About this item
Kirkus Award Finalist Schneider Family Book Award Winner Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book When two brothers decide to prove how brave they are, everything backfires - literally - in this piercing middle grade novel by the winner of the Coretta Scott King - Johnson Steptoe Award.Genie's 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 Virginia - in the COUNTRY! The second surprise comes when Genie figures out that their grandfather is blind. Thunderstruck and - being a curious kid - Genie peppers Grandpop with questions about how he covers 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 he's ever known, but he starts to notice that his grandfather never leaves the house - as in NEVER. And when he finds the secret room that Grandpop is always disappearing into - a room so full of songbirds and plants that it's almost as if it's been pulled inside-out - he begins to wonder if his grandfather is really so brave after all. Then Ernie lets him down in the bravery department. It's 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 Ernie's reluctance, Genie is left to wonder - is bravery and becoming a man only about proving something, or is it just as important to own up to what you won't do?
About the Author
The first name bits:What Jason knows is that there are a lot -- A LOT -- of people, young, old, and in-between, who hate reading. He knows that many of these book haters are boys. He knows that many of these book-hating boys, don't actually hate books, they hate boredom. If you are reading this, and you happen to be one of these boys, first of all, you're reading this Jason's master plan is already working (muahahahahahaha) and second of all, know that Jason totally feels you. He REALLY does. Because even though he's a writer, he hates reading boring books too. So here's what he plans to do: NOT WRITE BORING BOOKS. That's it, and that's all. Now, for the last name bits:Jason Reynolds is an award-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author. Jason's many books include Miles Morales: Spider Man, the Track series (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu) , Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Correta Scott King Honor, and Look Both Ways, which was a National Book Award Finalist. His latest book, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, is a collaboration with Ibram X. Kendi. Recently named the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, Jason has appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and CBS This Morning. He is on faculty at Lesley University, for the Writing for Young People MFA Program and lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.
