I Am Alfonso Jones
By Tony Medina
Illustrated by Stacey Robinson, John Jennings
Paperback: $18.95
Six Pack: $113.70
View the Teacher's GuideAlfonso Jones can’t wait to play the role of Hamlet in his school’s hip-hop rendition of the classic Shakespearean play. He also wants to let his best friend, Danetta, know how he really feels about her. But as he is buying his first suit, an off-duty police officer mistakes a clothes hanger for a gun, and he shoots Alfonso.
When Alfonso wakes up in the afterlife, he’s on a ghost train guided by well-known victims of police shootings, who teach him what he needs to know about this subterranean spiritual world. Meanwhile, Alfonso’s family and friends struggle with their grief and seek justice for Alfonso in the streets. As they confront their new realities, both Alfonso and those he loves realize the work that lies ahead in the fight for justice.
In the first graphic novel for young readers to focus on police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement, as in Hamlet, the dead shall speak—and the living yield even more surprises.
Foreword by Bryan Stevenson, Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of Just Mercy
Read the Foreword by Bryan Stevenson and Tony Medina's Author's Note.
Book Trailer: I Am Alfonso Jones
Check out Tony Medina's article in the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Journal, Language Arts, titled, "Alfonso Jones Matters." This is a personal narrative detailing Tony's construction of a protagonist for a graphic novel that captures the quest for justice at the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Reviews & Comments
School Library Journal
Kirkus Reviews
Booklist
Foreword Reviews
Publishers Weekly
The Horn Book Magazine
Library Journal
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Forbes
Teen Librarian Toolbox, School Library Journal
VOYA
YA Books Central
Gene Luen Yang, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and author of AMERICAN BORN CHINESE and BOXERS AND SAINTS
LeVar Burton, Actor, Director, Author, and Reading Activist
Daniel José Older, author of SHADOWSHAPER and SHADOWHOUSE FALL
Nikki Giovanni
Randy DuBurke, illustrator of YUMMY: THE LAST DAYS OF A SOUTHSIDE SHORTY
Ibi Zoboi, author of AMERICAN STREET
Katheryn Russell-Brown, University of Florida Law professor, Director, UF Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations, and author of LITTLE MELBA AND HER BIG TROMBONE
Frederick Luis Aldama, author of LONG STORIES CUT SHORT: FICTIONS FROM THE BORDERLANDS and LATINX SUPERHEROES IN MAINSTREAM COMICS
Tanita Davis, author of PEAS AND CARROTS and MARE'S WAR
Allie Jane Bruce, Children's Librarian, Bank Street College and co-founder of Reading While White
About the Creators
Tony Medina - Author
is the author of six beloved books for young readers, as well as multiple volumes of poetry for adults. A Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and a professor of creative writing at Howard University, Dr. Medina is a two-time winner of the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People. He lives in the Washington, DC area.
Stacey Robinson
is an assistant professor of graphic design at the University of Illinois and an Arthur Schomburg Fellow with an MFA from the University at Buffalo. As part of the collaborative team “Black Kirby” with John Jennings, he creates graphic novels, gallery exhibitions, and lectures that deconstruct the work of artist Jack Kirby to re-imagine Black resistance spaces inspired by hip-hop, religion, the arts, and sciences. Robinson lives in Illinois.
John Jennings
co-edited the Eisner-nominated anthology The Blacker the Ink. He is a professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California, Riverside, and the Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellowship at Harvard’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. Jennings lives in California.
Related Titles
About This Title
ISBN
Paperback: 9781620142639
Six Pack: 9781620148112
Awards
The Latinidad List of Best Books of 2017
Latinidad
Best Books for Teens
New York Public Library
In the Margins Top Ten List
In the Margins
Starred Review
School Library Journal
Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens
American Library Association (ALA)
Ten Best Graphic Novels of 2017
Forbes
Choices
Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Skipping Stones Honor Award
Skipping Stones Magazine
Best Books for Kids
New York Public Library
Black-Eyed Susan Book Award Nominee
Maryland Association of School Libraries
Guided Reading:
Z+Lexile:
GN640LInterest Level:
Grades 6 - 12Reading Level:
Grades 6 - 12Themes
African/African American Interest, Civil Rights Movement, Coping with Death, Courage, Cultural Diversity, Discrimination, Empathy/Compassion, Families, Fathers, History, Latino/Hispanic/Mexican Interest, Mothers, Multiethnic interest, New York, Overcoming Obstacles, Persistence/Grit, Poetry, Protest, Realistic Fiction, Teen Interest, United States History, YA interest
Part of These Collections
Social Activism Collection, Social Activism Collection Grades 6-8, #OwnVoices Collection, African American English Collection High School, Black History Collection, Grades 7-12, Diverse Background English Collection High School, High-Low Books for Teens (Middle and High School), Fluent English, Fluent Dual Language , Summer Reading Collection Grades 6-8, Social and Emotional Learning Collection, Perspective-Taking Collection, Teaching Tough Topics with Children's Literature Webinar, YA Paperback Collection, EmbraceRace Webinar: Books that Support Kids To Think Critically About Racial Inequity, English Guided Reading Level Z+, Graphic Novel Collection
