Courage

by Barbara Binns

A timely middle grade debut perfect for fans of Ghost and Booked -- A story of race, class, and the strength of brotherly love.

T'Shawn has worked hard to get his family's life back on track after his father died. But as things are returning to normal, his world is suddenly turned upside down when his older brother, Lamont, returns from prison. T puts his frustrations into his diving practice -- especially when he gets a scholarship to join a prestigious diving team at the local private swim club. But when crimes start increasing in the neighborhood and Lamont is the prime suspect, T'Shawn begins to question the hope that he and Lamont can put the broken pieces of their damaged relationship back together.

Genres: Middle Grade, Sports, Family, Realistic Fiction, Fiction, Childrens, African American

368 pages, Hardcover

First published July 31, 2018

Reviews

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent text for middle grade students. T.H.U.G. contains language and references that are not appropriate (teacher-endorsement-wise) for 5-7 graders, and this is the solution! It talks of similar issues-- racism, police brutality, inner city politics-- but at the level that is just edgy enough for my middle graders.
PLUS there's a swim team involved, so I'm a big fan 🏊

[Melanie Dulaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barbara Binns’ first middle grades novel is a story of love, forgiveness, second chances, and determination to succeed even when life does all it can to keep success out of reach. T’Shawn lives on Chicago’s South Side with his mom and little sister. Dad died after a difficult battle with cancer, his brother is being paroled after serving two years for attempted robbery, and his neighborhood is struggling to combat the gangs and poverty that plague their homes. For T’Shawn, his brother’s return is deeply troubling and he battles fear that Lamont will let them all down again and bring the family’s fragile household to ruin and homelessness again. Readers of “Courage” will cheer as T’Shawn begins to find a new way to shine when he is awarded a scholarship to join an elite swimming and diving team and will hurt with him as he tries to give his big brother the benefit of the doubt and has that trust broken. Librarians of 5th-8th graders seeking to inspire their students to look beyond current circumstances and seek ways to set and attain high goals would do well to consider this book. And happily, Binns finds a way to convey the atmosphere of a gang-riddled area without feeling the need to include profanity or unnecessarily graphic violence! My only reservation about this outstanding novel is its portrayal of nearly all non-African American police officers as prejudiced, quick to judge and prone to excessive force. Thanks for the dARC, Edelweiss.

[Terry Maguire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life is finally looking up for T'Shawn. Growing up in Chicago's South Side, he's always dreamed of joining an elite, predominantly white swim team as a diver, and he finally gets a chance. His mother has an apartment for them now after doing a stint living in a homeless shelter following the death of his father and insurmountable medical bills. But then T'Shawn's older brother Lamont comes home on parole and T'Shawn feels like his fragile new world may crumble. I loved the characters in this book and the skillful way that Barbara Binns weaves together so many different themes: courage, self-love, black lives matter, second chances, and so much more. In many aspects this novel addresses similar themes to The Hate U Give in a way that middle grade readers can understand. Highly recommended.

[Leonie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting but there’s some things it wasn’t for me first of all Carmela the love interest of T wasn’t believable and she felt quite boring to read about also I wished this book was around 200 pages because I don’t think anyone would be intrigued by a 300 page book I loved learning about T best friend Dontae being a sickle cell I’ve never read a character being one so I found that educational about him and the rest was very informative but I felt there was too much explaining and less doing so I’m disappointed because I’ve been wanting to love this one but it sadly didn’t hit it

[Cecilia Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is set in the South side of Chicago and narrated by thirteen year old T'Shawn.
Binns's plot is realistic and deals with contemporary issues.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very educational. It teaches you to remember to never judge anybody unless you walk in their shoes. Every one deserves s second chance

[Valerie McEnroe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm starting to get annoyed that most of the African-American youth literature being written today is all about crime, poverty or racism. It's depressing as heck. It's the books from earlier authors like Christopher Paul Curtis who can bring on a smile. Curtis' characters always have a happy-go-lucky edge that I rarely find in African-American books for kids. Binns falls somewhere in between. Even though she chooses to write about the gang ridden life on Chicago's southside, I applaud her for telling the story from the perspective of a strong, morally straight main character. T'Shawn knows right from wrong. He knows his future is up to him. He doesn't sit around wallowing in self-pity or casting blame, but when an obstacle gets in his way, he wants it gone.

His obstacle is his brother Lamont. After their father died from cancer, Lamont went into a downward spiral and joined a gang. To prove himself worthy, he held up a restaurant owner at gunpoint and went to prison. Now he's getting out early and T'Shawn isn't happy. He's not convinced his brother has changed. He just joined the local swim team and he doesn't want Lamort screwing things up for him and his family. The entire neighborhood is convinced nothing good is going to come from Lamont's return. One of T'Shawn's classmates starts a petition to get Lamont removed from the neighborhood. Though the evidence pointing at Lamont doesn't look good, T'Shawn decides to set aside his preconceptions and give him the benefit of the doubt.

Chicago's southside gangs are a huge problem. Binns sheds light while staying within the parameters of appropriateness for kids. T'Shawn is just making the best of a situation out of his control. He can't help where he lives. I love T'Shawn's discovery of a hidden talent. Some kids dare him to dive off the diving board in the opening chapter and he finds his passion. He joins the diving team, works hard, and is soon competing in his first meet. Very cool. Love the message there. I love T'Shawn's growth in his feelings toward his brother. The ending is happy, yet realistic, and I'm grateful the author ended it that way.

A little on the long side for this age, but worth the read.

[Tiffany Corvi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for middle grades. I read this one aloud to my two sons, ages 10 and 12, and the age range was very appropriate as a read aloud where we could take the time to discuss the big themes and ideas. It led to many great conversations about race, standing up for each other, knowing what is right, and forgiveness.

The story is centered on T'Shawn, a young boy who lost his father to cancer, and then shortly after, his older brother, to a gang, and then to prison. The story opens up with him wanting to join a prestigious swim team, the Rays, to impress a girl he has a crush on. He knows its not something his family can afford, in his mother's single salary, but he requests it be his birthday gift. Instead, his mother tells him that his brother, Lamont, was released early from prison (served 2 years of a 10 year sentence), and that his return would be the best gift other. Not so for T'Shawn.

T'Shawn struggles with the decisions his brother made that ended him up in prison. He is scared of who he has become, and doesn't hide his feelings when his brother returns to share a room with him. He is guarded and suspicious, only being open to seeing the bad that he can cause. His best friend, and the girl he crushes on, have also brought judgments to his bother's return, and speak poorly about who he is, starting a petition to get him paroled to another city. It appears that no one is giving him a chance to start over.

I had a visceral reaction when T'Shawn and his friends were stopped in the streets by white police as they were innocently walking to play basketball. Guns pulled and emotions high, T'Shawn throws himself on top of his friend who has a sickle-cell attack during the commotion. I imagined my young sons in the same position and felt my body become hot with anger. The emotion that author Binns was able to bring to this part of the story was all too real.

Throughout the story, we encounter drug use, pressure from overbearing parents, homelessness, stories of death and murder, and young children having to deal with things that *should* be so much bigger than them, but that are front and center of their lives. I read in other reviews that too many big themes happened all at once, but I disagree; life is happening all the time, and we are often too unaware of all the challenges that each family faces. This story explores a small group of people in a town that suffers from systemic racism, and so many of the themes that go with it. Binns writes a beautiful story to give context to these life events, and through T'Shawn, we get to feel how it affects him as he tries to pick the better path in life. I really appreciated this story, and would recommend parents explore it with their middle grade children as well.

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book really shows the harsh realities of living life as a different race from people who think they are superior, and living with someone who is hard to trust. I think that T' Shawn is a very strong character, with his will. It must be very hard to be in his shoes, especially because of everything that's going on. I also believe that Lamont is a really good brother, and was just misguided as a teenager. He tried treating T Shawn better, trying to win back his trust, and this time, for real. He even helped to pay for T's "scholarship" for the Racing Rays. This also shows again how this is realistic this book is, because today's teenagers also have many difficulties with listening to authority figures and they just want to do whatever they want, with "freedom". But too much of something is often a bad thing, and that sometimes can lead to jailtime. The thing is, once people get back from prison, you don't know if they have even changed their ways, for the better or the worse. This is what T is dealing with, and this also captivates the story's movements. Overall, this is a really good book that goes down deep, and really brings out the best in these characters.

[Elissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a powerful book. Even though T'Shawn is only 12, on the verge of 13, he has had to deal with so much in his life. From the loss of his father to cancer to the loss of his big brother Lamont to jail, T has had to grow up a lot in his short life. When Lamont gets out early, T struggles with his past idolization of his brother with how hard it was to lose him and that makes it hard to let Lamont in again and to believe he is capable of good. This is such a heartfelt book that captures T's dilemma, the sense of community that is offered by those living close and by gang affiliation. There are some heavy topics in this book but Binns handles them skillfully, without holding back from the hardships T faces. There is also a great message about not quitting when the going gets tough, as T takes up diving and is constantly belittled by his coach. He says, "Giving up is easy. I won't do that, not ever. I'm going to stick this out." A great book.

[Rachael · Rating 3 out of 5]

After T’Shawn’s father died, his family was forced to live in a homeless shelter. Two years later, they’ve finally moved into a small apartment on Chicago’s South Side, and T gets an unbelievable opportunity to join a prestigious diving team at the local private swim club. He knows the costs are a lot, but he thinks his mom can swing it . . . until he finds out that his older brother, Lamont, is getting released from prison early.

.... I liked this book alright & enjoyed how the main character needed to navigate between his brother & the anger he feels towards him and the school & swim club communities where he is seen & not seen & also where the worst is often assumed.

I think I found the storytelling a little bit clunky at times.

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

diverse middlegrade children's fiction (black 13-y.o. in inner city Chicago deals with recently paroled older brother, racist police targeting his neighbors and friends, drug dealers and gang activity in his neighborhood, and trying to fit in with the privileged white kids and coaches on his swim team).

Life sometimes gets really messy, and there's so much happening in this book! Each character is dealing with their own issues, and I appreciated that the story keeps the complexity and doesn't simplify it for the sake of the reader. T'Shawn has a lot of heart to share for people who aren't even his friend (yet), and that was also nice to see in a world that sometimes appears to have everything going against it. More, please.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved so much about this story- T'Shawn walking away from his brother Lamont's allure with street life, taking care of his little sister, living in fear that his brother will pick up his old ways when he is let out of prison after 2 years. I'm so happy this story takes place on the south side of Chicago. But I could not get behind the length. After doing a book tasting preview with 100+ 8th graders and watching middle schoolers browse our new book shelves, by and large, this age group is not interested in long books. The avid, obsessive readers, maybe. I've seen so many kids pass a long book by and have kids tell me they like the premise but that it's too long. I think the length will be off-putting for the intended audience, but I will still promote it.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic book to read aloud with my oldest son. I will read it again with my other boys as they get older. It's themes were heavy, but important and touched on so many things that I want my sons to be able to have empathy towards: trauma, incarceration, homelessness, poverty, grief, black experience with law enforcement, gangs, single parenthood, and more. It gives me characters that I can use to help my kids understand what I do as a public defender and who may clients are in all of their complicated humanity. The diving stuff was actually pretty random and didn't add much in as far as it was diving, but did capture what it's like for a black kid without means to be surrounded by privileged white kids.

[Pratham Verma]

This book is amazing in the sense that it captures the mind of a middle schooler. The story takes place in a small town, with the main character, T'Shawn Rodgers. Money is tight ever since his father passed away, and his older brother spending time in prison. His swimming abilities earn him a chance to the scholarship of a lifetime, but will he be able to focus, or does he have a bigger problem on his hands? The racial identity he has to live by, and the character he developes throughout the novel drive this book along. The book brings you into T'Shawns shoes, but could use some work to let the reader feel what others around the character feel. Overall, this was a fun and interesting book to read.

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This info-dumped a bit at the beginning, but once the book settled in, I liked the writing style better.

I really appreciated how complicated things are. T is scared and worried *and* wants to be able to love and trust his brother like he used to. Lamont is trying and wants to belong, but he's proud and resentful. All T's friends want him to be happy, and they want their neighborhood to be safe. Forgiveness isn't easy, and it's a choice. It's something you give, and you don't have to give it.

I love Linda -- the stuff she's working through, the way she's there for T, even her friendship with Carmela.

I was all worried that T wouldn't dive anymore. I was really happy about him diving with Chicago Park District.

CW: police brutality, gun violence/threat of gun violence, mention of parental death, cancer, sickle cell attack/stroke, prison brutality, racism.

[Jenny Ashby · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the first three quarters of this book I was absolutely sure that I would be using it with one or more reading programs in the upcoming year. I'm sure you can see what I'm going from there... But before we get to the part I didn't like, let me talk about what was so great.

This book captures so much of the atmosphere of more mature stories about gangs or families dealing with incarceration but in a totally appropriate younger middle school way. My sixth and seventh graders are handling some of the same issues addressed in books like THUG or Long Way Down but they aren't always ready for those edgier stories. Courage is something I could put on a required reading list without hesitation.

T'Shawn is a great character, so wonderfully drawn. He was crushed by Lamont's gang activity and by the fact that he apparently chose his gang friends over T. Now he is doing what he thinks is necessary to protect himself and his family, including trying to get him to violate his parole. He also doesn't hesitate to speak up for himself and others when he observes racism which he faces both at school and in his neighborhood. But Binns does a great job weaving those incidents into the story smoothly without it being an obvious lesson we're supposed to learn, even though we can learn from them. T's eventual return to giving Lamont a chance comes about naturally with setbacks along the way.

So what lost me? The last quarter of the book felt so much more obvious and forced than the story up to that point. The nuances left and too many issues were pushed in. T's coach became a caricature and I didn't see any realistic motivation for the revelations from Lamont's girlfriend. If the story were tidied up and finished with the skill with which it began, this would be something I would recommend all the time. I'll still booktalk it, but I didn't love it as much as I thought I would.

[Shari (Shira) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This middle grade novel explores the impact of ex-convict returning to the family. I like the positive portrayal of poor African Americans, even the ex-con. I also like the presentation of rationales for individuals becoming involved with gangs and crime. The character Carmela was not very believable.

[Kate N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Book. It really shows how at TShawn's (main character) time, white and colored people didn't get along, and how hard it was for colored kids to live a good life. I loved when TShawn protected his friend Dontae from the police when he had an attack because of his sickness. I also loved that TShawn was not giving up on his brother (Lamont) when about 1,000 people say that he should go back to jail. And *SPOILER ALERT* Lamont didn't go back to jail. 4 out of 5 stars.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a powerful book about redemption and racism. An important read for grades 5-8. Set in Chicago. Great for those who want to read The Hate You Give but are too young for that book. Give to fans of Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds.

[Hoover Public Library Kids and Teens · Rating 3 out of 5]

The tense relationship between two brothers drives this middle grade debut set on Chicago’s South Side, as narrator T’Shawn turns 13, joins a diving team, and deals with the return of his older brother, Lamont, from prison.

[BarbJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting premise--13 year old T'Shawn lives in inner city Chicago, and his brother is coming home after two years in prison. T'Shawn wants to learn to dive, so joins a private swim club. Lots going on, and many conflicts, but maybe there's too much extraneous explanation.

[Shauna Yusko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish I’d found this one last year.

Excellent for middle school readers/classes wanting to talk about issues raised by current events and All American Boys, THUG, or Dear Martin, but need something more age-appropriate.

[Melody Barclay · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is narrated by 13 year-old T’Shawn Rodgers who learns a great deal about himself and the people around him. This book does a fantastic job of framing Blackness in America and is a good introduction for 5th-7th graders to the effects of prison and police violence.

[Nijanshi Singh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars
The ending was predictable but still, it is a powerful book.
It talks about racism, police brutality, prejudices, forgiveness, and a lot of kinds of stuff.
An easy-to-read, fast-paced, child-friendly book.
I am glad that I picked it up.💖💖

[Elise Altschuler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for fifth graders! Won’t be reading this with my class. Felt very stereotypically “black crime” and nearly impossible for my students to relate to. Felt like the author put in every possible trauma that could happen to the main character and it was a bit much, especially for YA.

[Brevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heart sparking and emotional. Twists and turns that keeps you up until 1 a.m reading. (Sorry mom and dad) ;)

[Beth Carroll · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite book that Barbara Binns has written. T'Shawn is an engaging character and the problems he and his family face feel ripped from the headlines.

[Athira K · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was exceptional. I loved it...

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

T’Shawn and his family have been faced with a lot of serious adverse events: death of a parent, incarceration of a sibling, witnessing and experiencing racist police violence, and more. T’Shawn’s brother is being released from prison early and T’Shawn is afraid of how this will affect the family and community. His community and friends represent a wide variety of viewpoints on incarceration and crime.

Characters are drawn as complex and interesting. T’Shawn is working to become a competitive diver and likes some types of country western music.

Stereotyping and assumptions—by many characters, not just those in authority—are explored.

I gave this 5-stars for being a great example of how a book can address serious contemporary issues of racism, incarceration, and police violence yet still be appropriate for a middle school (or younger) audience. Highly recommended for middle school readers and even those as young as 5th grade.