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    When I Was the Greatest
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    When I Was the Greatest
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    When I Was the Greatest
    Audiobook6 hours

    When I Was the Greatest

    Written by Jason Reynolds

    Narrated by J. B. Adkins

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

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    About this audiobook

    In Bed Stuy, New York, a small misunderstanding can escalate into having a price on your head-even if you're totally clean. This gritty, triumphant debut captures the heart and the hardship of life for an urban teen.

    A lot of the stuff that gives my neighborhood a bad name, I don't really mess with. The guns and drugs and all that, not really my thing.

    Nah, not his thing. Ali's got enough going on, between school and boxing and helping out at home. His best friend Noodles, though. Now there's a dude looking for trouble-and, somehow, it's always Ali around to pick up the pieces. But, hey, a guy's gotta look out for his boys, right? Besides, it's all small potatoes; it's not like anyone's getting hurt.

    And then there's Needles. Needles is Noodles's brother. He's got a syndrome, and gets these ticks and blurts out the wildest, craziest things. It's cool, though: everyone on their street knows he doesn't mean anything by it.

    Yeah, it's cool…until Ali and Noodles and Needles find themselves somewhere they never expected to be…somewhere they never should've been-where the people aren't so friendly, and even less forgiving.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 8, 2014
    ISBN9780553395709
    Author

    Jason Reynolds

    Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a Newbery Award Honoree, a Printz Award Honoree, a two-time National Book Award finalist, a Kirkus Award winner, a UK Carnegie Medal winner, a two-time Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award Winner, an Odyssey Award Winner and two-time honoree, and the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors and the Margaret A. Edwards Award. He was also the 2020–2022 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. His many books include All American Boys (cowritten with Brendan Kiely); When I Was the Greatest; The Boy in the Black Suit; Stamped; As Brave as You; For Every One; the Track series (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu); Look Both Ways; Stuntboy, in the Meantime; Ain’t Burned All the Bright (recipient of the Caldecott Honor) and My Name Is Jason. Mine Too. (both cowritten with Jason Griffin); and Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Honor. His debut picture book, There Was a Party for Langston, won a Caldecott Honor and a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor. He lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.

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    Reviews for When I Was the Greatest

    4/5

    73 ratings11 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This is possibly one of the rawest books I have ever read. It is told from the perspective of a teenage boy growing up in Brooklyn, New York. Ali, his sister and mother live together in an old brownstone building. Next door a new family moves into what used to be a run down house. The two boys that live there become good friends with Ali. Noodles quickly becomes Ali's best friend. Needles had tourette's and he gets his nickname from learning to knit from Ali's mother.Noodles starts to get under Ali's skin when he pulls his tough guy act and treats his brother badly on many occasions while they are out and about. It all comes to a head when the boys get invited to an adult party, a MoMo party. Noodles gets into a fight and his brother needles tries to help. Needles is the one who gets badly beaten and Noodles hides. Ali ends up rescuing Needles from the three adults that are about to kill him.Everything comes to a head and Noodles finds himself as an outcast. Ali is done with him and so is his brother Needles. After a breakdown from Needles, Noodles has a breakdown himself because he feels so bad for the way he has treated his brother. They make up and things start to get better.This book just has so many elements to it. All in all it was amazing story about a boy who is becoming a man and dealing with what life throws are people.
    • 4/5
      A really good story. I enjoyed the entire book.

      **I received this book for free as part of a First-Reads promotion
    • 4/5
      When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds is a book about how to be a good person no matter the circumstances.Ali lives in Brooklyn, in a rough neighborhood. Next door is a place of drugs and questionable women. One day Ali meets Noodles (as nicknamed by Ali's sister who names everyone) sitting on their stoop because he doesn't want to be next door in that horrible place. Ali's mother recognizes the need Noodles has and invites him to dinner, essentially okaying that they can be friends. Noodles has trouble choosing to do good and feels pulled to do bad things, such as steal. Ali tries to help by making things right after Noodles messes up. Ali's mother says that you can "get tired of bailing people out, [but Ali isn't] ready to quit on my homeboy yet, but he was pushing me, and pushing hard." Noodles has a brother, Needles, who has Tourette's Syndrome, which doesn't bother anyone except Noodles. Noodles won't allow anyone to mess with his brother for his syndrome, but he certainly messes with him himself, which also makes Ali angry with Noodles. Needles stays calm by knitting, which Ali's mother taught him when he was having a melt down.The boys decide they want to go to a party at MoMo's, which is famous for beautiful women. They wonder what else goes on there. When they are able to sneak in with some help, Noodles, Needles, and Ali face situations that they are unprepared for and have to discover what they are capable of. This night pulls them apart and puts them in danger. It's a night of lessons and truths about themselves.I especially like the picture of the author. He is not a typical looking author. He has written a book about choices and identity. Our choices and decisions determine who we are as much as our actions. It's a very real book about real life and real consequences.
    • 5/5
      Very impressive debut! This book was about three teenage boys growing up in Brooklyn and the challenges that entails. Although he came from a broken home and was raised by a single mother who had to work two jobs just to make ends meet, Ali was a really good kid. He was a loving and protective big brother, a loyal friend, and showed strong character when faced with adversity. In most realistic YA fiction, it seems the good kid is always being brought down by the troubled kid. In this book, it was a refreshing change to see the good kid, Ali, have a positive impact on his best friend Noodles. As painful as it must have been to watch his best friend reap what he sowed, Ali knew that his friend needed to suffer those consequences in order to bring about a change in his life. It made my heart smile to see the transformation of Noodles from selfish, angry, cocky kid to humble, apologetic, sincere brother and friend. It was a feel good story that I finished in two sittings. Highly recommended for all ages!
    • 4/5
      This book tells the story of the Brooklyn that is not the hipster art community that many of us know and love/hate. Instead, there are good guys and bad guys and guys you've just known all your life and they just are who they are. Ali is trying to live his life, maybe score a girl, and not be so afraid of boxing. His next door neighbors, Needles and Noodles, don't really have a mom and Needles has Tourettes which ends up playing a fairly large part in the plot of the book. I liked this a lot more than I thought I would but it's not perfect. Still better than most.
    • 3/5
      Narrated by J.B. Adkins. Ali relates life in his Bed-Stuy neighborhood, where some folks get their hustle on but among his friends, neighbors and family, there is a tight-knit sense of community. Ali is the kind of kid who keeps his head down and out of trouble until a decision to attend a house party with his friend Noodles ends up getting him in trouble. Adkins voices Ali as a sort of nerdy but good kid, not "hard" or street tough as you might expect of a kid from a tough neighborhood.
    • 4/5
      Ali lives in Brooklyn with his mother and sister. His best friend, Noodles, lives next door with his mother and his brother, Needles. Ali wants to keep his nose clean, but Noodles seems to always be looking for a fight. When Needles is beat up at a party the boys shouldn't have been at, a chain of events is set in motion that can hurt both families even more.
    • 4/5
      Excellent story, excellent storytelling. Important author in terms of gathering a variety of American perspectives (in this case, Black, lower socio-economic, teen) while still exploring universal themes of family, friendship, and navigating adolescence. Loved it. I will be reading more of Reynolds' books.
    • 3/5
      This is a slight but compelling story about how we protect vulnerable members of our own community. Ali, Noodles, and Needles are engaging characters, though the plotting of this story is a bit uneven.
    • 4/5
      JB Adkins, the reader for the audio, was pretty stellar. Felt like it was one of my kids at the library telling me this story. Can't wait to see Jason Reynolds at SLPL next month!
    • 4/5
      teen fiction (urban problems in Bed-Stuy; one character deals with Tourette's syndrome and there are some absent parents; violence/fisticuffs; sticking up for your friends and struggling with others' perceptions). This is not my favorite Jason Reynolds title so far, but it did win a Coretta Scott King award, and pretty much all his stuff is excellent. The main characters are 15-16 years old and they get into a bit of trouble when they talk their way into a neighborhood party for 21 . There is a little drinking, drug use, and sexual themes, but mostly the boys are just trying to stay out of trouble.