![]() By allowing black boys to “hear their own secrets told back to them,” Reynolds gives them permission to express emotions publicly and without shame. ![]() ![]() “Boys want to be cool, but that’s not all they want-cool is a force field.” By writing about boys who cry and fail and get scared, Reynolds peels away his characters’ cool façades and creates a space for readers to explore their own experiences within the bounds of a fictional world. “Embarrassment disarms people,” Reynolds said. To draw a reader in, the first step is to be humble and purposefully embarrass yourself. While preparing his remarks, he tuned in to an episode of the Steve Harvey Show that focused on three steps for successful blind dating and was surprised to realize that he had been applying those same methods when creating stories to engage young readers. Reynolds released his seventh novel, Miles Morales: Spider-Man (Marvel), on August 1, just days before visiting Atlanta to speak to a packed house of librarians about black boys, literacy, and vulnerability at the National Conference of African American Librarians on August 10. When tasked with preparing a lecture on creating stories black boys read, award-winning author Jason Reynolds got his inspiration from an unexpected source: television personality Steve Harvey. He spoke at the 2017 American Association of School Librarians National Conference and Exhibition in Phoenix on November 11. Author Jason Reynolds, photographed at the 2017 American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago. ![]()
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