and why. They are personal and sometimes contradictory and serve as an invitation for the reader to reflect on their place in the struggle. These essays are in many ways a call to action.

There are some pieces I connected with more than others, which is of course to be expected in any book filled with the work of many contributors, but there was never a point where I felt that the book carried on too long or ran out of steam. I was excited to read what came next and learn how other people were doing the work of dismantling the racist and sexist White male patriarchy.

This is a powerful book with a sense of humor and a sense of style. Check it out for yourself. It is worth it just to see the many amazing Black thought leaders included in this book respond to the prompt, “how do you fight White supremacy?”.

If you have read this book, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments, and if you’re looking for more about How We Fight White Supremacy check out both of the authors on The Short Stacks.

The Short Stacks 15: Akiba Solomon & Kenrya Rankin//How We Fight White Supremacy

  • Paperback: 304
  • PublisherBold Type Books (March 26, 2019)
  • 4/5 stars
  • Buy How We Fight White Supremacy Amazon or IndieBound

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thestacks). We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of The Stacks.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

A Midsummer’s Night Dream by William Shakespeare

This month for #ShakeTheStacks Challenge I was excited to read one of William Shakespeare’s romantic comedies, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies, which makes sense because it is easy to understand and full of fun characters who aren’t afraid to go after what they want, even if it gets a little out of hand. The play has three casts of characters that cross paths through out the show. There are the lovers, the fairies, and the mechanicals (an acting troop). There isn’t much of a plot, mostly a lot of people running around in a forest.

My favorite part of this play are the two female lovers, Helena and Hermia. They are smart and sassy and really fun characters who drive the action of the play, without them, the plot wouldn’t exist. They’re part of a love rectangle, with shifting allegiances which makes for great fun. The young ladies are so emotional you never know what they’ll say next. In the scenes with the lovers you get a sense Shakespeare knows what its like to be a teenager in love, because the characters are so unpredictable and well written.

When it comes to the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream there isn’t much there. Some spells and mistaken identity, and then a wedding at the end, of course. If you don’t see the play and just read the text, it feels sort of silly. Which, I’m discovering on my journey through Shakespeare’s work, is the case with a lot of his comedies, since they are plays and are meant to be seen. In this play there is a whole section revolving around the fairy queen, Titania, falling in love with an actor, Bottom, despite the fact that he has a donkey’s head. Its really silly, but without the representation on stage you miss the whole fun of it. Reading these comedies requires more focus from the reader and a lot more imagination.

If you’re new to reading Shakespeare, I highly suggest this one. It has some really stunning writing (Titania and Oberon), both rhyming verse and prose, it has a lot of fun characters, and it has been made into a movie, so if you want to test your understanding you can watch it as well.

Next month for #ShakeTheStacks Challenge, I’ll be reading King John.

  • Paperback: 144 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; Reprint edition (August 1, 2000)
  • 4/5 stars
  • Buy A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Amazon or IndieBound

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thestacks). We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of The Stacks.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels in America by Isaac Butler and Dan Kois

The Stacks received The World Only Spins Forward from the publisher. For more information click here.

To write a book about a play using only the words of other people is a somewhat disjointed prospect, and yet, that is exactly what Isaac Butler and Dan Kois set out to do with The World Only Spins Forward, their oral history of Tony Kushner’s play, Angels in America. It is the six degrees of Tony Kushner game, and it totally works.

As someone who loves the theatre and people who create it out of thin air, The World Only Spins Forward is an inside look at elite theatre creators doing some of their best work. We get to hear from artistic directors, actors, critics, scenic designers and more. The book is a lesson in how much time and effort and failure can go into creating something. It is a book about the artistic process. The World Only Spins Forward is a theatre kids dream, and because Angels in America is what it is, a seminal work of the modern theatre, the book ends up being accessible to the not-so-theatre geeky, too.

For those who don’t know, Angels in America is a two part play that was born in the late 1980’s. Its also known as “that gay play” or “the AIDS play” or some other minimizing or condescending, moniker. It is in truth a play that centers the AIDS crisis and gay characters, and it is, of course, much more. And the journey that the play goes on from its inception to the most recent production on Broadway in 2017 is well documented in The World Only Spins Forward.

Butler and Kois are clever in how they mix the mundane details of the theatre with the political implications of full frontal nudity on stage in 1993. They attempt to make the micro macro, and vice versa. Mostly they succeed, though I could have used more context for the times outside of the life of the play (for example, there is no mention of Magic Johnson’s announcement of his AIDS diagnosis, which happened in 1991). I wanted more on how the artists were grappling with real life, and how real life was allowed into this fantasy world.

To read Meryl Streep and Nathan Lane discuss acting and working with great text is one of the many joys of this book. To read truly creative people talk about their process and the obstacles of creating greatness is inspiring. To recognize the power that a piece of theatre can have on the lives of those who see it, and those tangentially connected to it is moving. The World Only Spins Forward gives its readers these things and more.

We have a lot of content about The World Only Spins Forward on the podcast, listen to the episodes below. Bonus, they are both spoiler free.

  • Hardcover: 448
  • PublisherBloomsbury USA (February 13, 2018)
  • 4/5 stars
  • BuyThe World Only Spins Forward Amazon or IndieBound

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thestacks). We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of The Stacks.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

The Stacks received Friday Black from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. For more information click here.

In his debut book, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah has crafted an ambitious and exciting short story collection with, Friday Black. The stories meet at the intersection of race, politics, and capitalism. And just like the range of topics and ideas Adjei-Brenyah addresses with these stories, the genre is likewise ranging and evolving as the collection goes on. The stories of Friday Black are genre-bending and contain elements of surrealism, science fiction, satire, and afrofuturism. Nothing about this collection is easy to define, which of course, is part of the magic.

We discussed Friday Black for The Stacks Book Club with Wade Allain-Marcus, and the conversation is as ranging as the book itself, so please go give it a listen. You can also hear author Adjei-Brenyah as a guest on The Short Stacks talk about how the book came into the world. I found that both of these conversations helped me to form my opinions on this book.

The use of race and violence in this book is genius. We are asked to confront what happens to our society if White capitalist patriarchy is our guiding value. If Black life continues to be made expendable, and if we continue to think that our goodness is tied up in the things we own, where does that path take us?. Friday Black forces us to look at one set of answers to these questions. It is bleak and grotesque in all together terrifying.

The stories that landed most with me were “The Finkelstein 5”, “Zimmerland”, and “Friday Black”. Each one was shocking and smart and violent and thought provoking. They engaged with politics and race as well as engaging with genres and imagery. They felt like anchors for me on my journey through Friday Black.

Friday Black is the kind of story collection that keeps you thinking and working to decipher the many hidden gems and references. I can’t tell you that I “got” all the stories. Some things made little sense to me in the moment, and still remain unclear. However some of the stories have come more into focus as I have time away from the book, and have talked to others about their understandings. The stories feel a little ahead of their time and I wonder how I might feel about Friday Black in 10 or 15 years. I hold out hope that the stories I didn’t quite understand (“The Hospital Where”) will become more clear and more resonant with time.

Adjei-Brenyah uses a lot of satire in this book, and that can often be challenging to decipher, especially in the written word. If you miss the subtleties in the stories, you might just miss the whole point. That rings especially true in the story “Lark Street”, where a young man comes face to face with the twin fetuses that his girlfriend has recently terminated through the use of a morning after pill. If you look at this story out of context, it can feel like a pro-life fable about the autonomy of any form of life. However, in conversation with the other stories, we see a cautionary tale that mocks the idea of embryos being anything other than a collection of cells. That is how these stories work together as a true collection. The topics may vary wildly, but the through line is the tone and the controversial nature of the topics. They all play to the same themes but engage with them on many fronts.

While not every story in the book landed for me, the overall ambition and scope of the project is thrilling. Adjei-Brenyah is debut author with a lot to say, and after reading Friday Black I look forward to whatever is next for him. I hope this project will get produced, as I would love to see the world of Friday Black on the screen.

We have so much more on Friday Blackon the podcast, listen to the episodes below.

  • Paperback: 208
  • PublisherMariner Books; First Edition edition (October 23, 2018)
  • 4/5 stars
  • Buy Friday Black on Amazon

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thestacks). We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of The Stacks.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung

Nicole Chung’s story of her transracial adoption, search for her birth parents, and becoming a mother come together beautifully in this, her memoir, All You Can Ever Know. We featured Chung and her book on The Stacks podcast, you can hear Chung talk about her process on The Short Stacks, and a full discussion of the book (with spoilers) with author Vanessa McGrady for The Stacks Book Club.

What makes All You Can Ever Know special, is Chung’s willingness to be open and vulnerable with her story. She embraces the complexities of adoption and identity, and her reader is privileged to get to hear her inner most thoughts on these subjects. Chung weaves three families together, her birth family, her adoptive family, and the family she has created with her husband in the most fluid and natural way. It all makes sense. She finds the balance between the three and that allows for a much deeper understanding of who she is.

Chung was adopted by White parents into a White family and community, and is by birth Korean. This element, her transracial adoption, was what I found most interesting. I would have loved even more about this as Chung grows older and comes into her own. We hear a lot about how it effected her as a child, and her desires to be white, or more accurately, be the same as those around her. However, as the book goes on we don’t really get to revisit her relationship to her ethnicity once out of her White hometown.

I really enjoyed reading this book and learning about adoption in such an intimate way. Chung doesn’t speak for all adoptees or for anyone else in All You Can Ever Know, and yet she is able to tap into the ideas of family and belonging that feel universal. I suggest this book to lovers of memoir, people interested in adoption stories, and people who appreciate small stories.

We have so much more on All You Can Ever Know on the podcast, listen to the episodes below.


To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thestacks). We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of The Stacks.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare

For the month of December, my Shakespeare read for The #ShakeTheStacks Challenge was, Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare’s first attempt at a tragedy.

Titus Andronicus is a revenge play centered around Titus Andronicus, a Roman General, who is locked in a cycle of personal revenges with Tamora, Queen of the Goths. The play is bloody and brutal, to the point that the first scene includes a handful of murders, one of which is Titus killing his own son. Shakespeare was not going for subtle with this play.

By far the most interesting part of Titus Andronicus centers on the character of Lavinia, Titus’ daughter. I don’t want to give too much away, but the scenes involving Lavinia, are some of the most fantastic scenes. She does not speak, instead the men around her speak at her and for her, and are given a voice when she is not. They must interpret her thoughts and her pain, and it is excruciating to read.While I’m not sure what Shakespeare was sayingabout women in his own time, Lavinia struck a chord with me now, at the end of 2018. I kept thinking of an essay, by Lacy M. Johnson, called “Speak Truth to Power” (which can be found in her amazing book of essays, The Reckonings).

Aaron, the Moor, is another fascinating character to read in modern times. He is Black and is a complete and total villain. He is given little in the way of redemption, and reaffirms his own villainy until the end of the play. I think so much about how this role would have been seen throughout history, this angry, violent, remorseless Black man as the epitome of evil. What kind of actor plays Aaron? Is he a brute? Is he cerebral? Is he ever played by a charming man? Or a light skinned Black man? Or is he always a stereotype of the angry dark Black man? How does this role evolve over time? I could reflect on Aaron (and Lavinia) and how the character functions in this play for a long time.

Titus Andronicus is shockingly easy to understand. While the character’s names are hard to remember, the text itself is accessible (for Shakespeare) in a way previous plays have not been. Its simple really, a play predicated on revenge. The ending of the play is too short, the fallout is too quick. I think thats partially because this is Shakespeare’s first tragedy. I know he gets better at elongating the pain and suffering at the end of his plays.

I really enjoyed Titus Andronicus more than I thought I would. It touches on mercy and justice in a way that I was not expecting, and gave me a lot to think about when it comes to Blackness and the representation of women on stage.


In case you’re reading along with me for The #ShakeTheStacks Challenge, I wanted to give you a heads up to what I’ll be reading in 2019. You don’t have to read along in the same order as me, and you can feel free to join me for one or all. However you decide to do it, my plan is below.


  • Paperback: 107 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Books Australia; Pelican Shakespeare edition (January 1, 2000)
  • 4/5 stars
  • Buy Titus Andronicus on Amazon

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thestacks). We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of The Stacks.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs in which we receive a small commission when products are purchased through some links on this website. This does not effect my opinions on books and products. For more information click here.

Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger by Rebecca Traister

I was thrilled to pick up Good and Mad after hearing Rebecca Traister on the Hysteria podcast. A book about the power of women’s anger and not the same tropes about shrill women felt particularly exciting. Especially during a year that brought us the Kavanaugh hearings, children being torn from their families at the border, #TimesUp and a whole lot more. Controversies and violations that women everywhere had every right to be pissed about.

Here is more on Good and Mad

In the year 2018, it seems as if women’s anger has suddenly erupted into the public conversation. But long before Pantsuit Nation, before the Women’s March, and before the #MeToo movement, women’s anger was not only politically catalytic—but politically problematic. The story of female fury and its cultural significance demonstrates the long history of bitter resentment that has enshrouded women’s slow rise to political power in America, as well as the ways that anger is received when it comes from women as opposed to when it comes from men.

With eloquence and fervor, Rebecca tracks the history of female anger as political fuel—from suffragettes marching on the White House to office workers vacating their buildings after Clarence Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court. Here Traister explores women’s anger at both men and other women; anger between ideological allies and foes; the varied ways anger is perceived based on its owner; as well as the history of caricaturing and delegitimizing female anger; and the way women’s collective fury has become transformative political fuel—as is most certainly occurring today. She deconstructs society’s (and the media’s) condemnation of female emotion (notably, rage) and the impact of their resulting repercussions.

In a time where most people seems to be somewhere between generally irritated and in a state of full out rage, this book felt particularly helpful in contextualizing the world. As a woman who has often been asked to calm down, or slow down, or think things out, Good and Mad gave me the encouragement I needed to continue in my rage, it gave me permission.

Rebecca Traister is the kind of person you want with you in a debate. She is smart, articulate, and can give you specific examples to prove any point. In Good and Mad Traister’s research feels comprehensive. She connects the dots between the suffrage movement, of both women and Black folks in America, to the current anti-Trump moment. She takes her time making points and documenting the many times where angry women have gotten the job done. There is so much in this book, from media bias against women to the history of rage at work to political campaigns to social movements, and Traister skillfully ties these ideas together. She underlines the history which allows for something like a #MeToo movement to flourish. She is a serious journalist committed to her beat and it pays off in this book.

One of the most complicated and frustrating parts of the women’s movement or feminism (or whatever you want to call it) is the role of White women. White women have for years used their proximity to White men to wreak havoc on people of color, while simultaneously calling for action and change in the ways that benefit them (abortion rights, for example), forgetting their success is predicated on that of all women. And though sometimes it may seem like all women benefit from the success of White initiatives, often time it is women of color who are harmed (see: Margaret Sanger). Traister doesn’t shy away from explaining these types of double standards. It is one of the most refreshing parts of this book. Traister trusts her audiences ability to think deeply about complicated matters and draw their own conclusions. She invites the contradictions as proof of the strength of a coalition like “The Woman’s Movement”

From politicians to pop singers to labor activism, this book has it all. It is a great crash course on women’s rights and rage The same rage that has propelled women spark movements. There are moments the book goes on a too long and sometimes the writing can feel dry, but it it often balanced by Traister own personal grapplings with feminism, which are fantastic. It is a powerful thing to read Good and Mad in the years following the 2016 election, and the months following the 2018 election. It is a reminder that women;s anger has been, and will continue to be an important and useful force for change.

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster (October 2, 2018)
  • 4/5 stars
  • Buy on Good and Mad Amazon

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of this show. If you prefer to do a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. Shopping through these links helps support the show, but does not effect my opinions on books and products. For more information click here.

Real Jungle Tales by Jesse Byrd and Illustrated by Andressa Meissner

This week on The Short Stacks, we talked to children’s book author Jesse Byrd about his newest book, Real Jungle Tales. You can listen to that conversation here. 

Real Jungle Tales tells the story of a little Native American girl named Zee who gets punished on Halloween and can’t go trick-or-treating, and comes up with a plan to get candy from her friends. The book is for ages 4-8 and is in rhyming verse. 

Real Jungle Tales is beautiful, the illustrations (by Andressa Meissner)  are playful and vivid, and in sync with the energy and personality of our protagonist, Zee. She is painting vibrant pictures with her words, and the images match. There is a sense of whimsy as she schemes, which is shown threw the rhythms of the rhyming verse and the bright images. Byrd and Meissner are a perfect fit for Zee’s and her story.

Where this book really shines is the unapologetic and deliberate centering of Zee, a clever, creative, and playful Native American girl. We don’t often to get see that in children’s books, young girls of color leading the narrative, but Byrd has committed his work to this kind of representation, you get to meet a Martine a creole girl in his previous book, Sunny Days

According to Cooperative Children’s Book Center’s multicultural statistics for 2017 you are more likely to find a children’s book that centers a dinosaur than a Native American child, and when books have female leads, they are “highly likely” to be in pink or a bow (even when they are animals). Byrd doesn’t engage in any of that, instead he presents us with Zee. Smart, clad in a safari hat, and confident beyond measure. You can tell that he really respects children and wants to present them as they are, diverse, powerful, exciting.

It should also be said, that this book doesn’t focus on Zee’s ethnicity, instead it focuses on her desire to get some candy. Zee is not struggling with identity, or troubled, this book is not about overcoming societal obstacles, which many children’s books that have characters of color seem to be. No, this book is about a confident little girl problem solving and being herself. 

I did give a copy of this book to my 7 year old niece, and she loved it, sat there reading it at a restaurant, she is a little Black girl, and she saw herself in Zee. It was very powerful, not only for her, but also for me. 

I recommend this book to any of the young children in your life, especially if they are children of color and/or are great story tellers, or maybe just to kids who really like animals. I would challenge you to give this book to white children as well as children of color, and to little boys as well as girls. Why not?

You can get your copy of this book through Jesse’s publishing company Jesse B. Creative Inc. or through Amazon

Don’t forget to listen to Jesse Byrd on The Short Stacks discussing Real Jungle Tales and more. 

  • Hardcover: 24 pages
  • Publisher: Jesse B. Creative Inc. (January 16, 2018)
  • 4/5 stars
  • Buy on Real Jungle Tales. Amazon

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of this show. If you prefer to do a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. Shopping through these links helps support the show, but does not effect my opinions on books and products. For more information click here.