I Am Alfonso Jones

Review
By The Horn Book Magazine

Early in this emotional graphic novel, fifteen-year-old Alfonso Jones is shot and killed by a white off-duty police officer while shopping for a suit to wear to his exonerated father’s release from prison. The community and national outcry is tumultuous and devastatingly familiar as Alfonso’s family and friends demand justice: “No justice…no peace!” Medina’s textual narrative starts tightly with black-and-white visuals that follow suit, zoomed in closely on a single spiraling bullet. And from there it expands, exploring Alfonso’s bright, short life and bringing his death and those that survive him steadily into view to confront the repercussions of white supremacy. No contrived solutions or false sense of closure disrupt the narrative’s expanding path as it touches on related issues of poverty and mass incarceration.