Review by Eleanor J. Bader
Writer-parent-college professor-activist Madeline Lane-McKinley’s latest book, Solidarity with Children, is at its most powerful when delineating the many ways the world ignores the needs of young people: allowing them to be unhoused and go hungry, deporting them and their caretakers, incarcerating their loved ones, subjecting them to the school-to-prison pipeline as well as the brutalities of war, and often disbelieving their accounts of abuse and neglect. Moreover, top-down, test-driven schooling overlooks their strengths and proclivities, and instead prioritizes rote learning over creativity. Add in racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, climate change, and rising authoritarianism, and it’s clear that the kids politicians describe as “our future” are in dire straits.
Solidarity with Children is a plea for change. But while the account nods to differing conceptions of childhood in different eras, its overarching argument — that adults and children must be allies and collaborators in remaking the world — the book does not adequately address the fact that adults, whether they are biologically connected to the children in their lives and communities or not, need to play a decisive role in educating and guiding them from childhood into adulthood.
Of course, children should be listened to, taken seriously, and respected, but relationships between adults and kids nonetheless require the establishment of boundaries and the loud and sometimes forceful use of the word ‘No.’ They also require trust. Still, in dreaming big, Solidarity with Children projects ways for adults and children to work together to promote liberatory education, healthier families, and open communications. It’s a robust conversation starter.
Solidarity With Children: An Essay Against Adult Supremacy by Madeline Lane-McKinley. Haymarket Books, November 2025.
Reviewer bio: Eleanor J. Bader is a Brooklyn, NY-based journalist who writes about books and domestic social issues for Truthout, Rain Taxi, The Progressive, Ms. Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Indypendent.
