A review by sunshine_librarian
This Is My America by Kim Johnson

5.0

I am in awe. Kim Johnson, has written a gripping, powerful, and important story about the Beaumont family living in a rural town in Texas. Mr. Beaumont, a Black man, is wrongly accused of a murder he did not commit, and he has less than a year until his execution. We follow middle child, Tracy, who never stops trying to get justice for her father even though her family cannot afford a lawyer. She writes to the Innocence X organization every week to try and get them to take her father's case. In the middle of all this, Tracy's brother, Jamal, becomes a suspect in the murder of a white girl and goes on the run. Tracy races the clock to try and save her father and prove her brother isn't guilty. This unexpected and compelling book examines the ideas of justice and racial inequality with brutal truth and, somehow, hope. THIS IS MY AMERICA will be a permanent part of my library's collection, and cannot wait to recommend it to my students.