Look Both Ways

Look Both Ways: a Tale Told in Ten Blocks
Jason Reynolds
Simon & Schuster, Oct. 2019 168 pages
Grades 4-7
Short Stories/Realistic Fiction

Ten interwoven short stories relate the lives and times of a neighborhood of middle school children and some of the troubles they face. The stories all take place walking down different neighborhood blocks on the way home from school and the challenges and experiences to be had in this diverse urban community. Each story focuses on a different central character(s) and the reader gets an honest glimpse inside their world. Prior characters pop up in later stories and serve minor roles, showing how our lives are all interrelated. Reynolds highlights different struggles and issues within the stories such as a child with Sickle-cell disease, a mother bedridden with cancer, fear of dogs after an attack, confusing feelings about gender attraction, loneliness, bullying, poverty, and loss of a sibling. Throughout all of the hardships, these kids are working together to figure it out and make their world a better place, creating a heartwarming story with friendship at its center.

Jason Reynolds is currently the darling of KidLit. With good reason. I am a card-carrying member of the Jason Reynolds fan club for his hard-hitting honest stories and carefully crafted language. I was excited to get my hands on this book and, though it is a departure from his other writing to date, loved it! Reynolds manages to create developed characters who the reader will care about in a few short pages. Each story is a little work of art in its own right, yet all the stories synthesize together to create a cohesive whole. The book begins with an amazing hook about a school bus falling from the sky. I thought, based on this opening statement, that the book would lean towards the fantastical. After a few more breadcrumbs dropped throughout the narrative about the school bus, the mystery of that line is solved on the very last page. As usual, Reynolds writing is poetic and intentional. Chapter heading are the names of a different streets where the action takes place with a graphic illustration giving the reader a hint of what is to come. A character from each story is name dropped in the previous one, assisting with the interconnection of the tales. I love that Reynolds has groups of girls and boys together being friends without the separation of gender typical in this age group. There are some surprise endings and emotional moments. Teachers, especially, will find this title useful for classroom use. The book can be enjoyed by both boys and girls as there is a diverse range of characters involved offering something for everyone. A great book that is sure to have legs, this one will be on my best books list of the year for sure!