Introduktion
All American Boys is a young-adult novel published in 2015. This modern-day narrative tells the story of an incident of police brutality through the alternating voices of two high school students: Rashad, whose chapters are written by author Jason Reynolds, and Quinn, whose chapters are written by author Brendan Kiely.

While Rashad and Quinn never actually meet in the novel, their lives intersect in a powerful way after a violent act of racism rocks their hometown of Springfield, Illinois.

Utdrag
It’s Saturday morning, and Rashad is in the hospital with a broken nose and fractured ribs. His parents, Jessica and David, are there with him. His mother is worried and sympathetic, but his father insists that Rashad must have done something to bring on the attack.

Randolph, nicknamed “Spoony,”rails against the injustice done to his little brother and is determined not to let the authorities “sweep this under the rug” (59). Meanwhile, Rashad learns that he’s suffering from internal bleeding and must stay in the hospital for a few days.

On Sunday morning, Spoony visits to show Rashad that he’s the main feature on the TV news. Spoony reveals that he and his girlfriend, Berry, found a smartphone video of the beating online and sent it to the news station, along with Rashad’s name and a picture of him in his JROTC uniform.

As the news continues, Rashad also learns the name of the officer who beat him: Paul Galluzzo. On Sunday afternoon, Quinn, his mother, and his younger brother, Will, head to the Galluzzos’ barbecue where Paul is manning the grill as if nothing is wrong.

Quinn has always viewed Paul as an older brother because Paul stepped in to teach him basketball and offered support after Quinn’s father died in Afghanistan.After witnessing the extreme act of violence,Quinn isn’t sure what to think of Paul anymore.

Quinn then converses with his crush, Jill, who is also Guzzo’s cousin. He discovers that they both are questioning Paul’s actions, while the others support him without hesitation. On Monday, Quinn returns to school to discover that Rashad’s beating is clearly on everyone’s minds.