Aint Burned All the Bright, Jason Reynolds
Aint Burned All the Bright, Jason Reynolds
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Ain't Burned All the Bright

Author: Jason Reynolds

Narrator: Jason Reynolds, Nile Bullock, Tatum Marylin Hall, JaQwan J. Kelly, DePre Owens

Unabridged: 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/11/2022


Synopsis

NAMED A 2023 ALA NOTABLE CHILDREN’S RECORDING!

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.

And 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.

About Jason Reynolds

Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a Newbery Award Honoree, a Printz Award Honoree, a two-time National Book Award finalist, a Kirkus Award winner, a Carnegie Medal winner, a two-time Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award Winner, and the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors. He’s also the 2020–2022 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. His many books include All American Boys (cowritten with Brendan Kiely); When I Was the GreatestThe Boy in the Black SuitStampedAs Brave as YouFor Every One; the Track series (GhostPatinaSunny, and Lu); Look Both WaysStuntboy, in the MeantimeAin’t Burned All the BrightMy Name Is Jason. Mine Too. (with Jason Griffin); and Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Honor. He lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.


Reviews

Goodreads review by s.penkevich on April 29, 2022

Jason Reynolds is a national treasure. Named the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature in 2020 by the Library of Congress, Reynolds has frequently been nominated—and often won—practically every youth literature award. He has a natural gift to connect with young people and frequently......more

Goodreads review by aly on February 22, 2025

"My name is Jason" "Mine too" Ain't Burned All The Bright depicts the sentiments of a young boy's family during racial upheavals and the Covid-19 pandemic conveyed in the style of a notebook written by the young boy himself. I have to say, I was expecting a strong writing but this book imbu......more

Goodreads review by Kelsey (munnyreads) on January 11, 2022

Each page it's own work of art. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.......more

Goodreads review by Claude's on March 15, 2023

I was reading this on 'device free day' in the school library I currently work at. Through teary eyes I was telling kids they need to pack up their card games and chess sets because the bell was about to ring. Another amazing book by Jason that shines a light on important issues and feelings and it......more

Goodreads review by destiny ♡ on November 07, 2021

Ain't Burned All the Bright is a really soft, poignant, sweet look at a family living through two tragedies: the COVID-19 pandemic, and living as a Black family in the US. Our narrator is telling two stories consecutively, both of watching how his family is coping with the pandemic and their father'......more


Quotes

"How do you create an amazing audiobook from an illustrated novel in which the vibrant art takes center stage? Author Jason Reynolds deftly narrates “Take One” of this collaboration between himself and mixed-media collage artist Jason Griffin. Together, they bring slam-poetry sensibilities to a brief yet evocative glimpse of an unnamed young Black narrator. His mother stays glued to the news, his father coughs endlessly, and his siblings search for meaning as he hunts fruitlessly for an oxygen mask. As Reynolds’s singular voice fades out, “Take Two” of this work hands the same spare, moving words to a full cast of outstanding narrators. They add layers of meaning as their voices weave together, blending uncertainty and hope as one person’s worries become everyone’s journey."

"Virtuoso Reynolds’ latest is another chameleonic masterpiece, brilliantly consumable in various
mediums, each providing transporting rewards. The original collaboration, conceived between
best friends Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin, works best on the page: Reynolds’ glorious
words—cut-out phrases and sentences—laid over Griffin’s stupendous collaged spreads create
a visually spectacular literary feast. In the ears, Reynolds’ words carry the narration in one of the
most inventive recent audiobook adaptations/presentations: the book gets read twice, first by
Reynolds alone, then by a full cast. The former will surely be appreciated by purists, with
Reynolds intimately enhancing and amplifying every phrase, every pause, every beat exactly as
he intended. The latter repeats the exact same text, yet the experience turns the familiar into an
utterly altered experience with multiple voices ciphering contrasting interpretations. Both, of
course, resonate. And yet Reynolds’ embodiment of his three “Breaths”—a boy observing his TV
news-addicted mother, video-gaming brother, and protest-planning sister; the boy’s ill, coughing
father separated in another room; the boy struggling to breathe amidst systemic oppression but
finding solace among family—feels like an all-encompassing embrace. A final treat: a
provenance-revealing conversation between Reynolds and Griffin—“that’s all”—appends the
recording."