A Cage Is a Cage: A Children’s Book on Abolition

Available for preorder.

Lions and tigers and bears and prison abolition, oh my!

Hurriya doesn’t want to go to sleep. Tomorrow, she must visit her dad at the prison, and she wishes he could just be home with her instead.

As Hurriya drifts into a night of wild and wonderful dreams, she meets animals big and small who all have one thing in common: none of them want to live in cages. Through her adventures with panthers, snakes, deer, and more, Hurriya begins to imagine a world where everyone can be free.

Tender, imaginative, and beautifully illustrated, A Cage Is a Cage is a story about love, courage, and the belief that young people can participate in the struggle to abolish both human and nonhuman cages.

All royalties from this book go to the Rosenberg Fund for Children, which supports the educational and emotional needs of children whose parents have faced repression because of their progressive activism and are no longer able to fully provide for their children.

Praise

“From the breathtaking illustrations to the beauty and simplicity of the story itself, A Cage Is a Cage makes the fight to free our political prisoners accessible for all ages. As he did so astutely with Rattling the Cages, Davidson again places love and solidarity at the center of our struggle for abolition. Until every cage is empty of all living creatures, A Cage Is a Cage should be required reading for all.”
—Angela Y. Davis, RFC Advisory Board member, author, and distinguished professor emerita

“Teaching our children the truth about what it means to stand for the water, the land, and our people is powerful medicine. I’m grateful that A Cage Is a Cage helps carry those teachings forward so young ones understand the courage, love, and responsibility that come with protecting what is sacred.”
—Red Fawn Janis, Oglala Lakota Water Protector and former political prisoner

“A Cage Is a Cage is not just a book to give to kids whose parents are imprisoned, even though I wish I could have read it when my mom and dad were behind bars. It is required reading for kids of all ages as we contend with this epoch of wanton incarceration, disappearances, and rendition; as we resist the masked kidnappers who fill our streets, and fight the construction of ICE detention facilities in industrial parks throughout the nation. Grounded in legacy, community, and imagination, A Cage Is a Cage is a hopeful story of resistance that cuts through the barbed wire and bars that punish us all.”
—Frida Berrigan, cofounder of Witness Against Torture, War Resisters League national committee member, and author of It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood

“Children know what a cage is. Or do they? In Josh Davidson’s warm and provocative A Cage Is a Cage, he invites children to think more deeply about cages, and who they confine. Too often, cages—including those that imprison human beings—are missing from the curriculum. This beautifully illustrated book will help address that silence.”
—Bill Bigelow, curriculum editor, Rethinking Schools

“What a beautiful book! A Cage Is a Cage resonates with children’s natural empathy to show that no living creatures, including human beings, should be in cages. In the process, the book presents several political prisoners and what they were working for in brief and accessible language without falling into the common trap for political children’s books of being overly correct-linest or preachy. The illustrations are gorgeous. I can’t wait to read this book to my grandson!”
—David Gilbert, former political prisoner and author of Love and Struggle: My Life in SDS, the Weather Underground, and Beyond and No Surrender

“In a nation that consigns more people to live in cages than any other nation in the world, A Cage Is a Cage is timely and needed. If we want our children to know that a more just and humane world without prisons is possible, we must teach them young to reject the idea that locking people in cages for years, decades, and generations will keep us safe. Read this book to your children. Offer it as a gift to the adults and other children in your life. We could all use a little storytelling that helps us imagine and work towards building a better world.”
—dequi kioni-sadiki, lifelong organizer with and on behalf of u.s. Political Prisoners & Prisoners of War, and coeditor of Look for Me in the Whirlwind: From the Panther 21 to 21st Century Revolutions

“One of the most overlooked aspects of the brutality of prison is the impact it has on a captive’s family, specifically children. How do you explain imprisonment to a little one? With A Cage Is a Cage, Josh and Mica created a piece of art for children and parents alike. They take on the task with empowering storytelling, magisterial art, and a gentleness that children will understand and hopefully take comfort and solace from. This original and desperately needed children’s book is one-of-a-kind, and one that will resonate for decades as a powerful tool to help soothe and heal.”
—Eric King, former political prisoner, author of A Clean Hell, and coeditor of Rattling the Cages

“I implore you to feed the fertile and blooming minds of children the truth. This book will help young children learn what’s really going on in this world so that they don’t go forward in their journey in ignorance or masked reality. Read A Cage Is a Cage and help me get free!”
—Oso Blanco, Indigenous artist, author, musician, and current political prisoner

About the Contributors

Josh Davidson is an anarchist and abolitionist, a member of the Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar collective, and part of the Children’s Art Project with political prisoner Oso Blanco. He has edited two books, Rattling the Cages and A Clean Hell, both with former political prisoner Eric King. He works with the Zinn Education Project, which promotes the teaching of people’s history in classrooms and provides free lessons and resources for educators. He lives in Eugene, OR.

Mica Fares is an anarchist, organizer, and artist working to make art that kindles fights for liberation. Their work centers the plants and animals of places that are important to them, from the conifers of the Pacific Northwest to the olive trees of the SWANA region where they have roots. Their art can also be found on the covers of the media project they illustrate for, the Dissonant Times, and in many zines, if you know where to look. They live in Eugene, OR.

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