Read by Bahini Turpin.
#1 - The Hate U Give
A student read this last year and did her independent reading project on it. I had heard of it, of course, but I had never read it. Now, I wish I had read it before she did her project. I can understand why this is such a popular book. Thomas's writing is working on many levels. She addresses racism and bigotry with a personal eye, filtering everything through a young Black female narrator who is living among gangs and going to school in a mostly-white establishment. She is wrestling with her identity - a universal condition - and how to be "just Black enough" in each situation, which is not universal. The grief, the heartache, the frustration...it's all on the page and it seeps into the reader. I can't help but be affected by this book, galvanized even, which I think is Thomas' point. It reminds me of DEAR MARTIN by Nic Stone. Both books start with a tragedy involving the police and the fallout that occurs. Both handle it in different ways but the message is relatively similar - drawing the spotlight back to the issue of racism in America. I think more people should be reading Thomas and Stone.
5/5
#1 - The Hate U Give
A student read this last year and did her independent reading project on it. I had heard of it, of course, but I had never read it. Now, I wish I had read it before she did her project. I can understand why this is such a popular book. Thomas's writing is working on many levels. She addresses racism and bigotry with a personal eye, filtering everything through a young Black female narrator who is living among gangs and going to school in a mostly-white establishment. She is wrestling with her identity - a universal condition - and how to be "just Black enough" in each situation, which is not universal. The grief, the heartache, the frustration...it's all on the page and it seeps into the reader. I can't help but be affected by this book, galvanized even, which I think is Thomas' point. It reminds me of DEAR MARTIN by Nic Stone. Both books start with a tragedy involving the police and the fallout that occurs. Both handle it in different ways but the message is relatively similar - drawing the spotlight back to the issue of racism in America. I think more people should be reading Thomas and Stone.
5/5
RSS Feed