All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book):
In an unforgettable new novel from award-winning authors Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, two teens—one black, one white—grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country bitterly divided by racial tension. A bag of chips. That’s all sixteen-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galuzzi, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad’s pleadings that he’s stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad’s resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad’s every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered. But how can you stay still when someone is pounding your face into the concrete pavement?
But there were witnesses: Quinn Collins—a varsity basketball player and Rashad’s classmate who has been raised by Paul since his own father died in Afghanistan—and a video camera. Soon the beating is all over the news and Paul is getting threatened with accusations of prejudice and racial brutality. Quinn refuses to believe that the man who has basically been his savior could possibly be guilty. But then Rashad is absent. And absent again. And again. And the basketball team—half of whom are Rashad’s best friends—start to take sides. As does the school. And the town. Simmering tensions threaten to explode as Rashad and Quinn are forced to face decisions and consequences they had never considered before.
Written in tandem by two award-winning authors, this tour de force shares the alternating perspectives of Rashad and Quinn as the complications from that single violent moment, the type taken from the headlines, unfold and reverberate to highlight an unwelcome truth.
MY OPINION: ****
I ended up enjoying this book a lot more than I initially expected. There was a moment at the beginning where I was very tempted to quit reading it, mainly because I was reading so many other books at the same time as well as a lack of interest in the characters. However, I’m glad I finished it.
This novel is a story illustrating police violence, systemic racism, and the contrasting perspectives of two different but similar characters on the same situation.
Rashad is a black teenage boy who is unfairly assaulted by a white police officer due to a misunderstanding in a store. Rashad is a ROTC trainee, meaning he lives by a fairly strict moral code. However, the color of his skin blinds the people around him and results in false assumptions about his character that end up with him in the hospital for most of the book dealing with the mixed reactions of people to the incident.
I liked Rashad’s character and wished we had gotten more time to see him fully mature and develop over the book. He definitely had a lot of potential to change and mature over time but since he was in the hospital for the majority of the time, we mostly got to see a detached character who was struggling to live with what had happened to him. I hated how nobody wanted to listen to his side of the story, especially his own family initially.
I think it was interesting to see how Rashad’s father was an ex-cop and how that changed and influenced the author’s illustration of the police system. Obviously, in these times, we cannot deny the institutionalized racism that many cops display towards minority races, most specifically African-American people. However, I don’t truly believe that every single cop is racist or prejudiced because that is a ridiculous statement. The phrase “All Cops are Bastards” is fairly controversial and I don’t really want to go into it. I agree with various sides of both sides of the argument and I liked how this book showed more of that with the addition of Rashad’s father’s character.
It was very interesting to see how an African-American cop was portrayed in contrast to a white cop. Both of them made similar mistakes, which leads to certain conclusions that may not have been reached without Rashad’s father’s story.
Quinn is our other main character. He is a white teenage boy who is close friends with the brother of the offending police officer. This puts him in a pretty hard place and I truly admired how he dealt with everything he was feeling. The cop, Paul, was always nice to Quinn and was basically a father figure or a big brother figure to him. He’s helped him in the past with confronting bullies, basketball, etc. Quinn was a witness to the whole incident and it causes his view of Paul to change.
I loved how Quinn finally realized right from wrong and took a stand, despite his entire family and all of his friends being against him. He is a white teenage boy with privileges that Rashad didn’t have and I liked how he fully realized that and used his privilege to make a change, even though it took him a while. I loved his this book included the perspective of a white teenage boy who personally knew the cop in question because it allowed for a realer image of everything that was happening.
I hated Paul, not just for what he did but for his lack of remorse. He didn’t feel bad at all about what he did even though he knew deep down it was wrong. Yes, I understand he thought he was defending the woman from a supposed thief but at the same time, that does not merit the literal assault of a minor in front of several witnesses and beating him into the sidewalk. He could simply have asked a few questions, or maybe brought him down to the station. Violence was unnecessary and uncalled for.
I really loved this book because it was different from other books about police violence. It portrayed various characters from all aspects of the spectrum and I liked how that was implemented. I would recommend this book to readers looking for a raw, beautifully-written, and heartfelt take on the police violence many people face today.
Main Character: Rashad, Quinn
Sidekick(s): Carlos, friends, family, etc
Villain(s): Paul, racism, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was very real to life
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