Sonderbooks Book Review of

My Name Is Jason. Mine Too.

Our Story. Our Way.

by Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin

My Name Is Jason. Mine Too.

Our Story. Our Way.

by Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin

Review posted May 3, 2023.
Atheneum, 2022. (First created in 2009.) 96 pages.
Review written February 26, 2023, from a library book.
2022 Cybils Finalist - Poetry Collections

My Name Is Jason. Mine Too. is from the same two Jasons who created the award-winning Ain't Burned All the Bright. This book came first, and was recently reissued. It's a memoir in poetry and art -- about two young guys who moved to New York City after college. One dreamed of being a poet and the other an artist. They were twenty and twenty-two years old.

It wasn't an easy road for them. They were hungry. Their parents weren't thrilled. And they thought maybe they were making a big mistake.

Now, I'm an old fogey. There's probably lots of symbolism in the art that I'm not getting. But together with the words, there's something powerful going on here. The book paints a portrait of two guys, trying to be adults in the world and yet also make art.

And wow! One of them went on to become the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.

I hope there will be more collaborations in the future with these two Jasons.