Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: September 5, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s):
"You coming?"
"Is it possible for a hug to peel back skin of time, the toughened and raw bits, the irritated and irritating dry spots, the parts that bleed?'

Review:
I'm sitting here with that uncomfortable feeling that you get when you want to cry, but you don't or maybe can't? Like something is sitting on your chest that you are not sure how to get rid of without a good ugly cry to relieve the tension but it won't come. I think I need more time with this book. I think I need to sit with it for a moment and try to process. What I really need is someone to talk to about it, but I'm going to attempt a review anyway. The book is about the cycle of gun violence in the narrator's life. The story unfolds as an elevator sinks down to each floor. The vast majority of the book, about 250 of the 306 pages, takes place over 1 minute 7 seconds.

The cover of my copy is riddled with medals: Newbury Honor, Coretta Scott King, Michael Printz, and the Walter Dean Myers Awards... all incredibly well-deserved. It's a novel-in-verse and can be read in one sitting, though it took me three. This is the first of Jason Reynolds' books that I've read and I knew very little about it when I picked it up. After I finished I read an interview with Reynolds who was asked why he chose to write in verse and he responded, "I need my young brothers who are living in these environments, I need the kids who are not living in these environments to have no excuses not to read the book... to know you can finish this in 45 minutes means the world to me, so that we can get more young people reading it and thinking and having discussion about what this book is actually about."

I don't want to give you any more information than that. Just read it.

Rebound by Kwame Alexander

Rebound by Kwame Alexander
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: September 3, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s):

"It was the summer when Now and Laters cost a nickel and The Fantastic Four, a buck. When I met Harriet Tubman and the Harlem Globetrotters. It was the hottest summer after the coldest winter ever, when a storm shattered my home into a million pieces and soaring above the sorrow and grief seemed impossible. It was the summer of 1988, when basketball gave me wings and I had to learn how to rebound on the court. And off."

Review:
This book is the prequel to The Crossover and if you're considering reading it first, don't. I really enjoyed The Crossover, but the depth Rebound gave to both books make me fall in love with the Bell family. Rebound is about the summer of 1988, when Chuck Bell, dad of Filthy & JB from Crossover, was 12 years old. I'm not sure I've ever experienced a book that made other books good. In its own right it was a great story, but for me the impact of this book came from it giving me a greater understanding of The Crossover... but it had to be in this order. I'm not certain they would have had the impact they had on me if I had read them in reverse. These two books might be my favorite that I've read all year. Such beautiful beautiful family development. Such incredible lessons learned by characters and myself while reading. These are books I will come back to again and again.

Iqbal by Francesco D'Adamo

Iqbal by Francesco D'Adamo
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: September 2, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s): 
"They were Iqbal, too."
"I just beg of you, don't forget. Tell somebody our story. Tell everybody our story. So that the memory will not be lost."

Review:
This is a fictionalized story of a real hero, Iqbal Masih, a young boy who escaped the carpet factory in Pakistan that he was enslaved in. He joined the Labor Liberation Front and helped free hundreds of children from bonded labor. He was recognized globally when he received the Reebok Human Rights Award in Boston in 1994. This story was a beautiful telling of who Iqbal must have been: a brave, selfless boy who never lost hope despite his circumstance. He then used his newfound freedom to free others and then told the world about what was happening to children. It is a quick read and is definitely worth the few hours (or less) you dedicate to it. I sobbed through the end, which I was aware was coming, from knowing of Iqbal before reading the book. However, the way the author addresses it in the story is beautiful. Well done. More people should know his name.