In the book The Boy in the Black Suit, Jason Reynolds tells the story about a 17 old high schooler named Matt. The story takes place in present New York City. Matt, after dealing with his mother recently passing away, needs a new job. He only goes to school half a day so he can work the rest. But while Matt is out looking for a job, his father(a recovering alcoholic) is out getting drunk over the loss of his wife. As Matt is applying for a job at the local fast food restaurant, he meets his neighbor, Mr. Ray, and gets offered a job working at his funeral home instead. At first Matt doesn’t want to be around dead people, especially after he just lost his mom. But after a little more consideration, he takes the job.

Now at his new job, Matt has to wear a suit to school, so after he can go to work at the funerals. But then at one of the funerals, the girl whose grandmother had just passed away, he thought that he recognized her. Turns out he did recognize her, she worked at the fast food restaurant where was originally gonna get a job. Her name is Love. Turns out Love and Matt end up really liking each other and make plans to spend thanksgiving together. Meanwhile, when Matt is at school, his dad is hanging out drinking with the neighborhood drunk “Cork”. But then one night, Mr. Ray comes knocking on Matt’s door at around 11:00. He came because that night Matt’s dad had gotten drunk and had gotten hit by a car and was in critical condition in the hospital. Matt spent the whole night in the hospital waiting to see his dad, but morning came and he had to go back home and get ready for school and work.

Later that week, it was the day before thanksgiving and Matt was extremely excited to get to hang out with Love, especially after all that happened with his dad. But while Mr. Ray was giving Matt a ride home, he asked Matt what he was bringing to thanksgiving. But he had no idea what he was gonna bring, he was a good cook, he just never thought about it. He then decided he would bring his chocolate chip cookies. The next morning he woke up and started baking, and got cleaned up to go see Love. When he gets to Love’s apartment though, he finds out they aren’t having thanksgiving at her apartment. They are going to the homeless shelter to serve food there and eat. At the homeless shelter he meets many new people, one of which that used to play basketball in the NBA. After they get back from the shelter he takes Love back to her apartment and start making plans for another time.