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A review by pageturning578
All American Boys by Brendan Kiely, Jason Reynolds
5.0
This was my first book by Jason Reynolds and I must say I was very impressed! This is going to be another difficult review for me because it is on the heavy topics of racism and police brutality and I don't want to miss this up! I am so glad this isn't a high school English or History paper but I wish I was in school for the important discussions a classroom setting could have with this book!
Rashand is a black boy who gets attacked by a white cop who wrongly accuses him of stealing chips from a convince store. The cop arrested Rashand (who was innocent) and then proceeded to punch him multiple times while he was on the ground. As a result Rashand has a broken nose and broken ribs and was in the hospital for 5 days.
Quinn is a white boy who witnessed the scene outside the store (he did not see the supposed stealing in the store) at first Quinn wants to stay quite and uninvolved because he knows the cop who attacked Rashand. Paul is like a father figure to Quinn and he insists he did nothing wrong and that he was protecting a white lady inside the store. But Quinn does not support or believe his story based on what he saw outside the store. His gut tells him that something doesn't add up.
When a video of the attack surface, this story is told from the two different perspectives of the victim (Rashand) and the witness (Quinn) and the reader is shown the very different lives they live in the same community.
Even though this book was published in 2015 it is very relevant to the Black Lives Matter protests that are happening today (May-June 2020). Towards the end of this book the kids at school organize a peaceful protest in honor of Rashand and other black kids who have died from police brutality. This may be a book but as we know and see in the news, police brutality is very much alive in todays society. Not just with black people but people of every race. I do not agree with the looting and violent protests that have been in the news the last few weeks but I do agree with the peaceful protesters that something needs to be done in todays generation about police brutality not only in the United States but around the world!
Rashand is a black boy who gets attacked by a white cop who wrongly accuses him of stealing chips from a convince store. The cop arrested Rashand (who was innocent) and then proceeded to punch him multiple times while he was on the ground. As a result Rashand has a broken nose and broken ribs and was in the hospital for 5 days.
Quinn is a white boy who witnessed the scene outside the store (he did not see the supposed stealing in the store) at first Quinn wants to stay quite and uninvolved because he knows the cop who attacked Rashand. Paul is like a father figure to Quinn and he insists he did nothing wrong and that he was protecting a white lady inside the store. But Quinn does not support or believe his story based on what he saw outside the store. His gut tells him that something doesn't add up.
When a video of the attack surface, this story is told from the two different perspectives of the victim (Rashand) and the witness (Quinn) and the reader is shown the very different lives they live in the same community.
Even though this book was published in 2015 it is very relevant to the Black Lives Matter protests that are happening today (May-June 2020). Towards the end of this book the kids at school organize a peaceful protest in honor of Rashand and other black kids who have died from police brutality. This may be a book but as we know and see in the news, police brutality is very much alive in todays society. Not just with black people but people of every race. I do not agree with the looting and violent protests that have been in the news the last few weeks but I do agree with the peaceful protesters that something needs to be done in todays generation about police brutality not only in the United States but around the world!