All American Boys

What Goodreads say:  Rashad is absent again today.

That’s the sidewalk graffiti that started it all…

Well, no, actually, a lady tripping over Rashad at the store, making him drop a bag of chips, was what started it all. Because it didn’t matter what Rashad said next—that it was an accident, that he wasn’t stealing—the cop just kept pounding him. Over and over, pummeling him into the pavement. So then Rashad, a ROTC kid with mad art skills, was absent again…and again…stuck in a hospital room. Why? Because it looked like he was stealing. And he was a black kid in baggy clothes. So he must have been stealing.

And that’s how it started.

And that’s what Quinn, a white kid, saw. He saw his best friend’s older brother beating the daylights out of a classmate. At first, Quinn doesn’t tell a soul…He’s not even sure he understands it. And does it matter? The whole thing was caught on camera, anyway. But when the school—and nation—start to divide on what happens, blame spreads like wildfire fed by ugly words like “racism” and “police brutality.” Quinn realizes he’s got to understand it, because, bystander or not, he’s a part of history. He just has to figure out what side of history that will be.

Rashad and Quinn—one black, one white, both American—face the unspeakable truth that racism and prejudice didn’t die after the civil rights movement. There’s a future at stake, a future where no one else will have to be absent because of police brutality. They just have to risk everything to change the world.

Cuz that’s how it can end

This book literally changed my life, All American boys touches on today's issues with racism and police brutality, All-American Boys is the story of Rashad, a black teen who is assaulted by a white cop, and Quinn, a white classmate of his who witnesses the crime (and who also happens to be friends with the cop). It's quite a painful story to read because it's all too familiar. It's impossible to even count the number of true stories about people of color who have been beaten and killed by white police officers. No matter where you live I'm sure you've all heard countless stories of people dying by the hands of police and more important, black people dying over police brutality what I really liked about this book was that the word racism or that the fact that he was black took a long time for them to come to that conclusion (that also annoyed me) What I liked about this was it wasn't stereotypical with the black kids using slang and the white kids talking all 'proper' no they all behaved like regular teenagers using slang, enjoying the same activities, it was more believable.

A collaboration between authors Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, this book gives the reader an eye-opening perspective about police brutality and racial injustice. It's interesting to see the incident portrayed through the point of view of both a victim and a bystander, and it brings up many questions: How do you choose sides especially when someone you once looked up to and praised is in the wrong? If we want the violence to stop, how do we end it?

I think books save lives and they change minds and hearts. This is one of those books

So I challenge all my followers, whether your white, black, Hispanic, Asian or anything else to read this book.

#SayherName

#RashadisAbsentAgainToday

-FOREVER bloggin on Caffeine,

Sherri

ALSO HAPPY 17TH BIRTHDAY TO ME ON OCTOBER 18TH!