Promise Boys

By Nick Brooks.  Henry Holt and Company.  January 2023

Review of published copy.

Protean and talented Nick Brooks is an award-winning author and filmmaker from Washington, DC who now resides in California.  In 2022 he published his first middle grade novel, Nothing Interesting Ever Happens to Ethan Fairmont, the first book in a three-book series. The second book in the series, Too Many Interesting Things Are Happening to Ethan Fairmont,is due November 2023.  His first young adult novel, Promise Boys, was a 2023 Boston Globe–Horn Book award honoree and will be adapted as a Netflix series.  He is currently in development for his first feature film, We Were Born Kings, with Mandalay Pictures. Before becoming a filmmaker, Brooks worked with at-risk youth.  In an interview about the novel in Publisher’s Weekly, he stated, “I want young men of color in places like Washington, D.C. or Houston, or New York, or Louisiana, or out here where I live in Englewood, Calif., to see themselves, and I want them to feel inspired to tell their own stories. I also want to reach non-readers.” (PW, January 12, 2023 by Idris Grey).  

A crime has been committed.  The victim of the crime, Mr. Kenneth Moore, is the principal of Urban Promise Prep School, an all-boys charter school in Washington, DC.  The school’s motto, We Promise, and school anthem,

We promise.

We are the young men of Urban Promise Prep.

We are destined for greatness.

We are college bound.

We are primed for success.

We are extraordinary because we work hard.

We are respectful, dedicated, committed, and focused.

epitomize the Moore Method, a strict regiment of rules including no talking at all unless to a teacher or adult; no music or cell phones; uniforms with no colored shoes or socks; and no standing in class until signaled by the teacher to do so, all of which are a part of “The recipe for making young men” according to Mr. Moore.

Three students of color become primary suspects because each had a confrontation with Mr. Moore and was linked to incriminating evidence.  J.B., who African American and somewhat of a loner, has never liked the school and has resigned himself to “Just get through the day.”, stick to his plan to keep his head down, get the grades, go to college, and get far away from the place.  African American Trey is a jokester and basketball player aspiring for a career in the professional league.  Ramón, who immigrated from El Salvador as a young boy, has learned to cook with his abuela; he dreams of owning a restaurant.  The boys profess their innocence, but the swelling speculation of guilt in the school and community continues to target them individually and complicitly.  Suspecting each other and a broadened pool of others at the school, they eventually become partners in solving the crime to identify the killer and clear themselves. 

The story is told through the perspectives of the three protagonists and a host of secondary characters whose observations deepen the solid characterization and advance the plot of alternating voices on the day before the murder, the day of the murder, and after the murder at a suspenseful pace.  In a brilliantly constructed murder mystery for both young adults and adults, master storyteller Brooks deftly interweaves intimations about the biased treatment of children of color in the juvenile judicial system as well as inequities in their public school education.

What works. 

Appealing cohort of characters in a plot structured to maintain suspense.  The secondary characters include family members and classmates of the protagonists, school employees, and community members. In Brooks’ effective use of point of view, their opinions and observations about guilt or innocence maintain suspense about the identity of the murderer.  For example,

“I don’t want to believe Trey killed Principal Moore.  I know the real him.  I know a side of Trey that nobody else gets to see, and I owe it to him to give him the benefit of the doubt.  But, then, I think about how bugged out he was that morning.  It’s not looking good for him.”  – Brandon Jenkins, Urban Promise Prep Student (and Trey’s best friend) (p. 73)

“My poor students.  My poor baby boys.  I started teaching at Urban Promise the very first year it opened.  Been here ever since.  The place used to be magic…  Boys from all over the city who were forgotten about finally had a place to call home.  A place where administration cared about giving them a fair shot.”  “All these boys talk tough.  Give them a little love and watch them melt.  They’re children.  Everyone seems to always forget that.  No matter their size.  No matter their skin color.  No matter their attitude.”  – Mrs. Hall, Urban Promise Prep Teacher (pp. 82-3).

What doesn’t work. 

It all works; the reading experience was completely satisfying.

Pass it OR Grab it. 

Grab it.  Beginning with the breaking news of a murder, Brooks pens a captivating murder mystery layered with a compelling cast of characters, a tantalizing plot abundant with intrigue, and nuanced but earnest social commentary.