"A lyrical masterpiece." --School Library Journal (starred review)
Originally performed at the Kennedy Center for the unveiling of the
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, and later as a tribute to Walter Dean
Myers, this stirring and inspirational poem is New York Times
bestselling author and National Book Award finalist Jason Reynolds's
rallying cry to the young dreamers of the world.
For Every One is exactly that: for every one. For every one person.
For every one who has a dream. But especially for every kid. The kids
who dream of being better than they are. Kids who dream of doing more
than they almost dare to imagine. Kids who are like Jason Reynolds, a
self-professed dreamer. Jason does not claim to know how to make dreams
come true; he has, in fact, been fighting on the front line of his own
battle to make his own dreams a reality. He expected to make it when he
was sixteen. Then eighteen. Then twenty-five. Now, some of those
expectations have been realized. But others, the most important ones,
lay ahead, and a lot of them involve kids, how to inspire them: All
the kids who are scared to dream, or don't know how to dream, or don't
dare to dream because they've NEVER seen a dream come true. Jason wants
kids to know that dreams take time. They involve countless struggles.
But no matter how many times a dreamer gets beat down, the drive and the
passion and the hope never fully extinguishes--because simply having the
dream is the start you need, or you won't get anywhere anyway, and that
is when you have to take a leap of faith.
A pitch-perfect graduation, baby, or inspirational gift for anyone who
needs to me reminded of their own abilities--to dream.
