Welcome to Jason Reynolds

9/16/2015

On Amazon.com many author biographies are quite pedestrian, Jason Reynolds’ biographical statement is not, and it is quite poignant. Early on the biography states: “What Jason knows is that there are a lot -- A LOT -- of people, young, old, and in-between, who hate reading. He knows that many of these book haters are boys. He knows that many of these book-hating boys, don't actually hate books, they hate boredom.” Last week I promised to write about Jason Reynolds. In part, the promise was to remind me that I need to post every week. So here we go.

Jason Reynolds is a remarkable young writer who is constantly interesting. Upon the recommendation of Jacqueline Woodson I began to explore Jason’s presence on the web. His webpage is fantastic. When I first had a brief conversation with Jason, I remarked on how much I liked its presentation before I talked about his fiction. As you visit the site, you quickly discover that he is a talented artist in the broad scope of the word. He writes, he takes pictures, he blogs, and it becomes clear he is fully engaged in the world around him. Charise Wallace, in an article on Afro.com, shows that while Reynolds acknowledges he “didn’t read any books until [he] was 17 years old…” he is doing his best to move kids past boredom.

I wish I knew people who lived in Albany, I don’t think I do, but I can assure you that I will encourage anyone I know in the area to look for this event that features Jason:

Jason Reynolds, young adult novelist and poet
November 17 (Tuesday)
Reading — 7:00 p.m., Huxley Theatre, NYS Museum, Cultural Education Center, downtown Albany

His visit will be part of the New York State Writers Institute. The event is co-sponsored by Albany High School and I hope all of the students attend. It will be worth their time.

While looking up current reviews of Jason’s books, I ran across another important reason to pay attention to books about diverse characters by diverse characters. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center (the Library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison) has not only picked Jason’s The Boy in the Black Suit as its current book of the week, but it also posted the CCBC Multicultural Statistics for 2015 on their blog http://ccblogc.blogspot.com/. Based on about 2,000 books, only 90 have been written by diverse authors. Not quite 5%, several more are about diverse characters, but not over 10%. The year isn't over yet, but I'll bet we won't reach a satisfactory balance. There is still a lamentable lack of diverse books by and about a vast number of students that walk through the doors of our public schools every day. I think we have plenty of windows to the world. Let’s focus on mirrors. Let’s support diverse books; clearly we still need them.

Frankly, there won’t be more diverse books if we, academics, teachers, librarians, parents, and readers don’t buy a few. School and public libraries should have an ample supply of diverse books, but 8 months ago I did find any of Jason’s books at the local library. He is easier to find now, but his books should be everywhere. If you want to help remedy the lack of diverse books, go buy one and today I am recommending one of Jason’s. Any of the books would be fine and rewarding. I could review them, but in this instance I am going to rely on the expertise and comments of others.

First, Len Vlahos reviews a collaborative effort by Jason Reynolds and Brandon Kelly, All American Boys. Vlahos reminds us of the need for a conversation about boys and police in American (Of course, this is a topic for another post.). Thanks Len, I can't wait to dive into this one.

Second, for a brief review of another Reynolds’ novel, The Boy in the Black Suit, I return to the posting of CCBC. This is a tremendous novel of grief and recovery. I liked this book as much as I have liked any book in the last couple of years. It is a subtle and powerful narrative of an adolescent’s journey through the loss of a parent. Okay, so, I couldn’t resist a comment. For more information you should check out this interview with Jason about confronting grief in YA Literature on Gawker Review of Books.

Your third option is When I was the Greatest. For this novel, Jason Reynolds won the John Steptoe New Talent award . One of the best reviews of this book is a video posted on youtube by Tyrin Another good book review for this novel is posted on Laura Book Review. This is a week where is is obvious that I need to thank all of the other people who have taken the time to think about Jason's book. I have made it a team effort and I hope you browse through the various websites I have linked to in this blog posting.

I hope it is apparent that positive reviews of Jason’s books are everywhere. In addition, it is obvious that Jason is making the rounds at conferences, book fairs, and public readings in libraries and schools. If you don’t know his work you should remedy the situation immediately. Read one of this books and try to find a place where is will be doing a reading. I will let Jason have the final say about the need for diverse work. After listening to him for a couple of minutes I think you will be convinced, as I am, that Jason is one of the most important new voices in diverse YA literature.

Dr. Steve Bickmore
Creator and Curator

Dr. Bickmore is a Professor of English Education at UNLV. He is a scholar of Young Adult Literature and past editor of The ALAN Review and a past president of ALAN. He is a available for speaking engagements at schools, conferences, book festivals, and parent organizations. More information can be found on the Contact page and the About page.

Dr. Gretchen Rumohr
Co-Curator

Gretchen Rumohr is a professor of English and writing program administrator at Aquinas College, where she teaches writing and language arts methods. She is also a Co-Director of the UNLV Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature. She lives with her four girls and a five-pound Yorkshire Terrier in west Michigan.

Bickmore's
Co-Edited Books

Meet
Evangile Dufitumukiza!

Evangile is a native of Kigali, Rwanda. He is a college student that Steve meet while working in Rwanda as a missionary. In fact, Evangile was one of the first people who translated his English into Kinyarwanda.

Steve recruited him to help promote Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media while Steve is doing his mission work.

He helps Dr. Bickmore promote his academic books and sometimes send out emails in his behalf.

You will notice that while he speaks fluent English, it often does look like an "American" version of English. That is because it isn't. His English is heavily influence by British English and different versions of Eastern and Central African English that is prominent in his home country of Rwanda.

Welcome Evangile into the YA Wednesday community as he learns about Young Adult Literature and all of the wild slang of American English vs the slang and language of the English he has mastered in his beautiful country of Rwanda.

While in Rwanda, Steve has learned that it is a poor English speaker who can only master one dialect and/or set of idioms in this complicated language.

Blogs to Follow

Cynthia Jones

9/21/2015 07:59:52 pm

Fawn

9/23/2015 11:52:57 am

I appreciate your call to action and will head out and buy one of Jason's books. It's important for us to encourage more diversity in young adult literature-- "his books should be everywhere." I imagined the little book houses, kind of like bird houses, sprinkled around my old neighborhood in Seattle. People could take and leave books on the street. These books should replace the magazine racks with less than desirable content on street corners!

Particularly striking is Jason's final say in the video you posted at the end. He talks about how we don't have to think about children who are incarcerated but are hungry for books through which they can see themselves and read their experiences. I literally wanted to grab my car keys and head to The Book Store. Yes! Support great authors- support our kids. We need diverse voices.

Myra Infante Sheridan link

9/24/2015 08:25:52 am

I'm getting The Boy in the Black Suit for my Kindle even as I type this. I had never heard of Jason Reynolds until now, but I have heard that writing is only a part of what YA writers do. Having a social media presence and reading take up a lot of time I'm sure. Also, although I knew that minorities were underrepresented in YA fiction, I had no idea how much so! Less than 1% are by and about Latinos, which does not reflect the population in schools today.

Comments are closed.