As Brave as You

Jason Reynolds's As Brave as You is a warm, funny summer story for 11 year olds about a boy who can't stop asking questions.

What happens

Genie and his big brother Ernie have been sent from Brooklyn to their grandparents' house in the Virginia countryside. It's for a whole month (thirty whole days, as Genie points out). Their parents are off to Jamaica to "figure it out", and Genie is fairly sure that's grown-up talk for something much worse.

Genie keeps a battered notebook of numbered questions to look up later. Do honey badgers eat honey? Why is it called football? But there's no phone signal out here and no computer, so the questions just keep piling up.

And there are plenty to ask. Why are he and Ernie on poop patrol in Grandma's yard? Why does Grandpop wear dark glasses at the breakfast table? The answer to that one is the best line in the opening chapters, and Grandpop likes to deliver it himself.

It's like sitting inside Genie's head for the summer. He notices EVERYTHING. The buzzing yellow fridge, the grits that taste like sand until Grandpop sprinkles on some "magic dust", the old model fire truck on the dresser that belonged to an uncle he never met. He's anxious and nosy and very funny about it, often all in one paragraph.

Ernie is almost fourteen and much too cool to take his sunglasses off. Watching the two brothers wind each other up and look out for each other is half the fun. Grandpop is a joy too, a proud, prickly old man who won't let anyone pour his tea for him.

There's some heavier stuff under the jokes. Genie spends the car journey writing a list of reasons to live with Ma or with Dad, because he's scared his parents are splitting up. Dad and Grandpop clearly have something unfinished between them. Early on, Genie also spots a pistol tucked into the back of his blind grandfather's trousers. There's some mild language and the family talk in their own voices (lots of "gon'" and "ain't"), which is part of the charm.

For a reader who's been worried about something at home, that could feel close to the bone. But if they like a story that's funny and tender at the same time, with a narrator who asks the questions they might be too shy to, this is a lovely one to get lost in.

What to read next

If they fall for the way Reynolds writes, try Jason Reynolds's Ghost, about a boy in the city who knows a world record for everything. Fair warning, it opens with a frightening memory of his dad.