As Brave As You, Jason Reynolds
As Brave As You, Jason Reynolds
4 Rating(s)
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

As Brave As You

Author: Jason Reynolds

Narrator: Guy Lockard

Unabridged: 7 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/03/2016


Synopsis

Kirkus Award Finalist

Schneider Family Book Award Winner

Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book

In this “pitch-perfect contemporary novel” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Coretta Scott King – John Steptoe Award-winning author Jason Reynolds explores multigenerational ideas about family love and bravery in the story of two brothers, their blind grandfather, and a dangerous rite of passage.

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, Genie peppers Grandpop with questions about how he hides 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 Jason Reynolds

Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant, a Newbery Award Honoree, a Printz Award Honoree, a two-time National Book Award finalist, a 2024 MacArthur Fellow, a Kirkus Award winner, a UK Carnegie Medal winner, a two-time Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award Winner, an Odyssey Award Winner and two-time honoree, and the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors, a Coretta Scott King Author Award, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award. He was 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 (Ghost, Patina, SunnyLu, and Coach); Look Both WaysStuntboy, in the MeantimeStuntboy, In-Between TimeMiles Morales SuspendedAin’t Burned All the Bright (recipient of the Caldecott Honor) and My Name Is Jason. Mine Too. (both cowritten with Jason Griffin); Twenty-Four Seconds from Now...; and Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Honor. His debut picture book, There Was a Party for Langston, won a Caldecott Honor and a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor. He lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Nic on May 03, 2016

Jason Reynolds has done it again. Departing from the often gritty, urban-set YA contemporary he's known for, AS BRAVE AS YOU takes us south to Virginia where Brooklynites 11-year-old Genie and his big brother Ernie are set to spend a month at their grandparent's house in "the country". Despite it be......more

Goodreads review by disco on September 10, 2018

I am a HUGE fan of Jason Reynolds. I think that he is an incredible author with so much talent. As Brave As You just wasn't my absolute favorite. It is a heartwarming story that is also very approachable. There are laugh aloud moments and deafening serious ones. One of my biggest issues with this boo......more

Goodreads review by DianaRose on March 18, 2025

classic jason reynolds, but not necessarily one of my favorites......more

Goodreads review by Hannah on May 03, 2017

Click here to watch a video review of this book on my book channel, From Beginning to Bookend. #489: Why is the world more interesting through the eyes of Genie Harris, questionnaire extraordinaire? #490: How does Jason Reynolds manage to squeeze so many important messages into one little book? Brave......more

Goodreads review by Carrie on August 09, 2016

Jason Reynolds writes incredible characters. Unforgettable believable characters. In this middle grade title, he delivers characters and relationships in a rich, quietly humorous story full of questions, wisdom and love.......more