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A review by jenbsbooks
All American Boys by Brendan Kiely, Jason Reynolds
5.0
I happened upon this book at a thrift store, when shopping for my Little Free Library. I recognized one of the authors (Jason Reynolds - Long Way Down). It had good reviews. It was mentioned in my recent read [book:The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading|193767144]. None of my boys are really reading right now ... but this would be one I'd recommend to them. Just some things to think about. A little bit of basketball besides.
I had this in all three formats - audio, kindle (from the library) and physical. I still can't understand why physical books so often don't have a Table of Contents. That was the case here. In the audio and kindle copy, there was a chapter listing - chronological chapters listed in Kindle but not audio. This covers one week (which I don't know that I really would have grasp on my own, but it's something that stands out in the TOC). Each day gets a listing, and we get one chapter each from our two MCs ... Rashand and Quinn. In audio, there were two narrators. The voices were distinct in the writing (I'm assuming that each author wrote one of the boys?) and in the narration. I appreciated the reading group guide included at the end of the text copies (physical book and Kindle).
I went with the audio for the most part. I did stop a few times to find my spot in the kindle copy to highlight and make notes. Definitely a lot of things that could be discussed in a class or bookclub.
The only thing is that here - we/the reader KNOW that Rashad is completely innocent. We get to see HIS mind ... so it makes it so much easier for the reader to say "oh this is awful" when IRL ... we might be more like so many of the onlookers, making judgements based on skin color, clothing, etc. Stereotypes exist because they have some basis in reality. I remember the movie "Crash" which addressed racism and how some stereotypes do repeat, and other times can be completely inconsistent.
This was interesting to get the POV of Rashad, and his family ... and of Quinn, a white boy in the same school class who partially witnesses the scene and has a connection to the police officer involved. That would be one complaint I had about the book ... we never get real resolution as to Paul. What happened with him, if he ever could come to the realization that he was wrong, to address the rage within him.
There was proFanity (x39)
I had this in all three formats - audio, kindle (from the library) and physical. I still can't understand why physical books so often don't have a Table of Contents. That was the case here. In the audio and kindle copy, there was a chapter listing - chronological chapters listed in Kindle but not audio. This covers one week (which I don't know that I really would have grasp on my own, but it's something that stands out in the TOC). Each day gets a listing, and we get one chapter each from our two MCs ... Rashand and Quinn. In audio, there were two narrators. The voices were distinct in the writing (I'm assuming that each author wrote one of the boys?) and in the narration. I appreciated the reading group guide included at the end of the text copies (physical book and Kindle).
I went with the audio for the most part. I did stop a few times to find my spot in the kindle copy to highlight and make notes. Definitely a lot of things that could be discussed in a class or bookclub.
The only thing is that here - we/the reader KNOW that Rashad is completely innocent. We get to see HIS mind ... so it makes it so much easier for the reader to say "oh this is awful" when IRL ... we might be more like so many of the onlookers, making judgements based on skin color, clothing, etc. Stereotypes exist because they have some basis in reality. I remember the movie "Crash" which addressed racism and how some stereotypes do repeat, and other times can be completely inconsistent.
This was interesting to get the POV of Rashad, and his family ... and of Quinn, a white boy in the same school class who partially witnesses the scene and has a connection to the police officer involved. That would be one complaint I had about the book ... we never get real resolution as to Paul. What happened with him, if he ever could come to the realization that he was wrong, to address the rage within him.
There was proFanity (x39)