Audiobook Excerpt narrated by Amir Abdullah and Taj Leahy

Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood |

Audiobook excerpt narrated by Amir Abdullah and Taj Leahy.

Volume 90%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
Keyboard Shortcuts
Play/PauseSPACE
Increase Volume
Decrease Volume
Seek Forward
Seek Backward
Captions On/Offc
Fullscreen/Exit Fullscreenf
Mute/Unmutem
Seek %0-9
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

Translate this transcript in the header View this transcript Dark mode on/off

Amir Abdullah: Batman, permabanned. Spiderman, crossed out. Captain America, crossed out. Superman, crossed out. War Machine, crossed out. Wonder Woman, crossed out. Thor, crossed out. Iron Man, crossed out. The Hulk, crossed out. The Winter Soldier, crossed out. The Flash, crossed out. Wolverine, crossed out. Dr. Strange, crossed out. Thanos, crossed out. Black Panther, crossed out.

The school bus squealed to a stop at the corner, by Cornell's house.
Other kids from the neighborhood got off, but he was too busy rereading that stupid list to notice. Black Panther, gone. Superman, gone. The Hulk...

"Cornell," Mr. Jeffrey shouted from the driver's seat.
"You ain't about to have me doubling back because you missed your stop again. Pay attention!"

"Sorry, sorry."
Cornell scooted from his seat and brushed past his laughing schoolmates, including Amaya Arnold. Amaya was more giggling than laughing, and Cornell could tell she wasn't being mean. Actually her giggle was kind of pretty, almost as pretty as her, but he wasn't brave enough to look her way too long, so his eyes wandered to Tobin Pitts, who was staring at him, hard.

Tobin swiped his red bangs away from his eyes and freckled forehead.
"Hope you're ready." Cornell shook his head and exited the bus with that stupid list taking up the space in his head, he'd rather reserve for Amaya. But unless she got superpowers before lunch tomorrow, she wasn't going to be much help.

The cars in the driveway told Cornell everyone was home, except mom, who was still on the West Coast for her business trip.
He weaved between Carter's beat-up burgundy Chevy starter-car, dad's might-be-time-for-an-upgrade-if-he-can-convince-mom black Audi, and Pop-pop's classics -are-the-way-to-go baby blue Cadillac, until he reached the side door. He removed the lanyard from his neck where his single silver key dangled, and jiggled it in the knob.

Before she left, mom had told them all, "Don't think because I'm away it's supposed to be bro's gone wild.
I want this house looking like humans live here when I get back." Inside, the funky ripe smell of the overfull kitchen trashcan suggested they had work to do. First things first though.

"Carter.
Hey Carter, I need your help." Cornell's brother wasn't in the kitchen, and the house wasn't shaking from Rat Face, so he probably wasn't in his bedroom. Cornell rushed through the dining room, scooted by mom's home office, cut through the foyer, kicked his shoes off before stepping into the living room no one ever sat in, and came to a skidding stop at the den, where he found his brother on the wraparound couch with a guest. "Hi," Cornell said surprised. The girl gushed, "Oh, you must be Carter's brother."

She had dark brown skin, super cool red-framed glasses, and an Afro puff on each side of her head.
She reminded Cornell of Amaya. Her jean jacket had a bunch of buttons pinned to the collar and pockets. Cornell leaned forward, trying to read some Black Lives Matter, Love is love, when Carter reminded them he was in the room. "What you need little man?" Cornell's chin jerked up. Carter had never called him little man before. "Also, why's your voice sound like that?"

Carter coughed and cleared his throat.
The weird deepness became his normal, little bit whiny, voice, "We're studying." The girl told Carter, "Hey, I want you to introduce me to this little cutie." Cornell smiled, "Thank you." Mom taught him how to take a compliment. Carter was not smiling. "Raven, that's Cornell. Cornell, Raven. What do you want?" "Oh right." Cornell fished the list from his back pocket and hopped over the back of the couch. It was a nimble leap. He landed right between the study buddies.

This audio excerpt is provided by Books On Tape® / Listening Library.