Ain't Burned All the Bright, an Indie Next List Top Pick and 2022 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award-winner, is a gripping, emotional look into the life of a Black family living through the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Artist Jason Griffin has designed this book as a journal, separated by author Jason Reynolds into three parts: "Breath One," "Breath Two" and "Breath Three." A Black child, in first-person narration, grapples with protests, his father's coughs and overwhelming worry. Griffin uses a childlike style to depict images such as neighborhoods on fire and figures in masks. Reynolds's spare free verse appears as text printed out then taped down on top of the art. Together, the two creators channel the weight of uncertainty and chaos that Black people endure, as well as the hope they carry with them on a regular basis. --Kharissa Kenner, children's librarian, Bank Street School for Children