The New York Times Book Review - Jennifer Harlan
…All Boys Aren't Blue is an exuberant, unapologetic memoir infused with a deep but cleareyed love for its subjects. Johnson lays bare the darkest moments in his life with wit and unflinching vulnerability, from the bullying he suffered as a child to the losses of his cousin—an early model for him of what a joyful queer life could look like—his fraternity brother and his grandmother, who died as Johnson was working on the book and whose presence looms largest in it.
From the Publisher
A New York Times Bestseller!
Optioned for television by Gabrielle Union
Featured on Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, Today Show, MSNBC and Fox Soul
Velshi Banned Book Club
CNN Summer Read Pick
Teen Vogue Recommended Read
Buzzfeed Recommended Read
People Magazine Best Book of the Summer
An Indie Bestseller
An ALA Rainbow List Pick
A New York Library Best Book of 2020
A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2020
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2020
Publishers Weekly Anti-Racist Reading List Pick
2021 Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List Pick
A Kids' Book Choice Award Finalist
#1 YALSA Teen's Top Ten List Winner
A Texas TAYSHAS Reading List Title
"An exuberant, unapologetic memoir infused with a deep but cleareyed love for its subjects." —The New York Times
"This title opens new doors, as the author insists that we don't have to anchor stories such as his to tragic ends: 'Many of us are still here. Still living and waiting for our stories to be told—to tell them ourselves.' A critical, captivating, merciful mirror for growing up Black and queer today." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"An absolute necessity . . . the personal stories and the healing and reconciliation of self in this title are all undeniably honest and relatable—a reminder of our shared imperfection and humanity." —Booklist
"The conversational tone will leave readers feeling like they are sitting with an insightful friend . . . This young adult memoir is a contemporary hallmark of the blossoming genre. Johnson anchors the text with encouragement and realistic guidance for queer Black youth." —School Library Journal
"Johnson’s debut is a collection of heartfelt personal essays revolving around themes of identity and family . . . In a publishing landscape in need of queer black voices, readers who are sorting through similar concepts will be grateful to join him on the journey." —Publishers Weekly
"Powerful . . . Johnson’s book is geared toward young adults—a market that needs this level of realness about everything from finding and harboring joy to bullying to navigating queerness. All Boys Aren’t Blue is a game changer." —Bitch Magazine
"A personal examination of what it's like to grow up as a black and queer young man . . . a can't-miss collection." —POPSUGAR
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2020-01-23
Centers the experiences, desires, and agency of a queer black boy navigating his evolving selfhood and the challenges of society’s conditional love for his truthful existence.
Queer black existence has been here forever, and yet rarely has that experience been spotlighted within literature aimed at black boyhood. This is the context in which this “memoir-manifesto” begins, as Johnson, a still relatively young 33-year-old journalist and activist, debuts his unfolding life story within a vacuum of representation. These stories wrestle with “joy and pain...triumph and tragedy” across many heavy topics—gender policing, sexual abuse, institutional violence—but with a view to freedom on the horizon. Through the witnessing of Johnson’s intimate accounts, beginning with his middle-class New Jersey childhood and continuing through his attendance at a historically black university in Virginia, readers are invited on their own paths to healing, self-care, and living one’s truth. Those who see themselves outside the standpoint of being black and queer are called in toward accountability, clarifying an understanding of the history, language, and actions needed to transform the world—not in pity for the oppressed but in the liberation of themselves. This title opens new doors, as the author insists that we don’t have to anchor stories such as his to tragic ends: “Many of us are still here. Still living and waiting for our stories to be told—to tell them ourselves.”
A critical, captivating, merciful mirror for growing up black and queer today. (Memoir. 14-adult)
