Jason Reynolds

About Jason's Work

Jason Reynolds is a writer of children’s and young adult literature whose books reflect the rich inner lives of kids of color and offer profound moments of human connection. He writes to fill a void he experienced as a young Black boy from Oxon Hill, Maryland, who seldom saw communities like his depicted in the books he was encouraged to read at school. With a poet’s ear for rhythm and a storyteller’s sense of narrative pacing and structure, Reynolds weaves humor, joy, and playfulness into his works. At the same time, he does not shy away from depicting the challenging realities of racism, economic inequity, police brutality, and grief for his young readers. The characters featured in his fiction forge friendships, discover talents, act out, seek forgiveness, face fears, and care for parents with cancer.

In Ghost (2016), the first in a series of track-themed novels, 11-year-old Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw turns to running with an elite track team to deal with the traumas of domestic violence and his father’s incarceration. Long Way Down (2017), a novel in verse, follows 15-year-old Will as he rides an elevator down from his apartment. He has a gun in his waistband and is intent on avenging his brother’s murder. Ghosts from Will’s past, each a victim of gun violence, confront him as the elevator opens on descending floors. The novel Look Both Ways (2019) takes the form of ten interconnected stories. Its scenes unfold across ten blocks traversed by sixth graders as they navigate the terrain between school and home, shared schedules and private struggles. With each chapter, Reynolds invites readers to step into the shoes of different characters as they learn about the world in their own ways during unsupervised time. Pia, a skateboarder, mourns her lost sister, and list-making Fatima observes her environment like her scientist mother.

Reynolds’s body of work also includes numerous other novels, a co-authored work of nonfiction, and collaborations with artists on picture books and graphic novels. Beyond the page, he is a dynamic champion of storytelling who inspires reluctant readers and the adults who teach and care for them. He travels to schools, libraries, and community centers in cities and small towns across the nation to connect with kids at their level and remind them that their personal narratives hold important truths, that they are worthy of appearing on the pages of the books we all read. As an inventive author and captivating speaker, Reynolds ensures that kids see themselves in literature and empowers them to tell their own stories.