“You watchin’?” Ernie called out, making sure all eyes were on him.

Genie shoved the small notebook into his back pocket. When he got close enough to the wood line, he looked over his shoulder. “If you put that notebook down, you’ll see,” Ernie said, holding the shovel out and walking toward the back of the house where all the trees were. Ma must not have noticed how much he had grown since the year before when she packed all his old summer clothes. “What I wanna know is what you ’bout to do with that mess?” Genie asked, pinching and pulling his shorts out of his butt. He walked over to the side of Grandma and Grandpop’s house, grabbed a rusty shovel, then came back to Genie and started scooping up crusty piles of dog poop. “Okay, that should keep her busy for a few minutes,” Ernie said, successful. His older brother, Ernie, was luring the mutt to a cleaner spot in the yard with a big pot of leftover chicken, bacon, grits, greens, and whatever else was for doggy breakfast. Genie stood a few feet away from Samantha’s shabby old doghouse, scribbling a mess of words in his notebook. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. Dumbfounded by Ernie’s reluctance, Genie is left to wonder-is bravery and becoming a man only about proving something, or is it just as important to own up to what you won’t do? Genie thinks that is AWESOME until he realizes Ernie has no interest in learning how to shoot. It’s his fourteenth birthday, and, Grandpop says to become a man, you have to learn how to shoot a gun. Then Ernie lets him down in the bravery department. And when he finds the secret room that Grandpop is always disappearing into-a room so full of songbirds and plants that it’s almost as if it’s been pulled inside-out-he begins to wonder if his grandfather is really so brave after all. How does he match his clothes? Know where to walk? Cook with a gas stove? Pour a glass of sweet tea without spilling it? Genie thinks Grandpop must be the bravest guy he’s ever known, but he starts to notice that his grandfather never leaves the house-as in NEVER. Thunderstruck, Genie peppers Grandpop with questions about how he hides it so well (besides wearing way cool Ray-Bans). The first is that he and his big brother, Ernie, are leaving Brooklyn for the very first time to spend the summer with their grandparents all the way in Virginia-in the COUNTRY! The second surprise comes when Genie figures out that their grandfather is blind. When two brothers decide to prove how brave they are, everything backfires-literally-in this “pitch-perfect contemporary novel” ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review) by the winner of the Coretta Scott King – John Steptoe Award.

As brave as you by jason reynolds