Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson (review)

ZJ—Zachariah Johnson, Jr.—is ten in 1999 when his adored football-star father begins to act erratically. In free-verse narration, ZJ relates his father's inexplicable deterioration over the next couple of years, his mother's struggle to get him help in an era before football-related chronic traumatic encephalopathy was understood, and ZJ's grief and worry about his father. Fortunately, ZJ is bolstered by the friendship of Ollie, Darry, and Daniel (together the Fantastic Four), and as his father's identity slips away ZJ starts to find his own way through the world. This is a heartbreaking tale brimming with sympathy, and it draws much of its impact from the characterization of Zachariah's father; while the portrait is obviously burnished by ZJ's hero worship, it's also clear that Zachariah Senior is a man of deep kindness and generosity who loves his son greatly, and whose decline leaves a huge hole in his fiercely close African-American family. ZJ's move toward music and his increasing reliance on his friends are age-appropriate shifts that have particular poignance given the situation. While the football and CTE elements give this resonance for young athletes, many readers will be sadly familiar with the painful waning of a family member, and they'll be heartened by ZJ's love and resilience.