Excerpt from The Hate U Give

The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas. I knew this book was popular as a window into the world of young POC, but I skimmed past it a number of times without picking it up. Why? Honestly, it was the cover. It looks to me like high school chick lit. Relationships, putting on a public face, figuring out who you are.

But that is a gross misjudgment of what The Hate U Give is. If you are looking for a book that will help you to understand what #blacklivesmatter is all about, the poverty, violence, and racism faced by those living in the ghetto (to use the word that Starr, the protagonist employs,) then this is a great place to start.

I am nearly finished, and while I wasn’t sure when I started it that this would be a “real” book — one that dug deep to really expose the emotions and cultural underpinnings that is the reality for so many people — rather than a drama about high school cliques, I was not disappointed. I’m glad that I picked it up.

The Hate U Give covers a lot of the issues that have been in the media the past few weeks: police on black killings, black lives matter, protests and riots, and the spectrum of racism in everything from not smiling at black children to outright prejudice/judgement against people of colour. Thank you, Angie Thomas, for a great story.