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Before the Ever After

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Before the Ever After
By Jacqueline Woodson
New York: Nancy Paulsen Books, 2020. Verse fiction.

ZJ's father, Zachariah Johnson #44 -- also ZJ, is his ultimate hero. He's a tight-end in the NFL, a Super Bowl winner, and he still manages to be there for ZJ, helping him write songs on the guitar. That was all before. Now, he suffers from painful headaches and frequent memory lapses. Sometimes he can't remember where he is and forgets ZJ's name and yells at ZJ and his friends as if he's never seen them before. He can't play football anymore, and no doctor seems to have any explanation beyond saying he took too many hard hits and had too many concussions. ZJ is left watching his father and hero slip away before his eyes.

This is a heartbreaking novel in verse about a young boy experiencing the gradual deterioration of his beloved father. Set in the early 2000s, when research about concussions in football players was still in early stages, we see Zachariah struggling with CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) before doctors had a name for the degenerative brain condition. Woodson offers a touching look at fame, family, grief, and pain as we watch ZJ struggle to understand what is happening to his father and start to rebuild his life in "the ever after." This book offers a unique sports story and would appeal to fans of Kwame Alexander's THE CROSSOVER.

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