YA Authors Coming To Cleveland Heights For Event

From Heights Libraries: Heights Libraries is pleased to present an inspiring evening of side-by-side personal stories from the renowned authors of All American Boys, Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, on Tuesday, October 2, at 7 p.m. The event takes place at Ensemble Theatre, 2843 Washington Blvd in Cleveland Heights, and is free and open to all. Registration is required at heightslibrary.org.

A 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor book, and recipient of the Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature, All American Boys is a challenging, timely tale of racial profiling, police brutality, and, ultimately, social justice. The main characters represent facets of a tragically familiar scenario: one, a black teen, is brutalized by a police officer who sees him as a criminal; the other, a white teen, witnesses the savage act and must decide whether he will ignore what he has seen or take action.

Reynolds, who is black, and Kiely, who is white, became friends while on a book tour together for their mutual publisher, Simon and Schuster. At that time, the trial and eventual acquittal of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed the unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin, permeated the news and social media. The two bonded over their frustrations and anger about the event, and decided to write a book together after Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, was shot and killed by police in Ferguson, MO, in 2014. The result was All American Boys, a collaborative effort to address racial inequality, white privilege, and social justice.

The authors will be discussing their lives, their friendship, and the crucial importance of literacy, as well as the impact of their book on young readers.

“Who better to talk about literacy than two YA authors whose books really know how to speak to kids in their own language,” says the event’s organizer, Special Projects Coordinator Maggie Kinney. “The stories Reynolds and Kiely write appeal to kids and teens because their writing doesn’t condescend; they take kid’s lives and experiences seriously, and it comes out in their language and the stories they tell.”

Jason Reynolds is a New York Times bestselling author, a Newbery Award Honoree, a Printz Award Honoree, National Book Award Honoree, a Kirkus Award winner, a two time Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award Winner, and the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors. The American Booksellers Association’s 2017 spokesperson for Indies First, his many books include When I Was the Greatest, Boy in the Black Suit, All American Boys (cowritten with Brendan Kiely), As Brave as You, For Every One, the Track series (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu), and Long Way Down, which received both a Newbery Honor and a Printz Honor. He lives in Washington, DC.

Brendan Kiely is The New York Times bestselling author of All American Boys (with Jason Reynolds), The Last True Love Story, and The Gospel of Winter. His work has been published in ten languages, received a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Award, the Walter Dean Myers Award, the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award, and was selected as one of the American Library Association’s Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults. Originally from the Boston area, he now lives with his wife in Greenwich Village.

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