As Brave As You, by Jason Reynolds

One of my favorite authors, but not his newest book. This one was published in 2016 but I could never get around to it. And if someone had handed me this book without telling me who wrote it, I would bet two days of dog food on the author being Christopher Paul Curtis, author of Bud, Not Buddy. That's not a bad thing, rather a really good thing, but As Brave As You is much more of a character development kind of story than an intense street lit-type book, like Long Way Down is. In fact, although Reynolds writes great characters, this is the book least like his others that I have read so far...and I've read 4 or 5 of them!

In this story, two brothers are taken to their grandparents house for a few weeks in summer, while their parents take a vacation intended to help save their marriage. The boys barely know the grandparents, and although the younger family lives in Brooklyn, the grandparents live in Virginia, in the country, and about as far from the city as the boys could get. Reynolds writes each character with depth and interest, but this isn't an "action" story, per se. The characters, and what does and doesn't happen between them, is the story. And it's a really good one, just unlike the others by this author that I have read.  If you like Jason Reynolds, especially Ghost, for example, you'll probably like this as well. If you like Christopher Paul Curtis, you'll love this! 4 paws!