1. Jason Reynolds was born on December 6,1983 and is an American author of novels and poetry for young adult and middle grade audiences.
25 Facts About Jason Reynolds
1. 2.
Jason Reynolds wrote a Marvel Comics novel called Miles Morales: Spider-Man.
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In 2017, Reynolds returned to poetry with Long Way Down, a novel in verse that was named a Newbery Honor book, a Michael L Printz Honor Book, and best young adult work by the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Awards.
4.
From 2020 to 2022, Jason Reynolds was the Library of Congress' National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.
5.
Jason Reynolds was born on December 6,1983, in Washington, DC, and grew up just across Maryland border in Oxon Hill, a neighborhood where his mother, a special education teacher in a Maryland public school, could afford a house with a yard and enough space for Jason Reynolds, his three siblings, and sometimes other extended family.
6.
At nine years old, Jason Reynolds was inspired by Queen Latifah's third album, Black Reign, to start writing poetry.
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Jason Reynolds wrote a few lines in an effort to console his mother, who printed the poem on the program for the funeral, and after that Reynolds wrote poems as each of his grandmother's siblings passed.
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Jason Reynolds was introduced to spoken word in this period and began performing, including eventually solo shows, and in 2001, his first book came out, a poetry collection called Let Me Speak.
9.
Jason Reynolds moved back to Washington, DC, from Brooklyn in 2016.
10.
Jason Reynolds collects items related to African-American literature, including a letter by Langston Hughes, a pre-publication review copy of Claude Brown's Manchild in the Promised Land and an autographed first edition copy of Toni Morrison's Beloved.
11.
Jason Reynolds appeared on Antiques Roadshow in 2021 to discuss his collecting.
12.
Jason Reynolds had told Chris he had basically stopped writing, but Chris pointed out that with his father aging, there would soon be a shortage of new works written about young black children, particularly black boys.
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In 2014, Jason Reynolds published When I Was The Greatest, a young adult novel set in Jason Reynolds' own neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant.
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In 2015, Jason Reynolds published The Boy in the Black Suit, about a child grieving the loss of his mother.
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Also in 2015, Jason Reynolds published All American Boys, co-authored with Brendan Kiely.
16.
The book is written in two voices, with Jason Reynolds writing from the point of view of the teenaged victim, Rashad Butler, in a hospital bed, while Kiely wrote the character Quinn Collins, a white teenager and family friend of the police officer, who witnessed the violent attack.
17.
The book arose from personal conversations between Jason Reynolds, who is black, and Kiely, who is white.
18.
In 2016, Jason Reynolds published Ghost, a National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature.
19.
Jason Reynolds wanted to write about the special burdens some teen girls assume in their families.
20.
Jason Reynolds is the author of Miles Morales: Spider-Man, a novel based on the Marvel Comics' Afro-Puerto Rican teen character.
21.
Jason Reynolds's 2017 book, Long Way Down, is a novel written in verse.
22.
Jason Reynolds originally performed the poem at the unveiling of the Martin Luther King Jr.
23.
Two weeks later, Jason Reynolds occupied three slots on The New York Times best-seller lists for children's literature: two on the young adult hardcover list, and one on the children's series list for the Track series.
24.
Jason Reynolds published a list for teenagers with 10 things he thought they should know about life and their futures.
25.
In 2022, Jason Reynolds wrote and hosted My Mother Made Me, a podcast he made in collaboration with Radiotopia.