All American Boys by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely

Why You'll Like It: Relevant Social Issues. Bromance. Thought-provoking Discussions. 

We Need Diverse Books unveiled their winner and honorees for this year's Walter Dean Meyer Award (aka: The Walter).  A Twitter chat, recently featured these authors talking about their lives and written works.  See the Storify below: 

This novel is my new gateway to "having that conversation about race" book. It is written in such a masterful way that makes me hope it is jump starting those conversations that need to be had. The perspectives of race in American are told in alternating viewpoints: a white boy (Quinn) and a black boy (Rashad). Quinn witnesses something that happens to Rashad and is at a loss on what to do. The community and school start to divide as racial tensions escalate. The part that had me going "OH SNAPS! THIS IS AMAZING!" is how Reynolds & Kiely tied it all together at the end.

 It is the book that I push middle school and high school English teachers to add to their booklists and am constantly recommending it to my teens to check out. The celebration of Black History Month ends in a couple of days, but you still have a whole year to keep reading African-American themed books. If you haven't read it already, please add this to your reading list!