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As Brave As You Audiobook
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Publisher Description
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?
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“Narrator Guy Lockard’s impressive command of dialect and intonations enlivens the author’s humor…and actualizes the characters of eleven-year-old Genie and his older brother…Lockard’s portrayal of Genie is seasoned with a mix of curiosity and nervousness…[and] Lockard fully expresses Genie’s blind, gun-toting Grandpop—the vulnerability that lies below his swagger and the man’s need for the grandson who comes to love him.”
— AudioFile
Quotes
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“It is hard not to cheer as, in his quiet way, [Genie] forges his own course, navigating the fine line between fear and cowardice.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“Reynolds captures the bond that Grandpop and Genie form in a tender, believable, and entertaining way, delivered through smart and funny prose and sparkling dialogue. Verdict: A richly realized story about life and loss, courage and grace, and what it takes to be a man…Will be appreciated by a broad audience.”
— School Library Journal (starred review) -
“What’s behind the ‘nunya bidness door’? And is that a gun sticking out from Grandpop’s waistband? Reynolds’ middle-grade debut meanders like the best kind of summer vacation but never loses sense of its throughline…Reynolds gives his readers uncommonly well-developed, complex characters…[for a] pitch-perfect contemporary novel.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review) -
“A multifaceted story that skillfully blends light and dark elements while showing children and adults interacting believably and imperfectly.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Lockard embodies Genie’s curiosity, excitement, and well-earned wisdom with pitch-perfect accuracy.”
— School Library Journal (audio review)
Awards
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Winner of the Kirkus Prize for Best Young Readers Book of 2016
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A Kirkus Reviews Pick of Best Books of 2016 for Middle-Graders
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A School Library Journal Top Pick in Audio for 2016
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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 is also the 2020–2021 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. His many books include Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Honor. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.