Tag: Jason Reynolds

Object 1: Jason Reynolds’ Look Both Ways

Here’s something I haven’t seen many of: middle-grade short story collections.

JReyLBW

My copy is the first edition hardback. I think I bought it from Amazon to be delivered the day of its release, so it doesn’t have the book award thingamy on it. It has a beautiful cover, so I like that my copy is unblemished.

I finished reading it in about three sittings. There are ten stories, all set on the same afternoon just as school is letting out. Each story is about a different kid or set of kids and their walk home. I love Jason’s writing — he has a gorgeous prose voice — or for that matter, speaking voice — let’s just say that a Jason Reynolds reading is a fabulous experience. Plus, also, too, he’s written some of my very favorite children’s books. This one is a very good book. (My favorite of his books is As Brave As You, btw.)

I’m holding on to it — it’s a first edition. Jason teaches at my alma mater, otherwise I might never have read his work. But as it happens, I do know these books, and I am the richer for it.

It Actually Is a Hiatus

Hello, beautiful!

I hope you haven’t missed me too much! I’m sorry to have been away for so long. I was enjoying my Summer, and yes, writing.

This past May and June, I had the rare privilege of hearing Jason Reynolds (who’s winning all the things right now) give two graduation addresses, and they were both very profound, in different ways. One was for Lesley University’s graduate commencement, and the other was at graduation for the semester-after-mine’s graduation ceremony at the MFA program I went to.

The gist of his second second speech at the MFA graduation was that as writers, we are not chosen, we choose to write.

I seem to keep firing up Word. I’ve either been actively writing or thinking about what I’ve been writing this whole summer. I feel like I’m doing the thing. I’m not going to analyze that too deeply right now, but… thing.

And I will be starting up my second season of this blog the first week of October.

Keep watching!