Reading · Ignition Notes from Books For Littles

Hey friends!

TL;DR: Everything is falling apart, but it’s okay. I’ve got a plan. Also - I need you to read this and tell me what you want at the end, so I can make this a hug-like transition for you.

Okay? Okay. Don’t panic. Just work your way to the end and it’ll be fine.

Gif from Invader Zim in his dog suit with an eye twitch.

Are you feeling this nervous energy about? I’m having an antsy day. Are you jittery? I’m jittery!

I spent the morning avoiding real work (writing this email) by first deep-cleaning the basement and then drafting three increasingly angrier emails to my kiddo’s English teacher (which she will never see.)

Even now, I’m avoiding the point! Because the point of this email is complicated and frustrating and I’m just yapping, hoping that if I keep writing, it’ll just come out, and then I won’t have for formulate an elegant, ‘Yay isn’t this great?’ spin to make it all okay.

Darryl from the Office holding up his fists in a sarcastic cheer'

I’ve spent the last year thinking of a way to spin what I’m about to do as a Fun and Helpful Thing For You.

Which is why I avoided writing it. Because none of this is okay. It just sucks. It’s a consequence of failing, which is something I do sometimes. Oftentimes.

I pride myself on the ability to carry you through the worst, most horrific moments of humanity with the acknowledgement that this is not okay - but chin up - there is hope!

However - I have failed to single-handedly halt the American Colonial Experiment in it’s tracks. America managed to remain a colonizing supremacist military jerknozzle even despite my cool toolkits and kid-friendly zines and fun workshops that turn everyday parents into lean mean resistance machines!

My enormous, out-of-touch-with-reality-ego is feeling guilty about failing us all. I don’t like admitting that I am personally unable to shoestring a successful revolution on minimum wage armed only with an art school degree and a penchant for infodumping.

But that doesn’t mean I’ve given up hope.

Even when the world falls apart, we have opportunities to build things up better than they were before.

I am still all in on the hopepunk goal of igniting kind and courageous leaders to smash the kyriarchy!

Fighting for justice through education, collective work, and goofy relationship-building has continued to work. And none of our country’s shenanigans are actually new or more horrific than before.

So I’m still hopeful and dedicated to resistance because, well, what other options do we have? Lying down and just dissolving into a doom-scrolling slime mold?

Fighting for safety and hope and liberation seems like a way better use of our time than giving up and doing whatever it is that apathetic jerks do. Golf? Gender reveal parties? I don’t know and I don’t care. Apathy and ignorance is boring and fighting to make the world a better place is the funnest and hardest and most interesting and fascinating way to befriend the coolest people on earth, so really it’s the only path forward anyway.

Alexis from Schitt’s creek wearing waaay too much eyeliner with an exasperated ‘Oh my god just spit it out!’

What I’m trying to prepare you for is telling you that our family is giving up everything and fleeing the US.

DON’T PANIC! I know when your friends up and run, it’s a sign that things are bad, but not a sign that things are hopeless. Like I said, don’t panic. I am not abandoning you. I’m just moving someplace safe so I can focus on resistance, rather than surviving.

The shitty part (among many shitty but also sometimes fun parts) is that an immigrant, I’ll be limited by a restricted work visa. I explicitly can’t work for myself - which means unless someone wants to take over Raising Luminaries and hire me as a legit employee in our new country, I can’t run Raising Luminaries for a few years.

It’s fine! I mean - this SUCKS! But I have a plan!

David from Schitt’s creek shouting ‘okay! everybody calm down!’

To avoid dropping you off a cliff and to make sure you don’t feel abandoned or alone (I’m still here! Just father away!), I’ve spent the past few months tinkering and reconfiguring to make sure you still get the support you need.

So until I can upgrade my visa, here’s how this is going to work starting when I leave in July:

Books for Littles will remain online as a legacy library for free and public access run by volunteers.

So many parents have asked me to keep these resources free and accessible for families who can’t afford a paywall. This includes all toolkits, the Luminary word bank, book collections, curriculum, and more. So I’m licensing all of our Books For Littles intellectual property as free for personal and classroom use for caregivers and educators who need them to ignite kind and courageous leaders.

Accomplices from our community will maintain the library since I can’t touch it without violating my visa.

The problem is that I can no longer accept donations or payment for my labor. So the Books For Littles Legacy Library will only remain up if we have enough donors to cover the hosting and maintenance expenses I used to pay for. Starting in August, all paid substack subscriptions will be directed into our Piggy Bank fund to maintain the website, but we’ll need more donors to cover our costs. Please donate so everything we’ve build together doesn’t disappear.

a cartoon character says what about us in front of a red curtain — Leelah from Futurama being like “What about us?!” with grippy emphasis hands

Raising Luminaries will be formally separated from Books For Littles so our neurodivergent caregivers process groups can still gather. Our seasonal collectives, workshops, accountability spaces, advocacy guides, and all the resources I created to help you juggle advocacy and parenting will be located in our existing private member portals.

Enrollment will be temporarily closed and then invitation-only for new members until I can resume orienting new members when my visa upgrades. Our existing collectives and resources will remain privately accessible for alumni who have already registered for a lifetime membership, and any collectives that involve new members will be facilitated by alumni so I don’t violate my work visa.

The Luminary Braintrust sunsets on June 15th. Some features that were previously accessible only to members are now public access in the BFL Legacy Library (like my ridiculous rants about Family Movie Nights - enjoy!) while others will be incorporated into future Raising Luminaries collectives once I’m allowed to work again.

Hear that, immigration? I’m not getting paid! Don’t cancel my visa!

A scooby doo ghost, whom I shall resemble in your inbox for approximately 1-6 years, depending on how complicated things get

Younger families and educators are still searching for these resources, and this newsletter has helped them stay connected and learn how to get started.

I’ve also created A LOT of stuff for you over the past 14 years. Even our most ravenous readers have had a hard time keeping up with the hundreds (thousands?) or silly, helpful, and useful resources available on Books For Littles.

So for the next year or so, I’ll be like a virtual ghost who sends you emails from the past. Before I leave, I’ll schedule emails that highlight a feature on Books For Littles that is still free and accessible for all. Some of which you might have seen before but never got around to using, and some of which I’ve recently unlocked for public access.

To avoid violating my visa, I’ll have to draft a few years of newsletters before I leave in July. So if I say something that later becomes offensive, like promoting a book written by a guy who turns out to be a manatee serial killer, don’t come for me, I’m just the ghost of internets past and I don’t know the future!

Key from Key & Peele texting on the phone saying ‘Do you even want to hang out?’

I have a habit of over-preparing and over-delivering. So before I spend the next month writing two years of emails into the future like Paige from the Starlight Crystal (arguably one of Christopher Pike’s worst novels, I will never forgive him for this) - please leave a comment and tell me:

Do you even want emails from the past telling you about useful resources, or is this a silly idea and you don’t actually care?
How many features would you like per email? 1? 3? 5? (less features means I can schedule more emails for longer, more means I can tell you about them sooner.)
How often should I send these emails? Once a month? Quarterly? How often is too often?

I don’t want to overwhelm future you, but I have enough resources to share with you for the entirety of your kid’s childhood and then again for your entire grandparent era. Reign me in a little, if you can - advice is appreciated!

Things are falling apart!

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