In this episode of The Literary Life, Mitchell Kaplan speaks with National Book Award-nominee Jason Reynolds about his journey: from his early life as a kid who really did not like to read, to becoming a best-selling author and literary star.
“I grew up in an environment where reading wasn’t necessarily a thing anybody did around us. We didn’t see books. We didn’t know anyone who was writing books. We didn’t necessarily see our parents reading books. Books meant school, and the kind of books that were being taught in school were books that felt very disconnected from our lives. The argument that I often get is ‘Well, there are universal things out there’ and that is true, but what we desperately needed to see–what I desperately needed to see–were the details of my life.”
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Listen to All American Boys and other audiobooks by Jason Reynolds on Libro.fm.
Our FAVORITE author is Jason Reynolds! My students love his books, as do I. Thank you for this great post and interview! 🙂