National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson's stirring novel-in-verse explores how a family
moves forward when their glory days have passed and the cost of professional sports on Black
bodies. For as long as ZJ can remember his dad has been everyone's hero. As a charming
talented pro football star he's as beloved to the neighborhood kids he plays with as he is to
his millions of adoring sports fans. But lately life at ZJ's house is anything but charming.
His dad is having trouble remembering things and seems to be angry all the time. ZJ's mom
explains it's because of all the head injuries his dad sustained during his career. ZJ can
understand that--but it doesn't make the sting any less real when his own father forgets his
name. As ZJ contemplates his new reality he has to figure out how to hold on tight to family
traditions and recollections of the glory days all the while wondering what their past amounts
to if his father can't remember it. And most importantly can those happy feelings ever be
reclaimed when they are all so busy aching for the past?
