All American Boys Genres: Young Adult Format: Hardcover
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In an unforgettable new novel from award-winning authors Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, 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?
But 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 tour de force shares the alternating perspectives of Rashad and Quinn as the complications from that single violent moment, the type taken from the headlines, unfold and reverberate to highlight an unwelcome truth.
I was so excited when I heard of this collaboration between Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely.
All American Boys hits all the hot buttons of society today. Told in alternating points of view, in clear black and white, AAB is sure to be censored, sure to be challenged, sure to be a classic. Powerful and Fearless, All American Boys is the novel we have been waiting for. A book that will get people angry, get people talking and hopefully get us one step closer to a united solution for our divided society.
Jason Reynolds is the one of the most powerful voices we have in YA today. His stories are brilliant, his writing superb and his contribution to the book world is priceless.
Brendan Kiely is a profound writer, a brave storyteller and an important new voice in YA.
Their collaboration in All American Boys is both brave and brilliant.
