- Richland Library
- Monday, March 01, 2021
iRead features the best ebooks, eaudiobooks and print books for children and teens curated by the Children's Room and Teen Center staff.
Children & Teen Author | Jason Reynolds
Jason Reynolds is an author and poet who grew up in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Inspired by Queen Latifah and the other rappers he listened to in his youth, he began writing poetry at the age of 9. As a child, he didn’t read books because he couldn’t see himself in the literature he was assigned to read in school. Speaking to a group of middle school kids, he explained, “The teacher was like, ‘Read this book about a man chasing a whale,’ and I’m like, bruh … I don’t know if I can connect to a man chasing a whale when I’ve never seen a whale. Nothing that’s happening in these books is happening in my neighborhood.”
When he was 17, Reynolds read Richard Wright’s memoir, Black Boy – the first book he ever finished – and for the first time he found a story that he could connect with. After that, he read as much African American literature as he could, by authors like James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, and Toni Morrison. But he also read street fiction, also called urban fiction, which was becoming popular because it was written in an engaging style about topics their audience could relate to. Inspired by this experience, Reynolds decided he could write books about young people like the kids he had grown up with. He has written 15 books, all featuring minority characters, including Ghost, As Brave As You, Miles Morales: Spider-Man, and Long Way Down.
In January 2020, Jason Reynolds was named as the Library of Congress’s national ambassador for young people’s literature, a position designed to encourage young people to develop an interest in reading.
"The teacher was like, ‘Read this book about a man chasing a whale,’ and I’m like, bruh … I don’t know if I can connect to a man chasing a whale when I’ve never seen a whale. Nothing that’s happening in these books is happening in my neighborhood.”--Jason Reynolds
Awards
2015: John Steptoe New Talent Award, When I Was the Greatest
2016: finalist, National Book Award for Young People's Literature, Ghost
2016: Walter Dean Myers Award, As Brave as You
Coretta Scott King Award honor in 2016 (All American Boys), 2017 (As Brave as You), and 2018 (Long Way Down)
2017 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth/Teen, As Brave As You
2018: Newbery Honor, Long Way Down
2018: Printz Honor Book, Long Way Down
2018: Edgar Award, best young adult work, Long Way Down
2019: finalist, National Book Award for Young People's Literature, Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks
Contributed by Hartley Middleton | Teen Center Associate