The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed

ARC, 359 pages
Release Date: August 4, 2020
Published by: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Read from: August 5-10, 2020
Stand-alone
Source: Won from the Publisher (I received a copy of this book from the Publisher in a giveaway. This did nothing to influence my review.) 
TW: Racism, Use of the n-word, police brutality, murder, mention of lynching, cheating, teen alcohol and drug use, and prison
For fans of: Historical Fiction, Coming of Age, Social Justice content, Cover Whore, Diverse Authors, Diversity, Own Voices, POC MC, POC on Cover, Realistic Fiction, Stand-alone, YA

   Los Angeles, 1992
     Ashley Bennett and her friends are living the charmed life. It’s the end of senior year and they’re spending more time at the beach than in the classroom. They can already feel the sunny days and endless possibilities of summer.
     Everything changes one afternoon in April, when four LAPD officers are acquitted after beating a black man named Rodney King half to death. Suddenly, Ashley’s not just one of the girls. She’s one of the black kids.
     As violent protests engulf LA and the city burns, Ashley tries to continue on as if life were normal. Even as her self-destructive sister gets dangerously involved in the riots. Even as the model black family façade her wealthy and prominent parents have built starts to crumble. Even as her best friends help spread a rumor that could completely derail the future of her classmate and fellow black kid, LaShawn Johnson.
     With her world splintering around her, Ashley, along with the rest of LA, is left to question who is the us? And who is the them?

*MY THOUGHTS*

As someone that doesn’t care for historical fiction, the fact that I was excited for this was pretty shocking. And then the fact that I liked it was even more shocking. But with this being set in the 90’s, it doesn’t really seem like historical fiction to me, since I grew up in this time. I don’t know if that makes me feel old or what lol

“Across town, the trial lets our for the day. The members of the jury step out into the open air and left their faces to the sky, glad that after a long, dark day, there’s a bit of sunshine left. No, I don’t care about any of it now. But I will.”

pg. 23

Ashley has had the same friends all her life. Never mind the fact that they aren’t exactly great people, but they’re her oldest friends and she knows what they they “mean.” But then a man named Rodney King is beaten by the cops and the cops are acquitted for it. Suddenly there are riots breaking out all over L.A. and Ashley tries to keep things as normal as possible. But some things are hard to ignore, like how she’s suddenly not just one of the kids, but one of the Black Kids.

“You can’t disenfranchise a huge portion of the population and not expect shit to go down. I mean, what they did to him is awful, but really, Rodney’s just the tip of the whole goddamned iceberg.”

pg. 44

It’s difficult for me to think of the 90’s as historical fiction because the 90’s is when I grew up. Granted in 1992 I was only 4, but still. I don’t remember how the rest of the world was during the Rodney King riots, but I did know about them. Most kids (or at least the ones I worked with) didn’t know who Rodney King was. Like they knew his name from the many references, but he didn’t know who he was or what he did. (I asked them when I first head about the book and whether or not they counted this as historical fiction.) And because of this, I really wish she had put a bit more of the background into it. I knew what started the riots, but there are some teens out there that have no background and think those riots spawned out of nothing. I was able to get them to look it up on their own, but since I’m a librarian and not a teacher, it’s not something they had to do. BUT, in a promo video about the book, Reed says she views this as a love letter to L.A., so I can understand why she didn’t go more into it.

“…they don’t fucking see us even when they’re looking right at us.”

pg. 90

Another thing about the historical part of this book is the music. Reed made me make a whole playlist for this book because I was listening to them as she mentioned them. It drove the setting completely home for me. And to make it better, it was all GOOD music. Other things that were mentioned like Clinton/Gore signs in yards made me feel like I was back in 92.

“If all the heroes in out stories as white, what does that make us?”

pg. 100

The main character, Ashley, was great. She was privileged with not having to worry about certain things and where she and her parents stayed. She didn’t notice it until she started a rumor about her fellow classmate. I can’t lie, I was not a fan of her in the beginning, but as her character grew over the story, I definitely had a change of heart for her. This is an amazing example of a coming of age story.

“Something’s gotta give you guys I hope when you guys get to be my age, the world is better for you.”.”

p. 106

As for the plot, I did like the way it was told. It showed L.A. Before, During, and After. It made it easier to show how things were changing and why they were changing so fast. I think I was most captivated in the after when it showed Ashley’s and the rest of the world’s biggest changes .

“We have to walk about being perfect all the time just to be seen as human.”

pg. 157

And lastly, the writing style was easily my favorite part about this novel. I can hardly believe that this is a debut. I got lost in her words and I wrote so many quotes from this down it spanned over 4 pages. AND, I used a post it to flag the entirety of page 325. You just can’t read something like this and NOT be moved by her words.

“A riot is the language of the unheard.”

pg. 159

This rating was not easy for me to come by. I had to sit with it for awhile. This book will make you think and will definitely make you want to jam some 90’s music. I hope everyone picks this up. It’s pitched as historical fiction, but it’s so relevant towards what’s happening today. As Nic Stone says, it should be “Required Reading.”

Overall, I give this

What about you? Have you read this? Will you? Do you read historical fiction? Let me know in the comments!

Book Journal Review:

This bookish journal spread was a random brain child of mine. I’m going to do a creative journaling project with my teens in September (EASY virtual program!) and I decided to do a spread on the last book I read to use as my example video…. When I finished it, my mom was like “I love it, but can you blur out the f bombs? Isn’t your org going to be against that?” And of course, she was right lolol I said FMLLLLLL. But then she reminded me that you all might want to see it, so I said ok. Hope you like! And now that I know this was just something I could do in an hour, I’ll more than likely be adding these to more of my reviews. Let me know what you think in the comments!