For Every One by Jason Reynolds

For Every One by Jason Reynolds. A poem. A nod. A nothing to lose.

Scheduled to be in bookstores April 10, 2018

With For Every One, Jason Reynolds makes dreams his primary subject, and the target audience is exactly what the title suggests: every one. “This letter is for us all, to remind us that we are many. That we are right for trying. That purpose is real. That making is possible.”  More than anything, For Every One offers that most dangerous of things: hope. Hope to follow your dreams, hope to have the courage to be yourself and follow your own path.

Young adult novelist Jason Reynolds has become one of the freshest new voices in YA over the last few years. His novels All American Boys, The Boy in the Black Suit, Long Way Down, and When I Was the Greatest filled a gaping void in YA literature. These novels gave a voice to young black men. The main characters each faced their own crises; one was the victim of police brutality, another grieving for his mother who had died, one is considering getting revenge for a family member who was gunned down.  All of the characters have some sort of a dream for the future, but each encounters an obstacle on the path to those dreams.

The theme of For Every One, or the letter, as Reynolds refers to it, is to ‘jump anyway’ even though you know that following your dreams can be tough, that it can seem to be impossible to overcome all the obstacles life throws in the way. There are those who tell you it won’t work, it won’t pay enough, you won’t be happy. More, there is a flame of self-doubt that will always linger inside yourself. His advice: jump anyway, and follow your passion.

Reynolds’ brief book in verse addresses teens and the middle-aged alike.  “You might be fifty and think it’s too late. Jump anyway.” You can read the 101 page book in one sitting, even on a short train ride home on the afternoon commute. It’s the perfect pick-me-up after a bad day, or for inspiration and reinforcement in following your dreams in the face of continued obstacles.

Dreams aren’t just for the creative, Reynolds muses. They are for everyone, and everyone has a dream somewhere inside him or herself. “When it comes to my dream, the way I like to describe it is that it’s a rabid beast that found me when I was young,” Reynolds writes. “It bit me and infected me, but before I could catch it, it shot off into the darkness. Now I spend my life searching for it, hunting it down.”

Whether you catch the dream isn’t important. The reward is in the hunting. Reynolds admits in both the introduction and the letter that he’s not perhaps the best person to give advice on following your dreams, because his have eluded him. But the things he’s found on the journey have shaped him into the human that he is.

This is the perfect graduation gift for everyone, whether high school or college. It’s certainly more pertinent than the over-used to the point of cliche “Oh the places you’ll go,” by Dr. Seuss.  It’s also perfect for anyone needing a push to follow their dreams, or those who have already started down the path in search of their dream. As Reynolds suggests, this little book can provide the light for a long and dark road. “If you are a dreamer like me, you jump anyway.”