Ain't Burned All the Bright

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."