Title: All American Boys
Authors: Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
Summary
I found that finding a young adult book under this week's theme to be a little difficult. I myself, teach mostly younger elementary students. I tend to struggle to on what to choose for young adults. I searched the web thoroughly for different books on the subject area of the theme and kept coming back to this one. This particular book came highly recommended. The book "All American Boys" is an award winning novel co written by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely. The novel is written through the perspectives of two different high school boys around the ages of sixteen and seventeen years old. The names of the boys are Rashad and Quinn. Rashad is African American and Quinn is white. The book alternates character perspectives each chapter throughout the entire course of the novel. Although, both of these boys are the main characters throughout the book. They are not friends, nor do they even really know who the other is. They both go to the same high school and have common friends and peers though. This book falls under the African American theme for two reasons. Firstly because Rashad is African American and he is one of the main characters. Secondly, the main event that this book is primarily centered over directly involves Rashad, and other African Americans. This book is one that contains possible real world scenarios, and promotes social awareness to students. I do not have a lot of experience with teaching young adult books, but if I did teach this to students, I would do it with caution. I say this because of the events that occur during the course of the book might be upsetting to some. Also, this book does contain some foul language, and talk over partying. Now to get into some details about the book, I will tell you a little more about the backgroubd of the characters. Rashad lives with his mother and father, his father is very strict and firm handed with high expectations for Rashad. Rashad is an active participant in ROTC. A main side character in this story is Rashadś brother Spoony and his girlfriend Berry. One of Rashadś close friends in the book is his friend Carlos. As I said earlier, Quinn is a white adolescent boy. Quinn lives with his mother and younger brother. Quinnś father died while serving in the military in Afganastan. Quinn has a lot of pressure to live up to his fatherś legacy. Quinn has a crush on a girl named Jill that is frequently mentioned throughout the book. Quinn is highly involved in basketball, and is really good friends with Guzzo. Guzzo is another side main character along with his older brother Paul who played an absentee father or rolemodel of sorts to Quinn in his childhood. Paul is a white police officer. The book starts off with both boys getting ready to go party with their friends. They are actually both going to the same party. All seems well at first, both normal adolescent boys talking with their friends and dealing with their own sets of family dramas. The book does not take long to get into the nitty gritty of the story. In Chapter 3, Rashad goes into a store called Jerry to get some snacks before going to the party to meet his friends. Rashad grabs a bag of chips, and then decides to text his brother Spoony. Rashadś phone is in his backpack so he sets his chips beside him and bends down to the ground to open up his backpack and get out his phone. While on the ground a woman trips over him accidentally. This is when things go sour. An officer, which is Paul the man I mentioned above is in the store. He sees the woman on the floor and accuses Rashad of harming her. Then the store owner accuses Rashad of trying to steal the chips. It is all just a big misunderstanding, and he tries to explain so. However, the officer Paul does not care to hear his side and takes matters into his own hands. This portion of the story is hard to hear, Rashad is forced outside and beat by officer Paul in the parking lot. Quinn actually happened to be outside with his friends when Rashad is forced out and pumbled to the ground by Paul. Quinn sees officer Paul wailing on Rashad and cant believe his eyes. Quinn has never seen Paul act this way, and his actions distrub him. Quinn and his friends felt uncomfortable by what was happening and run off and attend the party. Rashad wakes up in the hospital severely wounded by the event that happen. His parents are there and his brother Spoony comes as well. Spoony finds a live feed that someone had recorded over the incident and sends it to the local news. From then on the rest of the story is centered over that event. Rashad is stuck in the hospital for quite some time. He initially does not like that his brother gave it to the news, he doesnt like the attention. However, later he understands. Quinn feels pressured by his best friend Guzzo and his older brother Paul to keep his mouth shut about the situation. Quinn really struggles internally about what he saw and about doing what is right. A protest/march is arranged by the student population and community in results of what happened and to honor other African American that are effected by police brutality. Rashadś friend Carlos graffitis the school over what happened. Rashad is released from the hospital just before the march. Quinn ultimately decides to report to the police what he saw of the incident and takes a stand by attending the march. This book will tug at your heart strings. It is a good serious read, that I do think is beneficial to all students.
Classroom Activities
One thing this book for sure does is create ample opportunities for reflective discussion. As I said above, I do not have much experience teaching young adults. However, if I were to teach over this book I would first begin with a whole group discussion forwarning some of the content in the book. The way that this book is set up alternating characters between chapters, I think it would be ideal to stop and reflect after every two or so chapters so that you are getting the view point of each character as the course of the book goes on. I wouldnt do it as frequently during the middle portion of the book as I would the beginning or the end. I found a really great website containing activities to go along with this book. I have listed this link below under my references. One of my favorite activities that it mentioned is a graffiti walls activity. For this activity, it has students use sticky notes to put up words on a anchor chart of how they are feeling or thinking in regards to a prompt they are given over the story. I think students would enjoy this activity, and it goes hand in hand with the graffiti section that occurs in the story. Another thing that I would do accompany this novel that is not mentioned on the website, would be a post writing activity. I would have students reflect on what they would do in that situation through a character of their choices view point.
References
Re, J., Nolds & B, Y., Iely, R., & Kiely, B. (n.d.). A LL A M E R I C A N B OYS | All American Boys. https://diversebooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/WNDB_ReadingGuide_AllAmericanBoys_2017.pdf
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