#all boys aren't blue

[words-and-coffee]

Navigating in a space that questions your humanity isn’t really living at all. It’s existing. We all deserve more than just the ability to exist.

George M. Johnson, All Boys Aren't Blue

[kitausuret]

you ever read something that just rewires your brain (just finished reading All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson)

No but really -- it was one of our picks for book club this month and it was just. It was so fantastic. I don't usually get into memoirs, autobiographies, that sort of thing.. Like when I read Spare by Prince Harry it was just very dull to me? Like I have nothing in common with this guy. I'd rather read about his wife, but that's beside the point.

With Johnson's book, though, it's just such an honest and I daresay important book. I wish I'd had this when I was 16, 17 years old. It's not even that they lived an incredibly exciting life, or anything like that, they just tell their story in a way that I would say is approachable for teens and young adults.

I'm pretty sure it was a bestseller, so I'm probably way behind on actually reading it, but even though I'm 31 and don't have all that much in common with Johnson, I'm so glad they told their story and shared it with the world. And I hope it gets to a lot of young people who really, really need to read it.

[willmarstudios]

Bookworm Will Review 2023 (#21)

Title: 'All Boys Aren't Blue'

Author: George M. Johnson

Rating: 5/ 5

Review: (MILD SPOILERS)

READ.

THIS.

BOOK.

This memoir was an absolute delight to read and was filled with so many emotions. I don't want to give away anything except that when the Johnson says that you may cry, you will.

I did multiple times for multiple reasons, good and bad.

Please, please, please read this. This is another one that I believe should be required for young readers.

[mandsleanan]

‘The book is about growing up Black and queer, and always feeling different but not having the words to express it. Over the past couple of years, at least 29 school districts have banned the book because of its LGBTQ content and for being sexually explicit.

"Any time you write a book where you write about your truth, there are going to be people who want to silence that truth," Johnson, who uses they/them pronouns, tells Morning Edition's Leila Fadel.’

[esckeyes]

PEN America and Penguin Random House are suing Florida over book bans.

Authors involved in the lawsuit are LGBTQIA writers such as George M. Johnson (All Boys Aren't Blue), Kyle Lukoff (Too Bright to See), and David Levithan (Two Boys Kissing) , as well as Ashley Hope Perez (Out of Darkness) whose historical YA is about a segregated town in Texas. Two parents from the district are also participating in the lawsuit.

There has been a concerted effort across America to ban books by queer and BIPOC authors by calling them "pornographic."

[yvesdot]

Books about our experience are not too “explicit” just because they discuss gender, race and other crucial topics that teen readers need to process as they learn about themselves and the world they live in. These bans are the product of a system that upholds an alternative history of the United States and the world we live in — and that’s dangerous to an impressionable teen. Queerness is not a monolith; it has, so far, existed through one main lens — white and patriarchal — and continues to erase or deny the painful history many of us in this country suffer through.

Our books (the banned ones, if you will) often tell stories that are uncomfortable and important. Book banning is nothing new in the U.S., but it has rarely been seen at this magnitude in recent decades. But we can’t just talk about book banning without discussing the suppression of storytelling. Textbooks, historically, contain many inaccuracies. Books written by enslaved people, that described their reality, had to be written under pseudonyms to protect the authors. Some of the greatest literary icons of our time — Toni Morrison, James Baldwin and even Harper Lee — have had their books banned despite their works being part of the landscape and foundation for many generations of writers. Their words simply didn’t fit into the neat narrative that white America is somehow still trying to preserve.

[sebastianravkin]

Another banned book recommendation

All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson

In my attempt to read the top ten banned books in 2023 this year, I have finally finished All Boys Aren't Blue.  This is a lovely collection of essays by George M. Johnson about the complexity of gender and race identities during those critical years between childhood and being a young adult.  It is a short and straight forward read. There is frank discussion of identity, marginalization, consent, and joy. For Black queer boys, this book is potentially refreshing and empowering because it directly addresses them and their isolation. However, the book is also an important read for queer teens and allies in general. 

All Boys Aren’t Blue was a Teen Vogue and a Buzzfeed recommended read in 2020, a People Magazine Best Book of the Summer 2020, A New York Library Best Book of 2020, a Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2020, and a 2020 nominee for the Goodreads Choice Award for Memoirs & Autobiographies. It was on the ALA Top 10 Rainbow Book List for 2021. 

The book was the 2nd most banned book in 2023. It has been censored because it includes LGBTQIA+ content and profanity and because of claims that it is sexually explicit.  There is discussion of bullying, consent, sexual abuse, two sexual encounters, and statutory rape. The book is written for teens and young adults and seems absolutely appropriate for that age group. 

[underbridgethings]

[marshmyers]

Johnson's All Boys Aren't Blue explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. 

From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five to flea marketing with his loving grandmother to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys. Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren't Blue covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy. Johnson's emotionally frank style of writing will appeal directly to young adults.

[words-and-coffee]

You sometimes don’t know you exist until you realize someone like you existed before.

George M. Johnson, All Boys Aren't Blue

[shesamreads]

"Within these pages, the word nigger or nigga appears, sometimes in full and sometimes abbreviated as n****. The same is true for fag and faggot, and their abbreviations. I included these slurs in the text in specific ways for specific emotional and intellectual effect. Please use the same thoughtfulness when talking about this book. If you don’t identify as Black, African American, or queer, don’t use these slurs in full, which can be harmful to others. You can use common abbreviations, like n-word or f-word instead."

This is a great reminder at the beginning of All Boys Aren't Blue. We shouldn't need reminders, but I appreciate George adding this in anyways.

Queer is the only one I can claim. I will be using the abbreviations for the other, unless directly quoting from the book.

I'm excited to get started, and I'm so happy that George is narrating his book. (Most people probably do, though, right?)

[thefoxsarchives]

Make It Better

"There are so many people who are young and out and looking for a support system. Build the support system that you want to have around you. This won't always be easy, I'm not going to lie. I won't sell you the fable of "It Gets Better" like media tries to do without offering how. The how comes in being willing to take a chance on yourself and create they support system you wish to have. I would also tell you to reclaim that campaign slogan and use it from a place of power. Tell folks, especially those who are non-queer and non-Black, to "Make It Better." Something getting better doesn't happen without action, and you have every right to ask for that."

All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson

[newsbites]

The Bluest Eye, among other titles, finds a vocal detractor among school trustees.

[mirabel-on-a-bicycle]

smth about edwin escaping a red hot hell and meeting a boy blue to the nose with hypothermia.

smth about them clawing their way up the staircases to earth and the attic, dripping with gory blood and ice cold water.

smth about their afterlives being forever imbibed with the colors of each other's death.