Teen Tuesday: Ain't Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds

Image: Simon & Schuster

Ain't Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds. Illustrated by Jason Griffin. 384p. Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/ Atheneum/ Simon & Schuster, January, 2022. 9781534439467. (Review of finished purchased copy.)

Happy Tuesday! Teen Tuesday features Ain't Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds and illustrated by Jason Griffin. Mr. Reynolds is a fearless writer and poet, never afraid to get to the difficult spaces to speak truth. This hefty, visually stunning new work contains about ten sentences and over 300 pages of art inspired by those words that center around breathe. A young boy is quarantining with his family in an apartment where his mom has the news on 24/7 and it seems it's all bad news, especially for Black people. His little brother is glued to his video game and his father struggled to breathe in a bedroom.

Mr. Reynolds' text is typed on strips of paper, which are "taped" onto Moleskine notebook pages that are filled with Mr. Griffin's mixed media art. Both the art and the poetry are profound, not to be rushed through and something to revisit again and again.

Teen Tuesday and Audio Review: Kneel by Candace Buford

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

Kneel by Candace Buford. Unabridged e-audiobook. ~8.3 hours. Read by Preston Butler III. HarperAudio/ Inkyard/ HarperCollins Publishers, September, 2021. 9781488211805. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Happy rainy Tuesday! There has been a flash flood warning in my area since last night and it has been raining steadily. Hopefully, the winds will stay calm and my hundred year old American Beech tree will remain standing.

Teen Tuesday features Kneel by Candace Buford. Rus Boudreaux and his best friend, Marion LaSalle are co-captains of their football team entering their senior year with high hopes for a winning season, another chance at the state championship and a football scholarship to a D-1 college. A scholarship is their only way out of their racially segregated parish in Louisiana. At the start of their second game of the season, against the team's rival, one of the white co-captains hurls a racial slur after the coin toss and the other sucker punches Marion. The refs turn a blind eye to the slur and don't defend Marion as he is hauled off the field in handcuffs and eventually beaten by police for "resisting arrest." Rus knows that Marion's chances for a scholarship are nonexistent if he can't play football, so he takes a knee during the national anthem at the next game, earning himself the ire of his coach, his teammates, his parents and the press as the media choose to portray him and Marion as thugs.

Rus' first-person narrative is compelling from the start as this thoughtful athlete tries to play by rules that seem to change at the whim of the privileged. Kneel is the author's debut and it's an impressive one peopled with complex characters dealing with real issues of poverty, racism and broken dreams.

New-to-me narrator Preston Butler III turned in a well-paced, emotionally resonant performance as Rus. 

Fact Friday: When They Call You a Terrorist: a story of Black Lives Matter and the power to change the world by Patrice Khan-Cullors

Image: Macmillan

When They Call You a Terrorist: a story of Black Lives Matter and the power to change the world by Patrice Khan-Cullors and asha bandele [sic]. Adapted by Benee Knauer, with a forward by Angela Davis. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~7 hours. Read by the author. Macmillan Young Listeners/ Macmillan Audio, September, 2020. 9781250772077. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Fact Friday features When They Call You a Terrorist: a story of Black Lives Matter and the power to change the world by Patrice Khan-Cullors. This emotionally gripping memoir is adapted from Ms. Khan-Cullors' best selling, award-winning memoir originally published for an adult audience in 2018. This book is absolutely required reading for anyone who is interested in social justice, equity and equality. 

Ms. Khan-Cullors' was a social justice advocate who, with several like-minded friends posted a hashtag that became a movement that, incredibly, branded her a terrorist. Through journal entry excerpts and photos, readers learn about circumstances and events that shaped Ms. Khan-Cullors' life. The reading isn't always easy, her life was hard, her family was economically insecure, her brother was troubled; but her resilience is impressive and her attitude is hopeful.

By choosing to read this one with my ears, ably narrated by the author, I missed out on the viewing the photos, but will remedy that when I purchase the book for my school library. This book is a first-purchase for any library seeking to provide anti-racist, social justice informational literature for patrons.