As Brave As You
Jason Reynolds
Paperback
(Atheneum Books for Young Readers, May 9, 2017)
Kirkus Award Finalist Schneider Family Book Award Winner Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book In this âpitch-perfect contemporary novelâ (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Coretta Scott King â 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.Genieâs 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 Virginiaâin the COUNTRY! The second surprise comes when Genie figures out that their grandfather is blind. Thunderstruck, Genie peppers Grandpop with questions about how he hides 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 heâs ever known, but he starts to notice that his grandfather never leaves the houseâas in NEVER. And when he finds the secret room that Grandpop is always disappearing intoâa room so full of songbirds and plants that itâs almost as if itâs been pulled inside-outâhe begins to wonder if his grandfather is really so brave after all. Then Ernie lets him down in the bravery department. Itâs 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 Ernieâs reluctance, Genie is left to wonderâis bravery and becoming a man only about proving something, or is it just as important to own up to what you wonât do?
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