It’s Friday! Rashad is looking forward to the party he and his friends are going to that night, tossing jibes about which girls they like from school and hope will be there.

Rashad stops off at the corner store to grab some chips. He kneels down and a woman trips over him. Rashad is black. The woman is white.

A police officer standing at the counter assumes one thing – Rashad is in the wrong. The shop keeper assumes one thing. Rashad was going to steal the chips.

Rashad is soon lying face down on the concrete outside, handcuffed and with the policeman’s knee in his neck. By the time he has finished ‘restraining’ Rashad, he has a badly broken nose, broken ribs and internal bleeding.

Quinn is looking forward to the party too. He doesn’t know Rashad but is hanging out in the alley nearby with his friends. They are hoping to get someone older to buy them beer from the corner store. They score no beer, but Quinn alone sees something he know he will never forget. His best friend’s brother Paul has a knee on a black kid’s back and is beating him even though he’s half the size, handcuffed and not fighting back.

Paul might be a respected policeman in his family and community, but he’s always been special to Quinn too. Paul was the one who was there for him when his dad died. Paul has been like a big brother to Quinn.

Now in an illustrated edition, All American Boys packs even more of a gut-punch. Told over the space of a week, clearly marked in sections, two boys tell their story.

One is 16 yr old Rashad. A good student, son, little brother, friend and Reserve Officer Training Corp Cadet (at the request of his ex-cop father). Then there is Quinn. A good student, elder brother and a son of a dead Afghanistan veteran, hailed a hero by their community. Rashad is black. Quinn is white. The same. Two All American boys. (“Yeah right,” as they say in NZ).

This novel shows that couldn’t be further from the truth. Rashad’s beating enrages his family and his friends. It was senseless, unprovoked and all too common. Quinn’s family and friends expect him to be loyal to them, including the man who has supported him since his dad died. Rashad struggles with what happened to him. Quinn struggles with the truth as he realises what is at stake.

Divisions begin at school, between Quinn’s friends and to his basketball coaches’ dismay, on the court – right before the season is to kick off. Quinn’s realisation of the racism that has been blatantly staring him in the face his whole life, is brilliantly written. His inner battle to choose the easy road or the right one is painful for him and enlightening for the reader.

Both Rashad’s and Quinn’s voices are authentic and thought provoking.

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” 

Desmond Tutu

This special edition of All American Boys is illustrated by UK based illustrator Akhran Girmay. The illustrations are shaded black and white expertly sharing the emotion of the moment in the story. Some show expanded insets of a section of the illustration, a memory or even evidence of the crime.

Another Must Read collaboration by these talented authors.

Authors – Jason Reynolds / Brendan Kiely

Illustrator – Akhran Girmay

Age – 14+

Meet illustrator Akhran Girmay here and view some of the All American Boys illustrations too

(2021, Faber, Penguin, Family, Crime, School, Prejudice, Racism, Growing up, Bullies, Betrayal, Friendship, Apathy, Oppression, Fear, Fairness, Justice, Injustice, Assume, Judging, Loyalty, Confusion, Protest March, #Rashad Is Absent Again Today)