Prepare yourself for something unlike anything: A smash-up of art and text for teens that viscerally captures what it is to be Black. In America. Right Now. Written by #1 New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Jason Reynolds.
Jason Reynolds and his best bud, Jason Griffin had a mind-meld. And they decided to tackle it, in one fell swoop. In about ten sentences, and 300 pages of art, this piece, this contemplation-manifesto-fierce-vulnerable-gorgeous-terrifying-WhatIsWrongWithHumans-hope-filled-hopeful-searing-Eye-Poppingly-Illustrated-tender-heartbreaking-how-The-HECK-did-They-Come-UP-with-This project about oxygen. And all of the symbolism attached to that word, especially NOW.
So, for anyone who didn’t really know what it means to not be able to breathe, REALLY breathe, for generations, now you know. And those who already do, you’ll be nodding yep yep, that is exactly how it is.
My Review
This is another book that totally blew my mind. The story is very simple, but even that is part of its power. The illustrations are so illuminating. I know the story is about oxygen, about breathing, about a flame catching, but that is also what reading this book feels like. It’s that perfect blend of a spark, oxygen, and fuel that creates a burst of flame.
I’ve had this book on my reading list since it came out. I noticed it recently on a Publisher’s Weekly list of best books of 2022, and decided it was time to just read it.
It’s the kind of book that you could read in an hour, less probably, but that you’ll want to take your time with instead. I found that as I read, I wanted to just sit with each illustration and let the words sink in.
I feel like I keep coming back to the fact that at its core, AIN’T BURNED UP THE BRIGHT is a simple story, yet it’s so much more. Maybe that’s what makes it so incredible.
Anyway, I highly recommend this book. I loved it, and I can’t think of anything else like it.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.
Representation The artwork shows a Black family. The story is from the perspective of a Black boy.
Profanity/Crude Language Content None.
Romance/Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content References to news stories. The words stop short of specifically talking about police violence, but it’s clear that some of the news stories the narrator refers to are those stories. Some of the artwork shows fire.
Drug Content None.
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In this extraordinary collection, the award-winning poet Crystal Simone Smith gives voice to the mournful dead, their lives unjustly lost to violence, and to the grieving chorus of protestors in today’s Black Lives Matter movement, in search of resilience and hope.
With poems found within the text of George Saunders’s LINCOLN IN THE BARDO, Crystal Simone Smith embarks on an uncompromising exploration of collective mourning and crafts a masterwork that resonates far beyond the page. These poems are visually stark, a gathering of gripping verses that unmasks a dialogue of tragic truths—the stories of lives taken unjustly and too soon.
Bold and deeply affecting, DARK TESTAMENT is a remarkable reckoning with our present moment, a call to action, and a plea for a more just future.
Along with the poems, DARK TESTAMENT includes a stirring introduction by the author that speaks to the content of the poetry, a Q&A with George Saunders, and a full-color photo-insert that commemorates victims of unlawful killings with photographs of memorials that have been created in their honor.
“I love this tremendously skillful, timely, and dazzling repurposing of passages of my novel, LINCOLN IN THE BARDO. Crystal Simone Smith has, with her amazing ear and heart, found, in that earlier grief, a beautiful echo for our time.” —George Saunders, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of LINCOLN IN THE BARDO and TENTH OF DECEMBER.
My Review
I’m blown away by this book. Already, I feel like I need to read it again and let the words sit with me for a bit.
I’ve never read blackout poems before. For anyone also unfamiliar, these are poems that are made by removing some words from a page of text, leaving the words of the poem behind. Removed words are marked out with black boxes.
I also wasn’t familiar with the book that Crystal Simone Smith used to create her poems, LINCOLN IN THE BARDO. I read the sample pages on Amazon and will probably buy the novel as well. It’s an unusual book and centers around grief, which made it a great book to create these poems from. I love the writing style.
So the poems. Each one is titled. Some titles are the names of Black victims of unlawful killings. Others refer to other individuals or groups. So many gripped me by the heart. The grief and shock come through so clearly.
I love the Q&A discussion between the poetry collection author and the author of LINCOLN IN THE BARDO that’s in the back of the book. I thought that conversation added a lot of context, and it was really cool to see one author support another’s work like that.
Another really cool thing about this collection is that the title was inspired by a poetry collection by Pauli Murray. Murray was an women’s rights and civil rights activist who did incredible work throughout her career. I’d never heard of her until this past year, and now it seems I see her name everywhere.
All in all, DARK TESTAMENT is an incredible tribute to the lives lost and to truth and justice. An incredible resource for school libraries and creative writing courses.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Representation Primarily contains poems dedicated to Black victims of unlawful killing.
Profanity/Crude Language Content None.
Romance/Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content References to death and dying. References to prayer, attending church, and to God.
Violent Content References to death and dying.
Drug Content None.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of DARK TESTAMENT in exchange for my honest review.
About Call and Response: The Story of Black Lives Matter
Call and Response: The Story of Black Lives Matter is a broad and powerful exploration of the history of Black Lives Matter told through photographs, quotes, and informative text by New York Times best-selling authors Veronica Chambers and Jennifer Harlan.
In 2020, the world watched history being made in the streets of America. The rallying cry of Black Lives Matter captured global attention and spurred thousands of people of all ages, races, genders, and backgrounds to stand up for major progressive social reform. The widespread protests, rooted in the call-and-response tradition of the Black community, were fueled by a growing understanding for many that systemic racism undermines the very nature of democracy. But where did this movement begin? And why, after years of work by everyday people, did the world finally begin to take notice?
Call and Response: The Story of Black Lives Matter covers the rise of Black Lives Matter and how it has been shaped by U.S. history. From the founders of the movement—Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi—to the watershed moments that challenged people to take action, this book tells the story of how a hashtag became a movement. It follows the activists and organizers on their journeys, examines some of the ways that protest has been fundamental to American history, and shows how marches, rallies, and demonstrations can be vital tools for making meaningful change.
In this essential history, New York Times editors Veronica Chambers and Jennifer Harlan explore Black Lives Matter through striking photographs, in-depth reporting, stunning visual timelines and graphics, and compelling quotes. Call and Response is perfect for young readers who need an introduction to this impactful movement—and for any reader looking for concrete information on this timely topic.
My Review
What a powerful book. I feel like I’m still soaking it in.
Things I loved about CALL AND RESPONSE: Not only does this book give a lot of information exploring the history of protest, specifically through the Civil Rights movement and Black Lives Matter movement, it focuses on some really cool elements of those movements. I loved the section on music and the sample playlists, and the one on art and murals. I also loved the section which talks about the different roles at a protest. There are people who clear the path ahead of marchers, people who bring water, food, and medical supplies. Before reading this, I had never really thought about the organizational structure behind those gatherings. So that was really cool to read.
I also really enjoyed reading about the three women credited with founding the Black Lives Matter movement. The story covers both how they came together and what their vision has been for the movement.
The book contains so much great historical information. It’s broken up around beautiful photographs. I feel like this is a great book for home, school, or community libraries.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Representation Features stories and quotes from interviews with Black activists and leaders from the Civil Rights movement and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Strong profanity used very infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content Brief discussion of how enslaved people used spiritual songs to communicate with one another.
Violent Content References to the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, Tamir Rice, Philando Castille, and others.
Drug Content None.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of CALL AND RESPONSE: THE STORY OF BLACK LIVES MATTER in exchange for my honest review.
They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement Wesley Lowery
Little, Brown & Co.
Published November 15, 2016
About They Can’t Kill Us All
Conducting hundreds of interviews during the course of over one year reporting on the ground, Washington Post writer Wesley Lowery traveled from Ferguson, Missouri, to Cleveland, Ohio; Charleston, South Carolina; and Baltimore, Maryland; and then back to Ferguson to uncover life inside the most heavily policed, if otherwise neglected, corners of America today.
In an effort to grasp the magnitude of the repose to Michael Brown’s death and understand the scale of the problem police violence represents, Lowery speaks to Brown’s family and the families of other victims other victims’ families as well as local activists. By posing the question, “What does the loss of any one life mean to the rest of the nation?” Lowery examines the cumulative effect of decades of racially biased policing in segregated neighborhoods with failing schools, crumbling infrastructure and too few jobs.
Studded with moments of joy, and tragedy, They Can’t Kill Us All offers a historically informed look at the standoff between the police and those they are sworn to protect, showing that civil unrest is just one tool of resistance in the broader struggle for justice. As Lowery brings vividly to life, the protests against police killings are also about the black community’s long history on the receiving end of perceived and actual acts of injustice and discrimination. They Can’t Kill Us All grapples with a persistent if also largely unexamined aspect of the otherwise transformative presidency of Barack Obama: the failure to deliver tangible security and opportunity to those Americans most in need of both.
They Can’t Kill Us All is a galvanizing book that offers more than just behind-the-scenes coverage of the story of citizen resistance to police brutality. It will also explain where the movement came from, where it is headed and where it still has to go.
My Review
I decided to read this book after seeing the author interviewed on a late night TV show and listening to him talk briefly about the statistics of deaths in which an on-duty police officer kills someone. He spoke eloquently about how difficult it was to gather information, the lack of oversight from the government and the barriers to real accountability in these kinds of cases.
As a white, small-town woman, I often feel undereducated about racial issues in America. As a teenager, I witnessed one instance of pretty horrific anti-Semitism which involved neo-Nazi slurs and a kid exposing himself to me and my friend. But do I really understand racism in America as it exists today? No, not at all, I don’t think. So I wanted some hardcore data, and the description of this book intrigued me, so I read it.
It’s really well-written. Each story moved me. And mostly, that’s what this book is. A long list of the stories of those whose lives ended in a police shooting and those who became voices raised for justice and change as a result of those deaths.
I liked that the author took such care to try to be unbiased in his approach to each subject. He doesn’t gloss over some of the grittier details of the people he profiles. He also gives a lot of context for what’s happened in many police forces which has created distance between officers and those they’re charged with protecting and serving. I hadn’t thought about many of the things he addresses, and felt like he tries at all times to be fair, even to the point of criticizing his own past reporting and pointing out errors he made in judgment or execution of a story.
Overall, the book made me want to know more. It did have some statistics and hard data, but didn’t really focus on those things. In some ways, They Can’t Kill Us All left me with more questions than I had to begin with. I want to know more about the data collected on police shootings—one of the most shocking statistics the book mentions is that one in three of those killed in police shootings are mentally ill. This seems like a staggering number and made me wonder if there’s not something we can do differently to handle these situations.
I recommend this book to anyone who’s interested in gaining a better sense of context for the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests in cities like Baltimore, Cleveland and Ferguson. I’m on the lookout for a book that provides additional context and more specific information on what police departments are doing to address some of these issues as well as changes made as a result of organizations mentioned in They Can’t Kill Us All since the book was written.
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Cultural Elements
Explores racial issues in modern America and tells the stories of several young black Americans killed by police gunfire as well as the tales of many activists who began organizations to promote awareness and change during and in the aftermath of the Ferguson protests. Some organizers are members of the LGBT community.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used briefly.
Romance/Sexual Content Brief story about a woman who met her wife as a result of her activism following the events in Ferguson.
Spiritual Content The book describes a devout Christian woman whose faith motivates her to leadership in the movement.
Violent Content The author observes police brutality toward peaceful protestors in Ferguson as they use force and tear gas to disperse crowds. He describes his own arrest at one point, and the arrest of other protestors. The author also describes several shooting deaths.
Drug Content
Some brief reference to individuals who had drug charges on their records. No description of drug use.
