Published: 2022
Author: Jason Reynolds
Illustrator: Jason Griffin
Genres: Poetry, Young Adult, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Contemporary, Art, Realistic Fiction, Teen, Family, Social Justice
Audience (Grade Levels): Middle School, High School; Grades 7-12
Number of Stars: 5-Stars
Goodreads Link: Ain’t Burned All the Bright
Triggers: Racial trauma, references to police brutality/the murder of George Floyd, pandemic-related illness (COVID-19), breathing/suffocation distress
Review By: MaryAlice Brennan-Steere
Publisher’s Summary:
Prepare yourself for something unlike anything: A smash-up of art and text for teens that viscerally captures what it is to be Black. In America. Right Now. Written by #1 New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Jason Reynolds.
Jason Reynolds and his best bud, Jason Griffin had a mind-meld. And they decided to tackle it, in one fell swoop, in about ten sentences, and 300 pages of art, this piece, this contemplation-manifesto-fierce-vulnerable-gorgeous-terrifying-WhatIsWrongWithHumans-hope-filled-hopeful-searing-Eye-Poppingly-Illustrated-tender-heartbreaking-how-The-HECK-did-They-Come-UP-with-This project about oxygen. And all of the symbolism attached to that word, especially NOW.
And so for anyone who didn’t really know what it means to not be able to breathe, REALLY breathe, for generations, now you know. And those who already do, you’ll be nodding yep yep, that is exactly how it is.
Review:
This book has been described as a smash up of text and art, and the dedication reads: “For everyone we lost and everything we learned in the strangest year of our lives – 2020.” It’s a story about an African American family living in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic and the protests that followed after the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. With minimal but powerful text set against a vibrant art collage, the narrator tells the story about how his family copes during the pandemic. A connecting element throughout the story is about breathing and oxygen. The metaphor of suffocation ties together many threads of the storyline: the narrator’s father struggles to draw breath as he contracts COVID, which also mirrors the struggle facing African Americans who are just trying to “breathe” amidst discrimination. Additionally the depiction of the events of George Floyd’s murder and Floyd’s last words: “I can’t breathe, Mama” add weight to this gut-wrenching chronicle. It’s an authentic and timely story, and the narrator’s pain shines through.
Classroom & Curricular Connections:
- English Language Arts / Poetry (Metaphor & Minimalist Structure): This book serves as a masterclass in economy of language, utilizing only ten powerful sentences across 300 pages. ELA teachers can use it to analyze how a recurring central metaphor—in this case, breathing and suffocation—can connect different thematic threads such as systemic oppression and physical illness.
- Social Studies / Modern American History (The Events of 2020): The novel is an indispensable primary-source-style reflection of the dual crises of the early COVID-19 pandemic and the global civil rights protests following George Floyd’s murder. It offers history teachers a visceral way to help students contextualize the emotional landscape of 2020.
- Social-Emotional Learning (Processing Collective Trauma & Grief): Dedicated to the losses and lessons of 2020, this book is an excellent tool for SEL. Educators can lead conversations about anxiety, isolation, family support, and coping with world-altering events.
- “Art & Text Mind-Meld” Collage Workshop: Inspired by the collaboration between Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin, host a library creative session. Have students work in pairs (one writer, one artist) to choose a single abstract concept (e.g., warmth, silence, gravity) and represent it through a minimalist text-and-collage pairing.
- The “I Can Breathe” Reflective Poetry Board: Create an interactive library display where students can pin brief, single-sentence reflections or drawings detailing what brings them comfort, hope, or “oxygen” when they feel overwhelmed by the world.
Diversity & Representation:
Ain’t Burned All the Bright provides crucial, unapologetic representation of the contemporary Black American experience. By capturing the intersection of a pandemic, domestic family worry, and systemic racial violence, the book honors Black pain while emphasizing the resilience and love of the Black family unit, offering a mirror for students who lived through these anxieties and a window for those seeking to understand them.
Readalikes
- Long Way Down (The Graphic Novel) by Jason Reynolds, illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff
- Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
- Speak: The Graphic Novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, illustrated by Emily Carroll
