Identity, Diversity, Empathy, Justice, Action.  These words are ever important in today's society in light of recent events.  I love a lot of things about books but one thing I especially love is the way a novel can provide an accessible, relatively safe entry point into a difficult topic or in this case multiple topics.  All American Boys is a 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor book, and recipient of the Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature.  In this New York Times bestselling novel, two teens—one black, one white—grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country bitterly divided by racial tension.  I have taught this book to several 8th, 9th and 10th grade students in both home school and public-school settings.  It is a book that truly speaks to both teenagers and adults. The curriculum level is 9th/10th grade but advanced students or interested students may take the course.  
Written in tandem by two award-winning authors, this four-starred reviewed tour de force shares the alternating perspectives of Rashad and Quinn as the complications from that single violent moment, the type taken directly from today’s headlines, unfold and reverberate to highlight an unwelcome truth.  Students are responsible for obtaining their own copy or the audio book.

From the cover:
A bag of chips. That’s all sixteen-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galluzzo, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad’s pleadings that he’s stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad’s resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad’s every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered. But how can you stay still when someone is pounding your face into the concrete pavement?
There were witnesses: Quinn Collins—a varsity basketball player and Rashad’s classmate who has been raised by Paul since his own father died in Afghanistan—and a video camera.  Soon the beating is all over the news and Paul is getting threatened with accusations of prejudice and racial brutality. Quinn refuses to believe that the man who has basically been his savior could possibly be guilty. But then Rashad is absent. And absent again. And again. And the basketball team—half of whom are Rashad’s best friends—start to take sides. As does the school. And the town. Simmering tensions threaten to explode as Rashad and Quinn are forced to face decisions and consequences they had never considered before.

Please Note:  This book does tackle difficult topics in an age-appropriate way.  My only word of caution is that there are swear words throughout the book.  It does not seem to bother most of my learners, but I do want parents aware.  The book is available on audiotape for those students that have difficulty with text.  I do also show a video on how difficult it is to be a police officer, because I want students to realize Officer Gulluzo is an outlier, a serious one, however he is not representative of all police.  

Week One:  Unconscious Bias
Week Two:  Literary Devices, Conflict and Chapter Discussion
Week Three:  Why the Black Lives Matter movement doesn't undermine that police lives matter too. Examination of the Tulsa Race Riots, Emmet Till and the LA Race Riots. Video examining  how a lead protester went to the Police Academy and saw things from an Officer's Perspective. Chapter Discussion
Week Four: Excessive Force Examined- Treyvon Martin, Ferguson and other examples (Character Bio Assignment)
Week Five:   Chapter Discussion, Final Project Draft, (T-shirt Assignment)
Week Six:  Final Discussion,  Final Written Project Share.