Books by Jabari Asim and Complete Book Reviews
Jabari Asim, Author . Houghton Mifflin $26 (278p) ISBN 978-0-618-19717-0
Midway through Washington Post
columnist Asim's history of the "N" word in America, readers may conclude it should not be uttered by anyone, anymore, for any reason. Essentially, this 400-year chronology is an exhaustive history of...
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Jabari Asim, Author . Broadway $13 (205p) ISBN 978-0-7679-1978-4
In 16 related short stories, Asim (The N Word
) illustrates the connections between African-American characters living in a Midwestern town in the tumultuous late ’60s. The focus is on the Jones family: young precious Crispus; ladies’...
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Jabari Asim, Author William Morrow & Company $21.99 (223p) ISBN 978-0-06-171133-6
In this exultation of everything Obama, author and magazine editor Asim (The N Word) takes a more historical approach to the 43rd President than his title would suggest, focusing more on pop-culture and political forebears than the consequences of...
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Jabari Asim. Agate/Bolden Books, $15 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-932841-94-7
This thoroughly entertaining and stylish crime novel from Asim (A Taste of Honey) is set in Gateway City, a fictionalized version of Asim's native St. Louis, during the 1970s. Thirty-five-year-old Lorenzo "Guts" Tolliver is the semi-retired "enforcer
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Jabari Asim, illus. by Bryan Collier. Little, Brown, $16.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-316-08657-8
The founder of the Tuskegee Institute is portrayed as a boy and young man who never gives up on his dream of an education. Going from illiterate slave to child worker to student, a near-penniless Washington walks an incredible 500 miles to attend...
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Jabari Asim, illus. by E.B. Lewis. Penguin/Paulsen, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-16856-7
Asim (Fifty Cents and a Dream) draws on an anecdote from congressman John Lewis’s 1998 memoir, Walking with the Wind, as he recounts the story of the future civil rights activist tending to a flock of chickens, both physically and—in a way—spirituall
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Jabari Asim. Picador, $17 trade paper (208p) ISBN 978-1-250-17453-6
In this small but expansive collection of essays, writer and cultural critic Asim (Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of Young John Lewis) draws on the full breadth of black history in the United States, illuminating the story of black resilience...
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Jabari Asim, illus. by Lynn Gaines. Black Dog & Leventhal, $19.99 (96p) ISBN 978-0-316-43642-7
Asim (Preaching to the Chickens) thoroughly explores influential events, political and social movements, and individuals in African-American history, beginning with the ugly legacy of slavery: “African Americans are the only ethnic group whose...
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Jabari Asim, illus. by AG Ford. Penguin/Paulsen, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5247-3988-1
Asim pays tribute to Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) in this uplifting picture book about a child’s encounter with the boxer. Young Langston, portrayed as Black, is overjoyed upon spotting a flyer announcing an upcoming visit from his hero, Ali. Leading up
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Jabari Asim, illus. by Tara Nicole Whitaker. HarperFestival, $7.99 (20p) ISBN 978-0-06-288462-6
In this stylish board book, a baby with big eyes, brown skin, and little pearl earrings delights in the classic hallmarks of Christmas, including “our tall, sparkling tree/ with gifts underneath.” With easy rhymes and straightforward, friendly...
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Jabari Asim. Simon & Schuster, $27 (272p) ISBN 978-1-982163-16-7
Novelist and cultural critic Asim (We Can’t Breathe) delivers a searing and redemptive story of slavery and survival. Set in the antebellum South, it is narrated primarily by enslaved people who call themselves the “Stolen” and white people “Thieves.
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