All American Boys
Illustrated Edition
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- £5.49
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- £5.49
Publisher Description
I just wanted him to stop beating me. I just wanted to live.
After a violent act that leaves their community and, ultimately, the country divided, Rashad and Quinn - one Black, one White - face the truth that racism and prejudice are all around us. And there's a future at stake, a future where no one will have deal with police brutality. They just have to risk everything they've ever known to speak out.
With evocative black and white illustrations from Akhran Girmay.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this painful and all-too-timely book, two authors one black, one white present a story of police brutality. Reynolds (The Boy in the Black Suit) voices Rashad, the innocent victim of a police beating; Kiely (The Gospel of Winter) writes Quinn, a horrified witness. The book moves quickly, starting on a Friday night with the boys classmates who don't know each other preparing for a party, and ending with a social-media-inspired protest march one week later. For Rashad, the week means facing the physical and mental effects of what has happened, including a father who initially assumes that Rashad is guilty. For fatherless Quinn, the struggle comes from the fact that the cop is not only the older brother of a close friend, but also a father figure. The scenario that Reynolds and Kiely depict has become a recurrent feature of news reports, and a book that lets readers think it through outside of the roiling emotions of a real-life event is both welcome and necessary. Ages 12 up.
