All American Boys

By: Jason Reynolds, Brendan Kiely

Narrated by: Guy Lockard, Keith Nobbs

A 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor book, and recipient of the Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature.

In this New York Times bestselling novel, two teens—one black, one white—grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country bitterly divided by racial tension.

A bag of chips. That’s all sixteen-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galluzzo, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad’s pleadings that he’s stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad’s resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad’s every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered. But how can you stay still when someone is pounding your face into the concrete pavement?

There were witnesses: Quinn Collins—a varsity basketball player and Rashad’s classmate who has been raised by Paul since his own father died in Afghanistan—and a video camera. Soon the beating is all over the news and Paul is getting threatened with accusations of prejudice and racial brutality. Quinn refuses to believe that the man who has basically been his savior could possibly be guilty. But then Rashad is absent. And absent again. And again. And the basketball team—half of whom are Rashad’s best friends—start to take sides. As does the school. And the town. Simmering tensions threaten to explode as Rashad and Quinn are forced to face decisions and consequences they had never considered before.

Written in tandem by two award-winning authors, this four-starred reviewed tour de force shares the alternating perspectives of Rashad and Quinn as the complications from that single violent moment, the type taken directly from today’s headlines, unfold and reverberate to highlight an unwelcome truth.

Required Reading

This should be required reading for all high school students and staff in the US. Facilitated discussions which are open and honest about racism, loyalty, and humanness, among other topics, should be required of all staff and students.

Powerful

I adored this book it showed the real hardship of things that happened every day.

Necessary and Inspiring; Should Be Required Reading for the #BlackLivesMatter Generation

Necessary and Inspiring; Should Be Required Reading for the #BlackLivesMatter Generation

Really, this story is inclusive and representative enough that it could expand anyone's search for understanding at a crucial moment in this nation's history – hearing so many different different perspectives from characters reacting based on their own contextual connection to a shocking and terrible act was riveting and helped me to connect some dots with regard to aspects I hadn't fully considered . But I think that the appeal to young people in particular is strong and invites them to think about the view from outside the standard US/THEM that may be shaping their outlook depending on their own demographics and the media that informs the views that their own parents are passing on to them. The readers are both really good — convincing and appealing, they brought the narrative to life and their voicing of two really well-written protagonists left me wishing it was twice as long because I wanted to hear more about the lives of the two boys and their families – the supporting characters were fascinating as well. This book should definitely be in school libraries and I'd recommend it without reservation.

Real

Excellent narrators and writers! Loved the book! Moved me to Creating more opportunities for dialogues on race!

Made a difference

This made a difference. To be strong. To not be afraid and we must take to action. We must change the world. But that’s all for tomorrow. Tomorrow is our day to say I am alive. I am black in reality so glad I am head to write this.