All-American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

All-American Boys is another NCTE find. I actually met Jason Reynolds, who is a very nice soft-spoken man. I heard Reynolds speak in the keynote along with G. Neri and a few others. I think that one of the most important things authors do is expose their readers to new ideas and social issues. It's not about having answers, necessarily, it's about informing and drawing people into the narrative.

All-American Boys is a novel that particularly relevant in the wake of the recent police scandals and black lives matter movement. However, this is not a polemic. Using two main viewpoints, Reynolds and Kiely explore several sides and perspectives surrounding this issue. It is difficult to be sensitive to both sides in narrative like this, but they manage it.

Rashad, who is black, is mistaken for a shoplifter and becomes the victim of an unnecessarily violent police response. Quinn, one of his teammates on the varsity basketball team and white, witnesses the attack.  Things are further complicated for Quinn by being the best friend of the police officer's younger brother.

Rashad is a member of the JROTC and generally a good kid. So clearly, he's dealing with being the victim of violence and in the media spotlight as a result. Quinn however is torn between loyalty to family/friends and doing what's right while coming to terms with some views that he'd never questioned before.

There are no glowing perfect people in this. All-American Boys deals with an issue that we all deal with in this country at some point and there are no easy solutions to them for any of us. Every character is portrayed with compassion and understanding.

While the reading level is probably appropriate for middle schoolers, the subject matter and depth consideration required makes it more of a high school YA. So far I've handed this to two of my coworkers who each loved it as well.