Counting on Community

“Meaningful change begins with doing small things at the local level, like picking up trash on the street, helping a neighbor, planting a community garden. Counting on Community encourages our children to embrace the power within each of us to create the world anew, to become SOLUTIONARIES.”

– Grace Lee Boggs, author of The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century

“Not only is Counting on Community an endearing an beautifully illustrated book, it represents the best hopes and dreams for our communities.”

– Bryant Terry, host of the PBS series "The Endless Feast" and author of Afro-Vegan

“Innosanto Nagara is writing a new kind of children's book. Besides being a fun, rhythmic, and lively text to read, the book's illustrations present a world of diversity and complex, inclusive beauty. We should shower our children, schools, libraries, and our communities with books like this one.”

– Julia Alvarez, author of A Wedding in Haiti: the Story of a Friendship and In the Time of the Butterflies

“In this powerful concept book follow-up to A Is for Activist, Nagara tackles counting. Typical urban neighborhood pastimes are depicted with verve and vibrant colors, including working in community gardens and drawing with sidewalk chalk. Young readers will have fun trying to locate an ever-present duck on each spread. Racial and ethnic diversity is celebrated on every page, and the lyrical text will inspire budding and longtime activists alike.”

– School Library Journal

“At last, a counting book that will speak to all kinds of different people, living in diverse environments! Counting on Community has real-world content that breaks up stereotypes while teaching.”

– Novella Carpenter, author of Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

“The decision to publish it as a board book could, in itself, be considered an act of taking a stand and giving voice. This is not a book adapted into a board book, but an intentional decision to create a space that values our youngest readers as those who should be invited into the conversation ... [W]hat I think Innosanto captures so poignantly ... are the little ways of showing up: shared meals, celebrations, making art and music, working and playing together. Because of this, and the the style of illustration that you describe, I am able to find my community (which is currently the middle of a rainforest in Panama) between these pages. These illustrations allow us to see ourselves and to consider the ways we contribute to and are nourished by our communities–or perhaps, the things we wish we paid more attention to.”

– Dorea Kleker and Lauren Pangle, Worlds of Words

“A difficult concept is simply and strikingly illustrated for the very youngest members of any community, with a counting exercise to boot… Nagaro shows an urban community that is multicultural, supportive, and happy—exactly like the neighborhoods that many families choose to live and raise their children in… Nagara's graphic design skills are evident, with deep colors, interesting angles, and strong lines, in a mix of digital collage and ink.”

“... a counting book that celebrates active communities, devoting pages to everything from urban farming and chalk drawing to potlucks and protests… Nagara’s vibrant digital collages hum with energy as a multicultural crew of children and adults work, play, and collaborate. Brushed, woodgrain-style textures lend an organic feel to the images, while radiating lines in the backgrounds emphasize the idea that close-knit communities like this one have real power.”

– Publishers Weekly