I am in awe. Kim Johnson, has written a gripping, powerful, and important story about the Beaumont family living in a rural town in Texas. Mr. Beaumont, a Black man, is wrongly accused of a murder he did not commit, and he has less than a year until his execution. We follow middle child, Tracy, who never stops trying to get justice for her father even though her family cannot afford a lawyer. She writes to the Innocence X organization every week to try and get them to take her father's case. In the middle of all this, Tracy's brother, Jamal, becomes a suspect in the murder of a white girl and goes on the run. Tracy races the clock to try and save her father and prove her brother isn't guilty. This unexpected and compelling book examines the ideas of justice and racial inequality with brutal truth and, somehow, hope. THIS IS MY AMERICA will be a permanent part of my library's collection, and cannot wait to recommend it to my students.

This book was amazing. Family story, a hint of mystery, and some good important stories about the criminal justice system in the US. Beautifully written story in the ballpark of Dear Martin and The Hate U Give. This book should be required reading for all American students (and all students around the world, if we’re being honest).

Tracey lives her life counting the days until her father, a wrongly convicted man, is executed. Then a classmate is murdered and her brother becomes the primary suspect. An excellent companion to Just Mercy by Brian Stevenson, this is a book that speaks to the fear and anger simmering in our society. For those that need a reflection acknowledging their experiences and those that need a window to experiences outside their own.

I loved everything about this book. I cannot wait to get it into the classrooms to discuss plot, how setting drives stories and the character development. This has been one of my favorites of the year.

5 stars, hands down.

Once I saw the description of this book I knew it was going to be amazing, and it was. This is the book I needed (and that I think many others need) right now.

The author tackles incredibly powerful, important issues of our time, but makes it more than that. She tells you a story of incredible characters that you can't help but want to know more about. I think the only downside was this book ended too quickly for me. I could have read a hundred more pages, but that's only because I didn't want the story to end.

This is for sure one of the best reads of the year! Everyone will be talking about this book.

It’s hard to believe that this is a debut novel. It’s beautifully written and masterfully combines realism and mystery. Through the story of Tracy’s family, the author invites us to reckon with the reality of racial inequity, police corruption, the impact of capital punishment, lynching, blatant racism and the terrible and pervasive influence of white hate/terrorist groups such as the KKK, implicit bias, for profit prisons, and more. If this novel doesn’t have you searching your soul to see where you are complicit, I’m not sure what would.

What I loved most about the novel is that, although the family is going through more heartbreak than anyone should endure, you can still feel their love, joy in each other, and their hope. This is a story where those elements could have easily been left out, but I appreciate that this dynamic isn’t ignored.

I can easily see how this will be the #1 checkout this year.

I've been on a social justice binge lately and "This Is My America" was just what I needed. This debut novel about Black families and their relationship with the criminal justice system was greatly done. Johnson explores the temporal relationship the criminal justice system has on Black families. TW: white supremacy, white nationalist groups, racism, murder, and lynchings. I appreciated the various ways that Johnson explores time throughout this story. We see the amount of time Tracy (our main character) has left to save both her father and brother from being swallowed up by the criminal justice system, we see how time impacts Tracy's friendships and relationships and how time (the past) has greatly impacted the town where Tracy resides. Time is also explored in how difficult it is to readjust to life outside of jail for those returning home.

Tracy's tenacity is very admirable and it's what keeps everything around her together. I loved how Tracy utilized a variety of mediums to not only continue to advocate for her father's innocence but also as a way to educate those around her. I wasn't really a fan of the budding romance between Tracy and her friends who were often protecting her from some sort of issue. But I appreciated the exploration of interracial relationships and how historical trauma can seep through and impact the relationships we have today.

I LOVED the additional resources shared at the end of the book. This book is a must-read for every generation.
I want to thank Kim Johnson and NetGalley for an advanced readers' copy of This Is My America in exchange for an honest review.

This is My America is Kim Johnson’s just-published debut novel. Had it arrived a few months earlier, it would be on all the anti-racist recommended reading lists along with The Hate U Give and Just Mercy.

Add it on now, please.

At age 12, Johnson watched Los Angeles police officers beat Rodney King, as she explains in an author’s note. As a teen, she marched in a NAACP youth rally to protest police brutality. And as a mother, she watched her six-year-old son burst into tears at a video of police holding down Eric Garner, fearful for his own future and his mother’s.

Johnson’s decades of activism and hope for change inform This is My America. It’s the story of high-school junior Tracy Beaumont’s efforts to save her father and brother from a system that has them in its sights.

Johnson doesn’t preach or lecture. Instead, she deploys raw honesty and a sharp eye for detail to illuminate the injustices of Tracy’s experience as she spins a fast-paced, affecting story.

Tracy’s father is on death row for a crime his daughter is sure he didn’t commit. A high-school journalist, she writes weekly letters to Innocence X, a group that helps represent wrongly convicted people on appeal. She wants the team to take her dad’s case. This singular goal means when her big brother Jamal lands a TV interview about his track prowess and college plans, she uses her family’s moment at the mike to bring up what her mother doesn’t want to discuss onscreen: Her father is running out of time.

Soon, though, Tracy’s determination must rise to another challenge. Jamal’s secretly been seeing her classmate Angela, a fellow journalist at the school paper. Angela tells Tracy she wants to team up on a big story she’s been investigating, but before Tracy can find out more, Angela’s found dead. Jamal, who immediately goes on the run, is the top suspect.

It’s a lot for any one family to handle, and it’s to Johnson’s credit that she skillfully balances legal wrangling, social issues, history and storytelling. Tracy’s friend Dean is white, and even though the families have known each other for years, Dean admits to initial doubts about Jamal. “He breaks down crying in front of me, waiting for me to pick him up, but I can’t,” Tracy vows after Dean confesses his suspicions. “I want him to know how much it hurts. How angry I am that at one point he thought Jamal was guilty.”


Author Kim Johnson (JBoy Photography)
Tracy teaches Know Your Rights seminars at her church about how to deal with police, and steels herself for encounters with officers. “I wonder what it’s like to be someone who’d feel safe in their presence,” Tracy thinks when officers show up at her house to collect Jamal. “I try to trick my mind, pretend we called them. It helps me settle more, and I give Mama a squeeze hoping I can do the same for her.”

Yet it’s Tracy’s connection with Beverly Ridges, a Black officer, that ultimately pushes Jamal’s situation in a different direction.

Johnson weaves in plenty of other elements that play a role in the Beaumonts’ life. The story takes place in Galveston County, Texas, birthplace of Juneteenth. The Beaumonts arrived there on an evacuation bus from Hurricane Katrina, just one reminder of the hurdles for many Black families in building generational wealth.

Your background and yes, your race will likely determine whether you see your own experience reflected in Tracy’s story or you find yourself learning what it’s like to live in a system stacked against you. This is My America accomplishes both goals, and it deserves your attention.

(Penguin RandomHouse, July 28, 2020)

This Is My America is a phenomenally powerful YA novel that will inspire and educate. It is coming out at such an important time for people to read and understand mass-incarceration and the 13th amendment. The story follows Tracy Beaumont writing letters to Innocence X to ask for help getting her father out of prison for a crime he did not commit and is on death row for. Then a horrific crime is committed and Tracy's brother Jamal is accused. I cannot stress the relevance of this novel enough. The writing is outstanding. Highly recommended to readers looking for solid YA contemporary fiction that means something.

I volunteered to read this book, through netgalley in exchange, for an honest review. This book is well written and the characters are described well. This book kept me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out if Innocent X would help her father. It helps you see how families are feeling about a member of their family who has been put in jail for something they didn't do. It talks about racism, hate crimes and it also tells you about hope. I highly highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. You guys need to get this book, it is in stores now for $17.99 (USD).

Love! It is sad that this book is so relevant and necessary in today’s world. It hits the nail on the head and gives readers a view from a different perspective. Wonderfully written!

I couldn’t put this book down! It was thrilling and also eye- opening. The author did a phenomenal job addressing racial injustice. This YA novel is one all should read.

This is My America was released on July 28th and NetGalley graciously sent me an approval for an arc a few days before publication. Unfortunately, I was knee deep in my personal TBR and many other books I couldn’t get to it. Here i’am though with a review albeit a teensy bit late.
Kim Johnson writes a brilliant piece of YA Fiction that not only young adults should read, but adults need to also.
It’s an important discussion on racism, police brutality, injustice and fear is written so well that it’s hard not to be touched. Not to cry.
The characters lodge themselves in a piece of your heart and make you see and notice things within the world you may normally not. As a CIS white woman I could never fully understand the fear and pain people of color feel by simply loving and being who they are.
But I can learn, we all can learn.
I can learn how to be a better human being. I can learn how to recognize that racism is still rampant and I can learn to help the world I must change my thoughts. By standing up for those that don’t feel as if they have a voice.
••••
This story is about Tracy Beaumont and her quest for justice not only for her father, but for her brother Jamal. As the story starts you come in contact with Tracy’s father who is convicted of a crime (NO SPOILERS)he did not commit and sent to death row with the gross lack of evidence and decades upon decades of despicable racism (again NO SPOILERS. Just know that the decades of racism is the underlying plot and catalyst of many things. Some which concern other characters and not just the Beaumonts).
Convinced of his innocence Tracy relentlessly writes Innocence X, a organization that helps the wrongfully convicted, to lobby for her fathers release from prison. The letters are a important part of showcasing how exhausted the character is with the way people of color are being treated. You can sense her exhaustion and determination which is amazing.
During her constant vigilance to free her father a tragedy strikes that effects her brother Jamal. I won’t go into details about this because it’s a big part of the overall story. Just know it’s a powerful and brings out closeted racism within the community.
There is also a very small romance(s) that brilliantly breaks apart the heaviness is the story, but also doesn’t take away from the importance of the story as a whole. It’s done well to give reprieve too younger readers that may find the subject matter overwhelming at times.
Kim Johnson writes her characters with so much vividness and strength. They (specifically Tracy) come off so brave/intelligent (also the character speaks so eloquently so that brightens it even more) that it make you sit up at attention and listen. Tracy is truly a strong, fearless woman that everyone should aspire to be.
Also, her family is one of the most loving families I have read in a long time. You are mad for them, sad, frustrated. Every emotion was written so well that it makes you feel as if you are witnessing the injustices of the world. This ability is a great talent of Johnson’s and makes you think about the story long after you finish reading it.
The discussion of police brutality and the fear that they, or anyone they love, could be next was done so well. It kept you on the edge of your seat with tension and uncertainty.
It broke my heart to read about Tracy’s workshop about how not to get killed by police. No one should have to live with that fear. During this scene the audience verbalizes important questions of why it is their responsibility to make sure the police are calm, also not threatened by their skin color. Which raises the questions outside of the book of. Yeah, why is it? Shouldn’t they be the ones calm and not jump to conclusions? Shouldn’t they have the ability of separating their biases and racism from the duty of protect and serve?
•••
This book has made a place for itself in my brain and i will always think about its impact on my heart. Kim Johnson really dived into the mind of a young adult faced with insurmountable fear. This won’t be the last book I read from her.

I've already decided to use this book in my Fall 2020 section of Young-Adult Literature! It's one of several options for one of the literature circle groups they'll be forming. I'm very grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the ARC so that I would be able to include the book in my fall text selections.

This story of a daughter trying to save her father from a death sentence and her brother from a false accusation was so timely, so engrossing, and so upsetting. I had trouble putting this one down, and it will absolutely find a home in our students' hands.

This Is My America dives into a subject that hasn’t been approached a lot in YA - incarcerated parents. Johnson did such an amazing job writing this. I loved how this book goes into how Black people are wrongfully incarcerated, how that affects their families, the difficulty in getting justice, the repercussions from seeking justice,, and racism. Tracey was a great character who stood up for what was right even when it wasn’t convenient or easy. She held onto her beliefs without doubt. I loved seeing her give lessons in helping fellow Black people know their rights. I cannot recommend This Is My America enough.

For anyone interested in learning more about the systematic racism that exists in America, this book is one you must read.

Teenager, Tracy Beaumont's father is innocent, yet sitting on death row. She is working every day to find a way to free him, when her brother is accused of murder. Tracy turns into her own investigator to save both her brother and her father.

This book was such an eye opener and a great way to start a much needed conversation with everyone around us in these times of confusion and uncertainty.

Although this is a work of fiction it rings true to so many events happening today. I have read a few other books like this that are all very similar but I loved the fact this was from a young adults point of view.

Tracy has been doing everything in her power to prove her father’s innocence and be released from prison. He is on death row and time is running out.
As the book Continues Tracys brother Jamal is sent to prison for murder. Now her focus is on setting them both free and getting the justice they need. Along the way there is a little romance/love triangle that adds a little depth into the book and changes things up.

I did feel the book was a little slow at times. I didn’t feel all the characters were developed enough but it didn’t take away from the story.

Rating would be 3.75 stars

Thank you to NetGalley the author and publisher for this ebook in exchange for my hones review.

This story is brilliant. Johnson weaves in mystery, racism, class, and so much more. In the end, Tracy uncovers more than she ever thought she would. Don’t miss putting this book in your collections.

A raw, Candid text, exploring the vices of racial injustice through a familial lens as a young teenage black girl fights for the rights of her father, while enduring the assault of her brothers rights through a twist of fate.