What do you do when the justice system has failed you? Tracy is trying to save her father and brother from a bias justice system. While she tries to bring justice to her family, she will learn racism is rooted deeper in her community than she thought. This is My America is a powerful representation of the contemporary justice system. From the beginning, the reader thinks the story will surround the fight to free Tracy's dad, who has been wrongly sentenced to death row. As you grow accustomed to this injustice, Tracy's brother, Jamal finds himself running for his life. Johnson masterfully weaves both Jamal and his father's stories together. Combining social justice and suspense to create an elaborate conspiracy against the African American community. This book was absorbing and will not let you go until the very last page. The characters are multidimensional, creating dynamic interactions and controversial conversations. This is such a powerful perspective and needs to be read at every age. Johnson created a book that gives readers real-life advice through Tracy's community meetings as well as transforming social justice into an understandable action.

“…and Texas was the first state to adopt private prisons. Texas continues to have the highest incarceration rate in the United States in those private for-profit prisons. One prisoner can mean twenty thousand dollars. Bodies mean dollars. Over three billion dollars a year. Think. It’s big business.” – Kim Johnson, This Is My America

I was blown away by Kim Johnson’s debut novel, This Is My America. Seventeen-year-old Tracy Beaumont’s dad has been on death row for seven years for a crime he didn’t commit. Each week, Tracy writes letters to Innocence X (similar to the Innocence Project) urging them to review her dad’s case and help their family. And then things take a turn for the worse when Tracy’s brother is sought for murder. Set outside Galveston, Texas, this novel highlighted issues with prisons, racism, and social injustice in my state. While the novel focuses on important issues, it is also an engaging, un-put-down-able thriller. Tracy is a strong female protagonist who isn’t willing to give up on her family or what she believes in and I adored her. This novel is a must-read for fans of Angie Thomas, Jason Reynolds and Just Mercy. Recommended for high school and up.

Disclaimer: The quoted text is from an uncorrected proof of this book that I received from #NetGalley.

"I stand straighter. My ancestor's strength pouring  into me, fully armored so I can fight to prove their innocence."

This Is My America is an exceptional, and well-needed, debut novel by Kim Johnson . Extremely relevant to the times, it ranks up there with books by Angie Thomas and Jason Reynolds. 

The main character, Tracy, lives with her family in Texas, a death penalty state with the highest rate of for-profit prisons. Tracy's father has been imprisoned for 7 years and is on death row after being wrongly convicted, which is all too common in this nation and its history.  She is hoping to get Innocence X to take her father's case when her brother ends up in a similar situation. Fighting against injustice, a ticking clock, and a town's long history of blatant racism, Tracy has the odds stacked against her, through no fault of her own or her family's own.

I absolutely loved Tracy and her family. She reminds me a bit of Starr from The Hate U Give, but while Starr is hesitant to join in the fight at first, Tracy is brave, strong, motivated, and inspiring right from the start.  I can't wait to read more from Johnson in the future. She will absolutely become an instant buy author for me.

Disclaimer: The quoted text is from an uncorrected proof of this book that I received from Random House Childrens in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Children’s for an Advanced Listening Copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This must-read YA highlights the bias and systemic racism in the U.S. justice system while also calling attention to the need for activism from everybody around this topic.

Synopsis: High school student Tracy Beaumont will never stop pushing in any way necessary to bring attention to her father’s innocence, as he sits on death row for a crime he could not have committed. However, when her brother Jamal is on the run after being accused of a murder he also could not have commited, Tracy must balance her advocacy for her dad with an investigation of her own to get some answers that will clear her brother’s name.

The Author’s Note at the end of the book is a must-read to learn more about the author’s research and writing process. She definitely succeeded in her goal to “tackle serious topics and give hope to the next generation” in writing such a powerful main character. Very serious, important issues are brought up in this book, while also showing possibility and moments of joy. This is real life, with all of its messiness and beauty.

This book will also be highlighted on my Instagram account at Instagram.com/the.reading.life.

Tracy Beaumont is a seventeen-year-old Black girl who has been writing on behalf of her death row father for seven years, asking the organization Innocence X for legal help to spare his life. Tracy knows her father is innocent, but with less than three hundred days until his execution, time is running out for him, and for her. Her brother Jamal has been seeing Angela, a White girl, and when she is murdered, the police come to take Jamal away from Tracy too. Unwilling to lose yet another family member to injustice, Tracy embarks on a mission to discover what happened to Jamal and Angela the last time they were together, why Jamal has been accused, and who the real killer is. As she tries to find the truth, the sheriff, the townspeople, and the inner workings of the justice system itself conspire against her efforts to exonerate Jamal's name. As she digs deeper, she begins to see that what happened to Angela and the crime that put her father on death row are related, and the racist history of her Texas town runs like an ugly vein beneath the surface, changing the way everybody lives within it. Can she save her brother and her father in time, or will she be left alone to the despair of hollow injustice in the end? Bringing the truth out into the light isn't easy when so many people want to believe the lie.

This Is My America is a book that I believe should be required reading for high schoolers, and also for everyone else! Unflinching in its depiction of injustice in modern America, it shows the reader how difficult it is for an accused Black citizen to find justice. Tracy is an amazing daughter and sister as she fights for her family, never giving up hope for her father, and taking it upon herself to do everything in her power to clear her brother's name. She used her emotional anguish to fuel her dedication and investigation because she knew in her heart that the people she loved were not guilty. She spoke up even when others told her not to, and instead of accepting what might have seemed inevitable to others, she continued using her voice to put words to the injustice her family lived with for so many years. Her actions as the story progressed expose the language, the corruption, and the face of injustice toward Black Americans that occurs every day, which is part of why this book felt so powerful to me. The message of this story is clear, that we the people have a responsibility to challenge the status quo, to fight for those who others deem guilty from the start, to speak up and take a side when we see injustice, and to do whatever we can to avoid being complicit in it ourselves. Kim Johnson is a brilliant debut author, and I really hope to see more from her in the future. Do yourself a favor and pre-order this book, read it, and share it with everyone!

I could not put this down! What a timely read. It’s so so important to read books that tell the story of a reality you have not lived in order to better love those who have. Thank you @kcjohnsonwrites for your work and resources provided to continue the relearning.

This was such a great book and so pertinent to what is going on in our country right now.

I truly admire Tracy and the lengths she went to prove her father and brother were innocent. Her strength, her perseverance, her heart...we could all learn a lot from this amazing girl. This story gave only a sliver of insight into the racist injustices in the American justice system, but I think it is so important for everyone to read.

History has a habit of repeating itself, but racism has been an ever present evil in our world. It’s a vicious cycle that has yet to be broken, but it’s people like Tracy and Innocence X who are making a difference and being the change.

Highly recommend!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3424032532

I finished This is My America by @kcjohnsonwrites a few days ago but needed this time to process my thoughts. This book was everything and more. You have racial tensions, murder, mystery, wrongful conviction, and romance. Everything that is in this book resonates with the times today. The way Black men are treated in society. The so called justice system and death row. Imagine being a 17 year old Black girl who has the threat of losing not only her father but her older brother, this is a fear for many Black woman in America. 5 ⭐️ ⁣
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Synopsis: ⁣
Every week, seventeen-year-old Tracy Beaumont writes letters to Innocence X, asking the organization to help her father, an innocent Black man on death row. After seven years, Tracy is running out of time—her dad has only 267 days left. Then the unthinkable happens. The police arrive in the night, and Tracy’s older brother, Jamal, goes from being a bright, promising track star to a “thug” on the run, accused of killing a white girl. Determined to save her brother, Tracy investigates what really happened between Jamal and Angela down at the Pike. But will Tracy and her family survive the uncovering of the skeletons of their Texas town’s racist history that still haunt the present?⁣
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Be sure to preorder This Is My America! It releases July 28th. Thank you @randomhouse and @netgalley for my gifted copy #partner

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Kim Johnson delivered an outstanding debut, and I ended up liking this book much more than I originally expected. I LOVED The Hate U Give and it has been a while since I've read it, so it was refreshing to read another work of fiction surrounding important topics such as racism and social injustice. While Johnson highlighted some corrupt pieces in our court system, she also included a good police officer who tried her best to make things right. Even the love triangle in this book was carefully considered and well-thought-out. I may be adding Johnson to my "auto-buy authors" list.

This book was one of my most anticipated books of this year and it did not disappoint. I've been reading a lot of fictional works that talk about Black Lives Matter topics and this one dealt with many important issues including the prison system, racism, death row, prejudice in police force, etc. What I enjoyed most about this book was the premise and plot. The main character's father was on death row for a murder he was falsely accused for.  The town that she lived in was very divided on matters with race and the conversations that were brought up were really important ones to try and get a better understanding of what Black people might feel in regards to the law and police. The same people who are sworn to protect them are also the ones who are afraid of them. Tracy was a strong and resilient main character. Even when she put herself in dangerous situations, she only ever wanted what was best for her family. The reason I didn't rate this book higher was the writing style in a few places were a little bit choppy. The characters, although I really appreciated most of them, didn't have much to them. I wish I got to more about what type of person Jamal was, or saw some more development in Tracy. The plot and story was my favorite part as I mentioned and if it had been woven together with more complex characters in a more clear way I would have liked it even more. I understood why certain things occurred, but occasionally the dots didn't connect in the manner I wanted.  I think there was room for this book to be amazing and it didn't quite hit that mark. 


I do believe this book should be read by everyone because we all have something to learn from it. I'm going to give trigger warnings for the KKK and lynchings because that might not be something some of my Black readers want to read about. 


Writing: 7/10
Characters: 8/10
Plot: 9/10
Ending: 9/10
Originality: 9/10
Overall: 42/50
Cover: 9/10

This book is an incredibly compelling and strong debut from an author I want to read much more from. Readers will be so invested in the lives of these characters and their stories, which feel so real and unsettling. Exploring racism, the death penalty, the judicial system, and police brutality, this book should be required reading for every child in the United States. Highly, highly recommend.

I hope this gets the same hype that The Hate U Give and Dear Martin got. I thought the character's were so well fleshed out and I enjoyed the slight mystery aspect to this. I loved reading from Tracy's point of view - I don't know how best to explain this but even though she was so determined and hopeful, I feel like you could still tell that her experience with the criminal justice system and society in general broke her a little bit which was completely heartbreaking. I definitely could have done without the romance aspect but I know others will like that.

Tracy Beaumont is a junior in high school in Texas, and every week she writes a letter to Innocence X, asking the organization to take on her father James' case - he was wrongly accused and convicted of murdering a white couple seven years earlier and now has less than a year until he will be executed for a crime he did not commit. Then one night Tracy’s brother Jamal, a senior in high school, is accused of murdering Angela, another senior at their high school who is white.

Wow, wow, wow. I don’t know where to start because this story was phenomenal. I requested this from NetGalley awhile ago and part of me wishes I had read it sooner, but I’m sort of glad I saved it because it comes out next week so that means you can buy it so soon!

This story is riveting from the very beginning - Tracy is determined to prove her father is innocent, and then she is determined to do the same for her brother as well. The writing was powerful and captivating - I could not put it down.

“When I watch the news, I can tell without even looking at the TV if the suspect is white or Black. A ‘young man who lost his way’ or ‘was afflicted with mental illness’ but had a ‘promising future’ = white. A ‘thug’ with ‘trouble in school’ = black.”

There is pain in this story but there is also hope and joy, and I wasn’t ready to be finished with the characters when I finished - I wanted to read more! The author’s note at the end spoke to influences she based different characters around, and was as moving as parts of the story itself.

If this book is not on your radar, it needs to be. It comes out in less than a week, Tuesday, July 28th, so mark your calendars, or better yet pre-order it now. This story will be sitting with me for a long time to come.

In the times of where Black Lives Matter is finally the center of attention, This Is My America is a book that everyone needs to be reading right now.

For seven years, Tracy has been doing everything she could to free her father from jail for a crime that he did not commit. In the midst of that, her brother Jamal finds himself in a sticky situation so she's got to switch focus on uncovering the truth for Jamal.

This was tough to get into, I'm not sure if it was the content or the writing. It eventually picked up, though, as the story unfolded. Each character made the story more dimensional. There are a few little twists mixed in, but This Is My America mainly focuses on race inequalities and how unfair the justice system is against Black people.

Please add this to your TBR . . . take in its message. Read books by POC authors, amplify their books, and let's do better.

3.5 stars

I enjoyed the author's writing style, though the abundance of run-on sentences was a bit too much. Things tied together in the end, but it too a bit too long to get there and see the connections between the cases.

A number of difficult, but relevant topics, were addressed, including:
- police corruption
- problems with the justice system
- Innocent black men in prison
- Racism (white supremacy)
- stereotypes
- Interracial dating/friendship
- Black Lives Matter

Characters are well drawn and multi-layered. This was a solid example of a YA book, with a bit of mystery thrown in.

I was very excited to read this book. I think the topic is great; however, I had trouble with the writing style. There were a lot of run on sentences that made the book hard to follow sometimes. I also feel like the author tried to tackle too much. The story tied together in the end, but it took a while for Angela's murder to be connected to Tracy's father's case. It seemed a little convenient, honestly. However, I still appreciate this topic being covered in young adult literature.

5/5 stars

This was an absolutely beautiful, amazing, and completely relevant story. This book put me on an emotional roller coaster from the very start. I knew it was going to be an extremely powerful moving story, and it surpassed any ideas I had. I cannot accurately describe it the emotion I felt while reading this. There were times I was afraid and uncomfortable, and that's how I knew the author did her job right. While I am not black I feel like this is an accurate description of what happens in America. I would put this right at the top with The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. I recommend that everyone please gives this book a read.

This Is My America was a beautiful and well-written book. Through a fictionalized account of Tracy’s family and local community, the reader gets a true to life look at being Black in America today. There are themes around wrongful incarceration, racial injustice, the silencing of Black voices, white supremacy and the KKK, the legacy of slavery, Black Lives Matter, and active engagement in supporting social justice. While some of these topics are upsetting, the book was written with hope for the future.

Tracy is a strong and smart high school junior who uses her position on the school newspaper to call students to action. She teaches a workshop on how to react if stopped by the police called Know Your Rights. While she is in the midst of trying to get Innocence X to help prove her father’s innocence, she is faced with her brother also being accused of a crime. With the help of some trusted friends, she begins to uncover the truth.

This book is definitely a must-read look at the trauma caused by mass incarceration and the legacy of white supremacy in our society today.

If there was ever a book that screamed at me to buy, this would be that book.

From the first page, Kim Johnson brings you into the world of the Beaumonts. Tracy, Jamal, Corrinne, her mother, and father James Beaumont. We start off learning that Tracy's father has been in prison for 7 years, and is running out of time on death row. She has been writing letters to Innocence X hoping to get her father represented so that he can appeal his case and get off death row. The clock is ticking, as he has less than a year left before his execution date. On top of all that, her brother Jamal gets accused of killing a white girl at school, and he is on the run, unwilling to be arrested or brought to the police station because he knows what may happen to him.

Tracy is determined to save both her brother and father from prison or death, and we learn about her fight for justice and unwillingness to let things just be. She is a fighter, a problem solver, and believes in uncovering the truth no matter what.

This book brings up very hard hitting topics, wonderfully down under the YA umbrella. Although these topics are hard hitting, they are very much needed in the Black and Brown community. Kim Johnson discusses:
- Corrupt police
- Flawed criminal justice system (guilty until proven innocent for Black people)
- Innocent black men in prison
- Fallout from family during/after prison
- Racism (white supremacy)
- Big private prison business
- Microaggressions and stereotypes from white people
- Integrity
- Interracial dating/friendship
- Teenage life during a crisis
- Black Lives Matter

The range of emotions I felt while reading this book:
- Teary-eyed and cried
- Sad.
- Joy
- Hope
- Tense
- Scary
- Frightening
- Heart pounding

This book amazingly brought together a clear picture of what racism in America is like in real life. All of the subtle racism, in your face racism, and blatant disrespect is all brought to life here. This book should sicken you about the injustices Black people face in the criminal justice system. This book should anger you when understanding how white people can say one thing in your face and do another, hurting or harming Black people for no other reason but because they are Black. The lies white people tell themselves to protect their own interests. This book should make you cry when you feel for Tracy and understand the hopelessness and helplessness she feels as time is running out for her father, who has maintained his innocence since he was sent to prison. White people should check their white privilege every second of every day because they should understand that they are not immune from white supremacy or showing their racism. Even with the best intentions, white people are not immune. Racism permeates and infiltrates everything. It has been what this country was founded on, and what white people's ancestors came to believe and know and teach their children. It's is ingrained in their whole upbringing as a mass.

This book is so real, so timely, so needed, so important. This is a must-read!

Kim Johnson does a phenomenal job on her character development, and we learn about life is like for Tracy and her family. I feel like she is somewhat appealing to white people though, humanizing her characters in such a way to make white people understand that Black people have lives. That we hurt, that we love, that we laugh, that we have family that cares for us. We have love interests, we share secrets with our friends, we enjoy having fun, that we are kids and teenagers just like them. We are no different. If only they didn't hate so much.

"Only recently has it been cemented in my mind and made clear, that acting civil, being deferential, doesn't matter. It's like, Mama has always said, "Black Lives don't matter enough to them." That evidence is live and in color, on every news channel in America."

"Why not "All Lives Matter?" The problem is, that those lives have always mattered. Ours are treated like we're less than equal. Like we don't deserve the same respect."

"We've never caught a break. All those years praying, going to church, looking over our shoulders when we didn't do anything wrong."

"We've been paying a debt that ain't even ours to pay. White folks act like something wrong with us. They hate us."

"All that blood. We built America. Black labor built the greatest nation in the world for free. They ripped us from our family then, and they do it again with new laws disguised as change."

I highly recommend this book to everyone, especially the YA crowd. It's necessary! 5 stars.

My first thought when I finished this book was “More people need to read this.” My second thought was, I wish that this would be turned into a movie for those that don’t read as much! I wasn’t even planning to write out my review today, but I couldn’t stop thinking about this book and needed to get my thoughts out.

Tracy has been writing to Innocence X ever since she was 10 years old when her dad was given the death sentence for a crime he didn’t commit. This organization could give him the attorney and support he needs for a successful appeal, but she has not heard back from them, even though she’s sent letters weekly for 7 years straight. Her dad has less than a year before his execution, and she knows she has to do absolutely anything in her power to save him. Even if her family disagrees with her way of going about it. Then, her brother is accused of being a murderer, and she has to fight for both of them. The son of an accused murderer is an easy subject to pin a murder on, and Tracy has to deal with prejudices of her own classmates at her school during this new case.

I have watched so many true crime documentaries, and I never thought about what was happening to the kids while the parent was on trial. The series always said that the children were put into witness protection and their names changed. I never once thought about those whose parents were not in country-famous cases, whose cases might only be known about in their own small community, and how they would be treated if the justice system left them to fend for themselves. No one has the money to just stop working/going to school until the trial is over (which could take years). Tracy had to deal with going to elementary school while her dad was on trial, and being bullied because her dad was accused of being a murderer. She always knew her dad didn’t do it, but the kids in the neighborhood believed the media that painted him as a criminal/thug. Then she has to deal with it again in high school when her brother is accused, even before the trial has begun, by people that her brother would have called his friends. How many kids in America have dealt with that discrimination/bullying from students (or even possibly teachers) while their parents were on trial? In Tracy’s case, her dad didn’t do anything, but in any case, no kid should have to go through this because of something their parents did.

There is a romance subplot between Tracy and Quincy, a boy whose father was killed by police and framed as a murderer with Tracy’s dad. She also has feelings for a white boy named Dean who she has been friends with for a long time. I usually hate love triangles in books, but I didn’t hate this one. Tracy had a real reason to like both boys, and both boys genuinely wanted to help her. The romance didn’t take over the story, but it also wasn’t forgotten. Tracy’s character is built on her own merits, not on her relationship with any of the other characters in the book. Her goal of saving her brother and father are hers to achieve, and

This book covers many different aspects of the problems in America with law enforcement, justice, and so many other systems that are supposed to be there to “support” citizens. There is so much to this novel, it is definitely a must-have for a middle school or high school library. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a new book to read to educate themselves bout the lives of those who have been abused by the system for years.

I received a copy of this book and this is my voluntary review.

Overall Rating: 6 out of 5 books.

My Fav Quotes:
“They never found the murder weapon, and there were no witnesses. There should have been reasonable doubt, but the all-white jury felt otherwise.”

“Even armed with the knowledge about my rights, all that went out the window. I couldn’t replace the fear with my life on the line.”