As Brave as You

Kirkus Award Finalist

Schneider Family Book Award Winner

Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book

In this "pitch-perfect contemporary novel" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Coretta Scott King - John Steptoe Award-winning author Jason Reynolds explores multigenerational ideas about family love and bravery in the story of two brothers, their blind grandfather, and a dangerous rite of passage.

Genie's summer is full of surprises. The first is that he and his big brother, Ernie, are leaving Brooklyn for the very first time to spend the summer with their grandparents all the way in Virginia--in the COUNTRY The second surprise comes when Genie figures out that their grandfather is blind. Thunderstruck and--being a curious kid--Genie peppers Grandpop with questions about how he covers it so well (besides wearing way cool Ray-Bans).

How does he match his clothes? Know where to walk? Cook with a gas stove? Pour a glass of sweet tea without spilling it? Genie thinks Grandpop must be the bravest guy he's ever known, but he starts to notice that his grandfather never leaves the house--as in NEVER. And when he finds the secret room that Grandpop is always disappearing into--a room so full of songbirds and plants that it's almost as if it's been pulled inside-out--he begins to wonder if his grandfather is really so brave after all.

Then Ernie lets him down in the bravery department. It's his fourteenth birthday, and, Grandpop says to become a man, you have to learn how to shoot a gun. Genie thinks that is AWESOME until he realizes Ernie has no interest in learning how to shoot. None. Nada. Dumbfounded by Ernie's reluctance, Genie is left to wonder--is bravery and becoming a man only about proving something, or is it just as important to own up to what you won't do?

Author: Jason Reynolds
Publisher: Atheneum Books
Published: 05/03/2016
Pages: 432
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.80w x 1.40d
ISBN: 9781481415903
Audience: Ages 9-12

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 4.8
Point Value: 11
Interest Level: Middle Grade
Quiz #/Name: 183268 / As Brave as You

Award: Schneider Family Book Award - Winner
Award: Coretta Scott King Award - Honor Book

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 04/15/2016
BookPage 05/01/2016
Publishers Weekly 05/09/2016
Shelf Awareness 05/17/2016
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 06/01/2016
School Library Journal 06/01/2016
Horn Book Magazine 07/01/2016 pg. 143
School Library Journal 12/01/2016 pg. 34
Shelf Awareness 12/13/2016
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2016 pg. 103 - Outstanding, Noteworthy In Style

About the Author
Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a Newbery Award Honoree, a Printz Award Honoree, a two-time National Book Award finalist, a Kirkus Award winner, a two-time Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award Winner, and the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors. Reynolds is also the 2020-2021 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. His many books include When I Was the Greatest, The Boy in the Black Suit, All American Boys (cowritten with Brendan Kiely), As Brave as You, For Every One, the Track series (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu), Look Both Ways, and Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Honor. He lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.