All Ways

Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds  ill by Alexander Nabaum

"You have to look both ways and all ways. That even includes, despite what your dad says, down."

Reynolds has penned a novel comprised of interconnected stories. Read independently they are insightful vignettes, zeroing in on the ten city blocks students attending Lattimer Middle School traverse each day. Collectively the stories reveal the hearts of those bound together by geography. The lives of these unique individuals intersect in unexpected ways.

In the push and pull of everyday life, we meet students affected by life-altering events such as sickle cell anemia, cancer, dementia, incarceration, and gay-shaming.

These ten blocks are jam-packed with a rich assortment of sensory details.

​"There's a smell in the air. A mix of exhaust and exhaustion. Also cooked food and cooked hair.
There's a feel in the air. A stickiness like walking through an invisible syrup. A thickness to life.
There's a sound in the air. A shrill and chill. The scream and whisper of the world making a symphony of so good and so what."

Narration is punctuated with cracking bits of humor, clever word play, and laser-sharp insights into the soul of the neighborhood.

Most stories can be enjoyed as a standalone short narrative. "How a Boy Can Become a Grease Fire" begs to be read aloud. I can't read it without voicing the interactions between Geoffrey and Candace. It's a master class in dynamic dialog. 

Book design visually recreates the ten block setting. Nabaum's horizontal panels of pedestrians' silhouettes travel down the otherwise blank page, marking the beginning of each new tale. The stories are discrete. Taken together, each one builds on the previous narrative and culminate in the concluding story which brings all of the scattered pieces together and neatly folds individual lives into the fabric of the community. Look Both Ways follows the walk each person takes to arrive home.

Reynolds has a way with words, a way with stories, and a way with people that brings out the heart and the humanity in each of us. His work makes better our literary canon for youth, our lives, and our world.

Uncorrected copy provided by publisher.

​Pub date: October 8, 2019  Publisher: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books ISBN: 978-1481438285