All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

Today's read was All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely.  It is a book I've had on my shelf for a while, and as I went through all the books I wanted to read, this made it to the top of my list.  

I haven't read anything by Jason Reynolds yet, but I have a few by him on my shelf. 

This book, like other's I've been reading this summer deals with young adults being confronted with race and racism as they are trying to navigate their world.  This story is about Rashad, a young black boy who is shopping one night before heading out with his friends when he is suddenly arrested on charges of theft and beaten for supposedly resisting the arrest.  As we watch Rashad deal with the aftermath of that event, we also get a different outlook on the event from Quinn, a fellow classmate of Rashad who is not only white, but also best friends of the Guzzo, the younger brother of policeman who beat Rashad up while arresting him.  Quinn has always idolized his best friend's brother and is conflicted between what he knows of Paul and what he witnessed.  

 Teachers, administration and coaches just want to push things down and not let this issue affect what is happening at school, but that is impossible as things start to heat up with students, adults and family members taking sides.  

I thought this was a great story, that deals with issues that must crop up every time something like what we see in the news happens.  The two main characters are quite rich and complex, both dealing with their families expectations while trying to determine how they want to handle the events and the aftermath.  It think this would be a great book to read with high school students.  There is a bit of swearing in it, I will keep it in my library for my grade 7 & 8's, but I wouldn't use it as a read aloud for that young of a group.