A short life of the author
Jason Reynolds (b. 6 December 1983) was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Oxon Hill, Maryland. He studied English at the University of Maryland.
Life and Career
Reynolds’s breakthrough came with When I Was the Greatest (2014) — about three friends in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn — which won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent. The Track series — Ghost (2016), Patina (2017), Sunny (2018), Lu (2018) — follows four young athletes and became a major middle-grade phenomenon.
Long Way Down (2017) — a novel in verse about a teenage boy in an elevator, deciding whether to shoot his brother’s killer — is his most acclaimed single work: a Newbery Honor book, a Printz Honor book, and a Carnegie Medal winner.
All American Boys (2015, co-written with Brendan Kiely) — about a police brutality incident from two perspectives, one Black and one white — is one of the most widely read YA novels about racism in America.
Major Works and Themes
Reynolds writes about Black boyhood and adolescence with empathy, humour, and moral seriousness.
Key Works
- Long Way Down (2017) — Newbery Honor, Carnegie Medal
- Ghost (2016)
Collecting Reynolds
Long Way Down first edition (Atheneum, 2017) brings $20–$40. Reynolds signs frequently at schools and bookshops.