CSD Reviews: All American Boys

​All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

Having read many YA books in the past year, I initially chose a light, comical novel to review.  However, just days ago, after reading the news of a gratuitous Christmas day shooting of two black residents by Chicago police officers, I decided All American Boys would be the more poignant choice.  
 
Published this past fall, All American Boys is written in alternating chapters by black author Jason Reynolds as the character Rashad and by white author Brendan Kiely as the character Quinn.  Rashad and Quinn attend the same school and are only vaguely aware of each other's existence until Rashad is savagely beaten by a police officer.  Quinn, a family friend of the white officer and a witness to the beating, hopes to disassociate himself from the incident despite pangs of moral conscience. 

While recovering in the hospital, Rashad struggles to come to terms with this tragedy and his father’s harsh response to it.   Quinn, despite initial attempts to ignore what happened to Rashad, finds that the incident has awakened in him a new sense of social responsibility.  Meanwhile, on the boys’ high school campus, a groundswell of activism begins to emerge.
 
In the final scene, the names of unarmed Black Americans who have died at the hands of police officers are read aloud.  I wept as I read this final scene, the list of names going on and on, the fictional story morphing into the tragic reality of so many Black Americans. 
 
All American Boys, which received multiple starred reviews, is written in a style that is easily accessible to both teen and advanced middle grade readers and simply begs group discussion.  I highly recommend this book.

Reviewed by Lorene Forman