A review by opticflow
When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds

5.0

I had pretty low expectations going into this, because wacky nicknames? Boys knitting in the hood? It sounds like a book an adult foists on a kid to teach a moral lesson. But as this progressed it got better and better. I loved Ali's family, I appreciated that everyone screwed up at some point, I thought the nod to Muhammad Ali was clever, and the ending was a wonderful surprise. An all-too-real premise where teens act older than they are and get in over their heads.