
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Limited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks!
Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting African American Literature Book Club with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Sign up todayWhen I Was the Greatest
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreIn Bed Stuy, New York, a small misunderstanding can escalate into having a price on your head—even if you’re totally clean. This gritty, triumphant debut captures the heart and the hardship of life for an urban teen.
A lot of the stuff that gives my neighborhood a bad name, I don’t really mess with. The guns and drugs and all that, not really my thing.
Nah, not his thing. Ali’s got enough going on, between school and boxing and helping out at home. His best friend Noodles, though. Now there’s a dude looking for trouble—and, somehow, it’s always Ali around to pick up the pieces. But, hey, a guy’s gotta look out for his boys, right? Besides, it’s all small potatoes; it’s not like anyone’s getting hurt.
And then there’s Needles. Needles is Noodles’s brother. He’s got a syndrome, and gets these ticks and blurts out the wildest, craziest things. It’s cool, though: everyone on their street knows he doesn’t mean anything by it.
Yeah, it’s cool…until Ali and Noodles and Needles find themselves somewhere they never expected to be…somewhere they never should've been—where the people aren't so friendly, and even less forgiving.
Jason Reynolds is crazy.
About stories.
After earning a BA in English from The University of Maryland, College Park, he moved to Brooklyn, New York, where you can often find him walking the four blocks from the train to his apartment talking to himself. Well, not really talking to himself, but just repeating character names and plot lines he thought of on the train, over and over again, because he’s afraid he’ll forget it all before he gets home. When I Was the Greatest is his debut novel. You can find his ramblings at IAmJasonReynolds.com.
Featured in these playlists...
Audiobook details
Author:
Jason Reynolds
Narrator:
JB Adkins
ISBN:
9780553395709
Length:
6 hours 2 minutes
Language:
English
Publisher:
Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Publication date:
April 8, 2014
Edition:
Unabridged
Want the printed book?
Get the print edition from African American Literature Book Club.
Get the print edition