All American Boys
by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely
Published by Athenium
on September 29, 2015
Genre: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction / Contemporary
Length: 316 pages
Ages: 12 & up
Grade Level: 7 - 9

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Literary Awards:

Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award (2016)
Coretta Scott King Book Award Nominee for Author Honor (2016)
Walter Dean Meyers Award (2016)
Keystone to Reading Book Award Nominee for High School (2017)
Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Nominee (2017)
Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award Nominee for Young Adults (2017)
Rhode Island Teen Book Award Nominee (2017)
Evergreen Teen Book Award Nominee (2018)
Lincoln Award Nominee (2018)
South Carolina Book Award Nominee for Young Adult (2018)


Synopsis:

Rashad is absent again today. 

That's the sidewalk graffiti that started it all...

Well, no, actually, a lady tripping over Rashad at the store, making him drop a bag of chips, was what started it all. Because it didn't matter what Rashad said next--that it was an accident, that he wasn't stealing--the cop just kept pounding him. Over and over, pummeling him into the pavement. So then Rashad, an ROTC kid with mad art skills, was absent again... and again... stuck in a hospital room. Why? Because it looked like he was stealing. And he was a black kid in baggy clothes. So he must have been stealing. 

And that's how it started. 

And that's what Quinn, a white kid, saw. He saw his best friend's older brother beating the daylights out of a classmate. At first, Quinn doesn't tell a soul... He's not even sure he understands it. And does it matter? The whole thing was caught on camera, anyway. But when the school--and nation--start to divide on what happens, blame spreads like wildfire fed by ugly words like "racism" and "police brutality". Quinn realizes he's got to understand it, because, bystander or not, he's a part of history. He just has to figure out what side of history that will be. 

Rashad and Quinn--one black, one white, both American--face the unspeakable truth that racism and prejudice didn't die after the civil rights movement. There's a future at stake, a future where no one else will have to be absent because of police brutality. They just have to risk everything to change the world.

Cuz that's how it can end. 


MY THOUGHTS:

Teenage JROTC cadet Rashad finds himself brutally attacked by a police officer without probable cause and ends up in the hospital. In an alternate POV, classmate and football player, Quinn, witnesses the brutal attack. Unfortunately, the cop that beat Rashad is Quinn's stand-in father figure, his best friend's older brother, Paul. Quinn struggles with his involvement in the beating as well as his relationships with his best friend and their family.
Meanwhile, Rashad becomes a hashtag for repeatedly missing school while he heals in the hospital. 

This is a tough read, similar to The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes, with police brutality against an unarmed Black boy and its effect on the characters' lives at the forefront of the story. 

The chapters alternate between Rashad and Quinn's perspectives to give a well-rounded account of how the events affect the community and classmates. 

The subject matter is tough, but it ultimately has a very uplifting message of togetherness and reminds us all that we must do our part to speak up and stand against racism. 

Content warnings include language, drug use, police brutality, bullying, and more.