TEACHERS! BUY THIS BOOK FOR YOUR STUDENTS!!!

This book is soooooo good, I can't even coherently yell about it!

Jason Reynolds is a fantastic YA/MG author and is currently the Library of Congress' National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. I have loved every book he's written, so I had high expectations going into this "remix" of Ibram X. Kendi's Stamped From the Beginning.

Of course, Jason delivered. This is a concise, accessible, and engaging history of race in the United States clearly geared towards the audience of young people. I have heard Jason speak to students many times, and he talks to them on their level without ever being condescending. This book is the same, especially the audio version. It lays out the history of racism and its effects on the US up until today in a way that is easy for kids to understand, but doesn't talk down to them. Jason relates events to things kids experience themselves so they have a good groundwork to build from.

I think that even kids who are reluctant to learn history would be intrigued by this book because, as Jason says many times, it's not a history book. It's so much more than that.