While Ernie crushes on the girl who lives at the base of the hill, Genie writes down his many burning questions so he doesn’t forget them and gets to know his proud and fiercely independent grandfather. They are also surprised to learn that they are expected to do chores and follow their grandmother’s strict rules-and that it is possible to exist (sort of) without the Internet. It is only after the boys are left in their grandfather’s care that they realize that he is blind. The born and bred Brooklynites are to spend a month with their grandparents in rural Virginia while their parents take a long overdue vacation and work out their marital problems. Nada.Reynolds’s engaging middle grade debut stars 11-year-old African American Genie Harris, an inveterate worrywart who considers Google his best friend, and his older brother Ernie, who is well on his way to being a cool dude (sunglasses and all). Genie thinks that is AWESOME until he realizes Ernie has no interest in learning how to shoot. It's his fourteenth birthday, and, Grandpop says to become a man, you have to learn how to shoot a gun. Then Ernie lets him down in the bravery department. And when he finds the secret room that Grandpop is always disappearing into-a room so full of songbirds and plants that it's almost as if it's been pulled inside-out-he begins to wonder if his grandfather is really so brave after all.

How does he match his clothes? Know where to walk? Cook with a gas stove? Pour a glass of sweet tea without spilling it? Genie thinks Grandpop must be the bravest guy he's ever known, but he starts to notice that his grandfather never leaves the house-as in NEVER. Thunderstruck, Genie peppers Grandpop with questions about how he hides it so well (besides wearing way cool Ray-Bans). The first is that he and his big brother, Ernie, are leaving Brooklyn for the very first time to spend the summer with their grandparents all the way in Virginia-in the COUNTRY The second surprise comes when Genie figures out that their grandfather is blind. When two brothers decide to prove how brave they are, everything backfires-literally-in this 'pitch-perfect contemporary novel' ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review) by the winner of the Coretta Scott King - John Steptoe Award.

As brave as you are