When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds is a book about a fifteen-year-old boy named Ali who uses boxing to avoid the dangerous street culture of his Bed-Stuy neighborhood in Brooklyn. Ali lives with his mother and little sister, Jazz. Ali’s life is complicated by his friends, Noodles, who always seems to be looking for trouble and Needles, who has Tourette’s syndrome. They generally stay away from trouble until one night they all go to the wrong party, where one gets badly hurt and another leaves with a target on his back. Published in 2014, it won the 2015 Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award for New Talent and not much has been heard about it since then. Until now.
This book was put on the New York City Department of Education’s suggested reading list and a group of parents in Brooklyn have challenged it for the cover art. The cover features a gun covered in a rainbow knit pattern, which was inspired by a type of street art called yarn bomb
ing. Unlike simple graffiti, yarn bombing requires the artist to knit or crochet a design first. Commonly yarn bombed items include bicycle racks, tree trunks, or park benches. This is a backstory that may not be understood by those who object to this book. Many Brooklyn parents feel that the book promotes gun violence. Reynolds feels that this could not be further from the truth. The book takes a strong stance against violence and is more about love, family, and community rather than hate.
Author, Jason Reynolds, has written two other books which were both 2016 Coretta Scott King author honor books. All American Boys is about sixteen-year-old Rashad, who is mistakenly accused of stealing. His classmate, Quinn, witnesses Rashad’s brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who just happens to be the older brother of his best friend. In The Boy in the Black Suit, Matt takes a job at a funeral home in his tough Brooklyn neighborhood and, while attending and assisting with funerals, begins to accept his mother’s recent death and his responsibilities as a man. Reynolds also has published some of his poetry on his website, iamjasonreynolds.com.