[3] In 2023, he was given an honorary doctorate for his literary output and polar science outreach from the State University of New York (SUNY).
In 2010, Neri received the Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award from the International Reading Association for his free-verse on Chess Rumble.
[8] Neri's first novel, Surf Mules, revolves around two California surfers who find themselves embroiled in a world of disorganized crime.
The story is about an 11-year-old named Cole, who is abandoned on the doorstep of the father he's never met, but befriends a horse and eventually becomes a cowboy.
[16] In 2021 the novel was adapted into a motion picture for Netflix called Concrete Cowboy, starring Idris Elba and Caleb Mclaughlin.
The story concerns a white girl who falls in with a group of middle graders and high schoolers who play the dreaded game.
"[18] Neri's first picture book and biography charted the rags to riches rise of Johnny Cash.
"[20] Neri's middle grade novel, Tru & Nelle is a detective story starring Harper Lee and Truman Capote as children growing up in the Deep South during the Depression.
2023 saw the release of his multiple starred-reviewed books, My Antarctica, and Safe Passage, as well as a Michael L. Printz award for his contribution to the anthology, The Collectors: Stories.
Most of these kids are now born into a more visual society, so I think playing with graphic novels and illustrations and using voices and characters that you don't see often in literature is a big plus for reluctant readers in the city.