Oxygen Mask: A Graphic Novel

Review This is destined to become a classic. Quite remarkable. This book will become a staple in classrooms across the world, used to discuss the Covid years, climate change and activism. There's nothing quite like it. ― The Times, Children's Book of the Week A powerful message in just three sentences. Reynolds and artist Jason Griffin have created a masterful collage of words and images about race and (in)justice in America. ― The Washington Post Remarkable ― The Sunday Times The words alone are evocative and insightful, but combined with artwork by Jason Griffin this graphic novel pulls you right back to the year of lockdown. This book is one to keep and revisit, a reminder of what really keeps us feeling alive. ― The Scotsman As Reynolds's lines depict Black people facing police brutality, Covid-19, and general concerns regarding safety, Griffin's captivating collages literally and metaphorically capture a constant state of worry and panic, leading to visual moments that encourage the reader to find solace and inspiration in the everyday. ― Publishers Weekly An intoxicating blend of stirring graphic imagery by Jason Griffin and perspicuous stream-of-consciousness narrative commentary by Jason Reynolds, this is a unique and memorable graphic novel... a benchmark for pandemic-era YA literature. ― School Reading List, Fiction Book of the Month An important combination that expresses the zeitgeist of a troubled time. It's essential reading. ― Booklist While grounded in 2020, many of the issues touched on explicitly are very much not over and not even new, making this remarkable work both timely and timeless. Artful, cathartic, and most needed. ― Kirkus Reynolds's introspective narrative poem, with a young man at home during quarantine as its speaker, shares the stage with Griffin's emotive collage-like illustrations done in Moleskine notebooks and reproduced on the pages to make it look like a real teen's journal. The first-person text is presented in three parts, or "breaths." In "Breath One," the narrator says he's "sitting here wondering why / my mother won't change the channel // And why won't the news change the story / And why the story won't change into something new." Along with concerns about the world outside, he thinks about his father coughing behind closed doors, his sister talking about protests, and his brother lost in video games. When the wonderings get to be too much, the narrator reminds himself to breathe "in through the nose // out through the mouth." By the end of "Breath Three," the narrator realizes that his "oxygen mask" for living through this uncertain time is the people he loves and the moments they share. The poem and images create an authentic young adult narrator trying to grapple with the confusion and fear of the double pandemic (COVID-19 and systemic racism) he is facing. The book ends with a conversation between the two Jasons about their collaborative process for creating this work during the pandemic. ― Horn Book A truly astonishing and profound exploration of the times we've lived through. -- Reviews ― WRD XTRA American YA writer Jason Reynolds lets his stream of consciousness unspool over three long sentences and 384 pages, while artist Jason Griffin shows blotches, bricks, buildings, masked faces and scenes of incarceration and apocalypse. It's a brilliant collaborative effort: you can inhale it at speed or linger over every startling page. ― The Guardian Oxygen Mask by Jason Reynolds with stunning artwork by Jason Griffin is a collaboration which began remotely with Griffin responding to the shared text. Ostensibly it's about the pandemic but it embraces so much more. ― Books for Keeps Product Description OXYGEN MASK Book Description A searing graphic novel from Jason Reynolds and street artist Jason Griffin. About the Author Jason Reynolds is a critically acclaimed American writer and poet and winner of the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers. From Jason: "Here's what I k