May 6, 2020
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
All American Boys
by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
Atheneum
Rashad is on his way to a party when he stops at the local market for chips. He is getting his phone out of his duffel, digging around trying to find it under his ROTC uniform, when another shopper, a white professional woman, backs up and falls over him. Because Rashad is a black teen, assumptions are made and a police officers decides he has to stick up for the victim, the woman.
He beats Rashad even after cuffing the young man and throwing him to the sidewalk. One of Rashad’s classmates, Quinn, sees what is happening and initially fails to recognize Rashad but is still freaked out because the cop is his best friend’s brother. The story follows the lives of both young men and how they change as Rashad is released from the hospital.
Rashad has to find his voice.
Quinn has to understand that being racist can mean keeping quiet and going on with life as usual because something isn’t your problem.
This is an amazingly powerful book written in two voices – Rashad and Quinn. The authors got to know each other on a publicity tour put together by their publisher. They decided after the Michael Brown killing that they needed to write this book.
I had read some of Reynolds other work, I especially liked Long Way Down, but this may be the first time that I’ve ever read Kiely’s work but it won’t be the last. Books like this, dealing with issues of race and racism, remain important as African Americans die from COVID-19 at a disproportionate rate. The reasons why have to do with poverty, access to health care, and overcrowding.
In spite of the serious themes addressed in this book, it ends on a note of hope as two young men truly see each other.
–SueBE
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