A stunning, painful, beautiful read.

Tracy's father has been on death row for seven years, convicted of a crime he didn't commit. His friend and business partner fared even worse – equally innocent, he was killed by the police at the time of his arrest. Both men were targeted, accused, and convicted because they're Black, and their Texas town doesn't trust people with their skin colour.

Now, just days after her brother sets records for Track and Field, he is accused of the murder of a white classmate; the strongest evidence against him are his father's conviction, and his own fear of the police.

Tracy is fighting desperately to clear the name of both men, before either of them can be killed by the American justice system that has so monumentally failed them.

This is a very raw book, that takes on systemic racism, judicial bias, police violence, hate crimes, and white nationalism. Unlike similar books that I've read, however, it's not written down to the reader. Tracy is an empowered teenager, drawn to investigative journalism and community education. She leads monthly de-escalation workshops, training her Black friends and neighbors in what they can do, as probably victims, to reduce the likelihood of police violence. She draws strong personal boundaries, refusing to become caretaker of the feelings and needs of more fragile white people in her circles. She has tried everything in her power to work within the current justice systems to set things right.

And these systems fail her. Over and over and over.

Like every book this summer, this was written in a time before our current dialogue on defunding the police. It does occasionally dip into the realm of "a good cop." However, unlike many of the white-authored books I've recently read with this concept, this book explores how troublesome and nuanced this concept can be.

While there is at least one cop who has embedded herself in this system with hopes of fixing things from the inside, it's clear that she is is struggling to protect even her own family from the dangers of police violence – leaving it to the reader to decide whether change from within can ever be possible. Within the world of this book, my take remains "no;" this character has created special protections for those within her own circle, but this does not address the question of how to protect entire communities.

The cast of this book is entirely Black and white. While I'd typically argue that any Texan community will have a large Latinx contingent, this book was very full with its focus on specific power dynamics of Black and white communities, as well as cops and white supremacist hate groups. It's already a lot to tackle, leaving little space for conversations about what it is like to be a non-Black person of color in America. I'd love to read more from Kim Johnson, as I have no doubt she has more to say about how American identities intersect and conflict.

To me this is very much a book about reclaiming America, about Tracy's self-appointed empowerment, and what she can do to make this country hers.

Highly highly recommend this one. I think everyone should be reading this book right now.

This is my America is an important distinctive read that needs to be taught in schools. This book may be a work of fiction, but it brings out many facts about social injustice, racism across different mediums, police brutality and the fault in the justice system!!

Its true what the description says. This book is the best of The Hate You Give + Just Mercy. A must read.

Thank You Random House, Netgalley and Kim Johnson for the ARC. This review is my own and is not influenced in any way!

A tough but timely book about a high school girl struggling through life on the timeline of her father’s impending execution. There are some strong parallels with The Hate U Give and I think these would be excellent companion books to provide a baseline of perspective on the reality of being a Black youth in America. I struggled a bit with the ending, finding it more positive than reality seems to allow; however the author’s notes at the end explain that and left me feeling like this powerful book warned its 5 stars from me.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: This Is My America

Author: Kim Johnson

Book Series: Standalone

Diversity: BIPOC main character and side characters

Rating: 5/5

Recommended For...: BIPOC books, ownvoice novels, social justice books

Publication Date: July 28, 2020

Publisher: Random House Children’s Books

Pages: 416

Recommended Age: 16+ (language, violence, police brutality TW, slight gore)

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?

Fans of Nic Stone and Jason Reynolds won’t want to miss this provocative and gripping debut.

Review: This book was so fantastic! There’s a lot of components that are amazing about this book and I think that this should be taught in schools. The book did well to breakdown racism and how White people, across all mediums, do racist things subconsciously and intentionally. There was a news segment in which the main character broke down how the segment was racist in how it portrayed her brother. The news segment used a photo that made the brother look like a criminal rather than what news media uses for White people, which is usually a family photo or graduation photo, even if the White person did an unspeakable act and they don’t contest their guilt. The book also showed the bias reporting of media, showing that while Jackson Ridges was murdered by police when he resisted arrest, the news reported it as just that he died, implying he died by means other than police brutality. The book also showed trial bias and presented facts that Black Americans do not get a fair trial the majority of the time. The book showed her father being sentenced by an all-white jury, which should not have happened but unfortunately does, and shows how the court will unfavorably treat Black people in terms of the amount of evidence needed to be presented to concluded that a person is guilty. The book also had very accurate facts about prison systems, especially about private or for-profit prison systems and how they operate. Many prison systems have staff that will retaliate against an inmate’s family for things the inmate has done or the things that the family has spoken out about. The book was not only factual, but also gut wrenching. The scenes with police brutality, especially when Tracy, our main character, has a gun pointed at her when she is in an area the police are investigating, and with the racist actions of the towns people are devastating and hard to read, but are very important to read about. The author doesn’t shy away from the hard truths of what being Black in America really means in this book. This is a hard read, but a worthy read and should be taught in schools.

If I had to point out an issue, I’d say that, while not an issue, I would like to see the aftermath of what happens when an inmate is released from confinement and I would have liked to see how the family planned to sue the county for retribution from the grievance caused to them.

Verdict: A must read.

If you're a fan of contemporary YA, you've almost definitely heard of this book. You've probably also heard people talking about how amazing it is, how inspiring but also sad and also scary. You've heard people talk about how fantastic and relentless Tracy is, the way that she writes every week to Innocence X to get them to take on her father's case before his execution in under a year. And chances are you've been burned by hype before; we all have.

But this book? It's better than everyone says. (We're not underselling it on purpose; it's just that I don't think most people could do it justice. I certainly can't.)

There's a lot going on here. There's a mystery involving Tracy's brother (who is being blamed for a murder) and what's going on with her dad's case, and the way that she and her family are treated since her dad was convicted of a different murder. (SPOILER: It's not great treatment, and it gets a lot worse when her brother becomes a suspect.)

These are easy things to discuss. What's harder to quantify are the undertones here. There's the trauma that Tracy feels, having seen her father being violently arrested. There's the fear that she feels (because if something major doesn't happen, he'll be executed. And every day that goes by makes his death more likely because even if she CAN get someone to look at the case, it will require as much time as possible). And now there's the fear that she feels for her brother, Jamal.

And there are so many other layers, all of which I'm desperate to discuss with people. (This is going to come up on our podcast and at my book clubs.) It's impossible not to read this for plot, because it's incredibly gripping. But I also had to keep stopping so I could catch everything else going on, too. This is a masterpiece of a novel, and I hope that Kim Johnson becomes an incredibly prolific author. I need everything she will ever write immediately or sooner.

Highly recommended.

I didn't need to hear much about this book to be interested in it. Normally all I needed was the pitch, and I added it to my TBR. And now that I've read it, I can honestly say, this needs to be required reading in schools. Anything less than 5 stars is unacceptable.
Tracy Beaumont's dad is in prison serving a death sentence. She's been writing tirelessly Innocence X to get him a fair trial because she knows there's no way he could have done the heinous things the police said he did. But they won't answer her. And then her brother is caught up in a murder that makes it look like he'll be next behind bars. Now Tracy must find a way to clear both her brother and her dad's name, all before her dad's time runs out.
The first thing I liked about this book was the setting. I read that it was set in Galveston, County and I was literally gasped out loud. I grew up there! I do wish we had seen some actual legit Galveston places. But I understand that no one realizes that it wasn't real except someone who's from there, so I ignored that.
I LOVED the characters. Tracy was a BOSS. She was so smart, determined, and focused. It was amazing to see how she wasn't scared and didn't take no shit. She knew the facts and she stuck to what she knew. She didn't let anyone change her mind. I hope teens that read this will see how she spoke out for justice and do the same. I also hope they take her workshops to heart, because they can definitely help ALL people of color.
I also loved the ending. There was another way this could have gone, and let me just say, I was expecting it to go that way. But this way was unexpected. I think the thing that popped up was a great way to do it because any other way it wouldn't have been believable. Sad to say, but it's the truth.
As for the writing style, are we sure this was Johnson's first book? I was HOOKED from page one! I admit, I did have to take some breaks here and there because the subject matter hit too close to home, but I knew it was going to be hard going in, so I powered through. There are some things that need to be edited (like I'm waiting on the outrage that will occur if they don't change that A&M Orange lmfao) but I'm hoping that's just because I read an ARC. Otherwise, I thought it was almost perfect.
In the same thought as the last paragraph, this whole novel is an example of why #OwnVoices novels are important. No one else could have written this novel with the same care and real life experiences that Johnson had. There is no amount of research in the world that can show you how to write a Corinne with so much innocence, or a Mrs. Beaumont with such strength to keep going in the midst of hard times. These aren't things you'll find through research. You have to LIVE these types of experiences.
There is so much to say about this book, but I still fear I have not done it justice. (No pun intended lol) I can't wait until more of you have read this book! It needs to be talked about and read by everyone, not just the Black community.

Many thanks to Rockstar Book Tours and Random House Books for Young Readers for a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review and for inclusion on this blog tour.

This Is My America is a hard, honest look at what it’s like to be Black in America. It pulls the reader into a close-knit, loving family hurt by a broken system, but one that never gives up hope for the future.

I got such whiplash reading this book, because there were so many parts that just absolutely broke my feels, but at the same time, there were so many hopeful and sweet parts. Even though this is a dark topic, this isn’t necessarily a dark book. Yes, by necessity, there are dark moments, but the message is of moving forward and growing and doing better, and I loved that.

My Thoughts:

- I absolutely loved Tracy’s character, because she never stops fighting for the people she loves. It feels so weird for me to love a character that isn’t, like, Stabby McMurderPants. I’m not sure what’s come over me. Still, Tracy is super fierce in her own right. She refuses to give up, so she does the only thing she knows how to do: keeps pushing for justice. Tracy’s persistence is one of the things I loved about her, because in the face of a world that wants to hold her down, she fights back in whatever small ways she can. She holds local Know Your Rights meetings to help her community understand how to interact with police. She keeps writing fervent letters to Innocent X, despite never getting a response, because she believes in her father’s innocence. It was just so easy to root for her.

- There are so many tough, real scenarios called out in this book, from microaggressions to blatant racism to the way cliques form around racial lines … and this is before we factor in any sort of police/prison plot. As a Black person myself, I can 100% confirm microaggressions are a thing, and sometimes they’re the most insidious form of hate. Even if people don’t consciously know what they’re saying. When someone is overtly racist in a big way, it’s easy to brush that off, because it’s just someone acting a fool, like they do. But microaggressions are built into the structure of society, and they’re things you’re told from a young age about where you fit, who you are, and who you’ll inevitably be. They’re small lies that constantly beat against you until they finally wear you down into believing some aspect of them. Tracy is just trying to live her best life in a majority-white town that’s never really wanted her there, and there are so many little reminders of that.

- I don’t even know what to say about this plot. It made me Hulk levels of angry for these characters. The basic premise is Tracy’s father was convicted with a death sentence and shoddy evidence, the other Black man accused killed, and in the shadow of trying to get this sentence overturned, the cycle seems to be repeating itself with her brother, Jamal. Because as if the first isn’t bad enough, you get to see the second happen in real time and watch the investigation get botched, and it’s just … ugh. This shouldn’t be a thing in this day and age, and it is. I actually really enjoyed the mystery of this. I thought for sure I had the case solved and figured out the guilty party, and I was wrong. I mean, the whole book is about not making snap judgments about people, and I totally did that when assuming who the guilty party was, so well done, Johnson, for totally catching me on that.

- Despite all the dark themes, there are some really uplifting ones, as well, about coming together as a community and family bonds and trying to do better. The family bonds are super strong in this, and I absolutely loved it. It’s easy to fall apart when you’re being persecuted by the community, but that’s not the case. The Beaumonts just get stronger with every adversity they have to face together, and as the book keeps going, they pull in the people around them, too, until there’s this really sweet connection between so many different characters as they fight for the truth. It’s such a bold choice for Johnson to leave the book on a positive note, but I loved that she did, while, at the same time, acknowledging that the struggle doesn’t necessarily just “end” for Tracy.

- This book raises some really hard realities about life as a Black American. I’m not going to say everyone’s experience is like this, because that would be a lie. The truth, though, is that most Black Americans have experienced some part of Tracy’s story, even if it’s “just” microaggressions. If you’re not Black and you want a perspective on what it’s like to be Black in America, this is a good place to start, and it might really open someone’s eyes about how even the “little” things can add up and mean a lot. Especially to a teenager. What I especially liked, though, is that the book offers some small things you can do to make things better, without sounding preachy. There are some small tips snuck in about dealing with police that will serve a reader just as well as it does the characters (hopefully, at least), and it fits nicely in the book without feeling awkward and specifically “for” the reader. The author’s note also offers a lot of resources for further research or where to find more information on certain topics.

James Beaumont, husband and father of three, has been wrongfully sentenced to death. His teenage daughter Tracy is desperately trying to prove her dad's innocence. Then her brother Jamal goes into hiding when he get wrongly accused for the murder of a white girl he was seeing. Tracy is sending weekly letters to Innocence X, but never gets a response. She needs their help getting a good lawyer to represent her father and clear her brother's name. How far will Tracy go to save her father and bring her family back together?

I adored this book! Kim Johnson's debut novel is a mix of crime, mystery, social injustice and romance YA. The story sucked me right in: loved Tracy's character and her search for justice while being an attractive girl and getting boys' attention and being a good student and working at the school's newspaper. So multi-facetted. It was refreshing as, most of the time, female characters only have one main personality trait or interest.

This novel can also be educational as I learned quite a few interesting things such as mass incarceration and the privatization of prisons. I had no idea.

This book was entertaining, smart and brought many emotions in me, The end was wouahhh.. had to keep reading through the tears.

I highly recommend it to all! Thank you so much Net Galley and Random House Children's Books for giving me the chance to read this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Set in Galveston, Texas, Kim Johnson’s This Is My America follows Tracy Beaumont, a 17-year old African American who is on a mission to save her father, who is sitting on Death Row, convicted of a murder he did not commit. When the novel opens, he has less than one year before he’s put to death and so Tracy is running out of time. She has spent the past seven years writing weekly letters to Innocence X, an organization devoted to help those who have been wrongly incarcerated, pleading with them to take her father’s case.

The matter becomes all the more urgent when tragedy strikes the Beaumont family all over again. The local police arrive at the Beaumont house late one night with an arrest warrant for Tracy’s older brother Jamal. He is the prime suspect in the murder of Angela Herron, the editor of their school newspaper and also the white girl Jamal has been dating in secret. Jamal has no alibi and the sheriff’s son places him at the scene of the crime. Fearing he’s going to suffer the same fate as his dad, Jamal flees and refuses to come home until he can prove his innocence. With the clock ticking on both her father’s and her brother’s lives and still no response from Innocence X, Tracy decides it’s time to take matters into her own hands and starts looking for the evidence that will set them both free and save her family.

This story is hard-hitting on so many levels. As we follow Tracy on what turns out to be an increasingly dangerous journey to find the evidence that will exonerate her family members, the author unflinchingly explores so many tough and all-too-relevant topics, such as systemic racism, corruption in law enforcement, police brutality, the lingering existence of hate groups like the KKK, and the fact that without ample resources, a black person has little chance of successfully defending themselves in our legal system. The deck is just stacked against them. The author really drives her point home though by bringing us into the Beaumont home, where we meet and fall in love with Tracy, Jamal, their mom, and especially with their little sister Corinne, who at only seven years old, has never known her father as a free man. He has always been behind bars. Everything this family has gone through just had me in tears several times while I was reading, especially knowing that even though this account is fictional, the Beaumont’s situation is unfortunately a reality for too many families.

I don’t want to give away anything about the actual murder mysteries, so I’m just going to add that as powerful a read as this is because of its message about racial injustice, it’s also just a flat out fantastic read because the drive to find the real murderers is so riveting.

This Is My America is a hard-hitting exploration of the racial injustices that are so pervasive in American society. It’s a powerful read in that it will make you sad, angry, and frustrated at how little progress we as a society have made to stop the racial injustices, but at the same time, it’s a hopeful story. This is a book I’d love to see as required reading at the high school level because of its message that you’re never too young to start making your voice heard and that no matter how young you are, your voice can actually make a difference.

This is such a great, thought-provoking YA read. I would put this in the category with The Hate U Give as must reads for everyone. It really gave insight into the criminal system and how it does not provide justice for all. I really can’t recommend this enough, especially as everyone is trying to educate themselves!

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book that you do not want to miss! If you love audiobooks, This Is My America is narrated by the amazing Bahni Turpin so you know it’s wonderful. Even though I read an e-galley of the book a couple of weeks ago, I had to listen to the audiobook today. It’s excellent!! ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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This is a powerful story about family, love, racial injustice, and standing up for innocent Black men who are criminally sentenced. I loved the characters and unapologetic message of even during the most difficult times, Black people, especially our children are deserving of JOY! This is a powerful story of how 17 year old Tracy Beaumont fights to save her father, and innocent man, who is on death row by writing weekly to the Innocence Project to take his case. When her superstar high school athlete brother Jamal is accused of murdering a white girl, Tracy is relentless and begins to investigate in order to prove his innocence. Whew!!! This book goes right for your heart. Kim also reveals the effects of our flawed Criminal Justice System and generational trauma.⁣
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Personally, it was a painful reminder of how the media plays a harmful role. One day Jamal is a superstar athlete doing a TV interview where they are praising him and in the next moment that very media outlet results to sharing an unflattering photo of him in order to vilify him. I kept thinking how Black boys (children) are never extended grace, never allowed the “boys will be boys” label and the media’s instant reaction to seek negative information to communicate to the masses.⁣⁣ If you’re a teacher, your students will love this book! If you have a young person in your life, get this book in their hands. Heck, adults need to read this book.⁣
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WOW!!! YA readers are going to love THIS IS MY AMERICA! This fictional murder mystery draws upon Just Mercy and real life stories of injustice and abuse. I was on the edge of my seat.

This book has so much of what we talk about with Civics students when they are researching their Civic in Action Projects - the judicial system, racial problems, problems with our prison system. There are references to many historical and ongoing issues that could jump start student research - privatization of the prison system, the KKK, the ACLU and their mobile justice app...

Do not miss reading the Author's note at the end.

It would be interesting to pair this with To Kill a Mockingbird if that is part of your curriculum.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

This book just released yesterday and it is a must read! This book is so important and touches on so many important topics and issues currently occurring in the United States. The author just immersed you in the struggles that black people face in the criminal justice system and how discriminatory and racist people still are. I became so attached to these characters and was so angry at times knowing that events just like what was presented in this book are still happening in America. I highly recommend picking up this book and educating yourselves throughout the book on the many different real world issues that are addressed.

Happy belated pub day! This book was published yesterday and if you haven’t added it to your TBR, you need to do so immediately!

This Is My America is a YA mystery/thriller that follows Tracy Beaumont. Seven years prior, Tracy’s father who is on death row for I crime he didn’t do. Every week she sends a letter to Innocence X, a legal organization that helps out wrongly convicted individuals and seeks for justice. Things get more complicated when Angela, one of Tracy’s classmates, is murdered. Jamal, Tracy’s older brother, is being accused of murdering her. In her quest to find justice for her father and brother, Tracy uncovers much more about her town than she expected.

Once you start this book, it is hard to put down. You keep wanting to know what is going to happen next, wanting to find out who is Angela’s real murderer, and whether Tracy’s father and brother will be able to come back home safely. Johnson touches upon so many issues that Black people experience living in the US. It touches on mass incarceration and how it affects families, how the justice system fails Black people and targets them, for-profit prisons, white supremacy. It also deals with how Black women must always act and look strong in moments of distress while white women can easily can let themselves break down and show emotions. There is so much to unpack in this book and I could go on how Johnson is able to pack all of this in to create such a powerful story.

What a story to be published during this time! This is My America is a story with a strong, black female lead, and how she seeks justice in the world for her father and her brother.

This was a riveting read, with love and justice at the heart. Being a white reader, this book made me stop and think many, many times, evaluating myself. This book confronted my views and set my mind on what equality and justice truly means in my thoughts and my actions. It will be a wonderful, stark read for those interested in racial equality, spitting out the truth, fighting it's own way for racial justice.

Black lives truly do matter, and this book lays so much emphasis on that that I hope will make an impact on our world. This was a thrilling read, making me wonder just how things were going to turn out, all the while praying for justice to shine through the cruel inequality. I truly think this read can make a difference.

What a phenomenal book! Kim Johnson's characters leap off the page -- they have so much personality, emotional depth, and authenticity. This is one of those novels where you forget that you're reading a book once you start getting into it -- it's that immersive. It tackles the topic of racial injustice in the United States with such precision and care, and it ultimately concludes with a hopeful and uplifting ending. Seriously -- what a great book! It left me speechless. Definitely adding this one to my all-time favorites shelf.

This is My America is such a fitting book for right now. It highlights the problems with our justice system. I appreciated so highly how it was written in a way that's approachable for all teenagers to read. It's hard to read. It makes you sad, and cringe, but that is very much the world we live in right now. Every high school needs a copy in their library. Parents should be reading this with their teens and discussing. We can do better. We can learn more. This helps open our eyes to what is wrong so we can make it right.

This is My America is the sad reality for African Americans. I was overjoyed to receive this ARC, but became saddened as I read it. Being that black & brown bodies are being murdered & filmed, yet still receive zero justice; it was hard to read this during this time.

Fortunately, I finally sat down to read this & couldn’t stop. I am happy that the ending wasn’t bitter. I also enjoyed the added romance.

This is one of those books that everyone should read and I truly think it should be required reading in every high school. It really is just that powerful. This Is My America is an unapologetic portrayal of what it looks like to be black in America and honestly everyone who isn't black - but especially if you're white - should pick this up because what it has to say about racism in general but especially when it comes to police and the criminal justice system is incredibly important. This book tackles and therefore has triggers for: racism, police brutality, murder the unjustness black people are subjected to at the hands of the criminal justice system, the KKK, white supremacy and other hate groups, past lynchings, burning crosses and the death penalty. It is often easier for people to understand these concepts in the form of fictional stories and that's what makes this book so important. I also recommend that when you do read it, you read the author's note at the end. That is also important.

This book is phenomenal. It's important. You need to read it.

WOW! 5🌟⠀
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I finished this one last night and it was so many wonderful things. Honest, unflinching, thrilling, hopeful, heart wrenching. I was on the edge of my seat and on the verge of tears. ⠀
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Kim Johnson has penned the next new must read! (The book that I wish didn’t have to exist if white people would check their privilege and racism and make sweeping changes in prison and police reform.) With a nod to Just Mercy (and reminiscent of All American Boys, and THUG), THIS IS MY AMERICA will expand your compassion and strengthen your resolve for change. ⠀
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And make sure to read her Author’s Note at the end, as well. Very impressive and informative!

Thanks to Random House Children's for the advance copy of This Is My America by Kim Johnson in exchange for an honest review.