The Hate U Give - YA banned or challenged book

 

Title:  The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Genre: YA Realistic Fiction

Targeted Age: High School

Plot Summary: When you live in two worlds, knowing who you are can be difficult. Such is the case for Starr who lives in "the projects" but attends school at an affluent, mostly white high school. Starr has kept these two areas of her life separate, trying to keep a foot in each side. When she is a witness to a close friend shot by an officer, her worlds begin to collide and she can no longer separate her two personas. This timely novel focuses beyond one incident and gives a full picture of prejudice and racism, some intended and others culturally engrained. Should be a must read.

Justification for book choice: This book has been challenged for language, drinking and drugs. Thankfully in one challenge the book won and remained on the shelves. This timely novel is a must read.

Evaluation: 

Perspective: Seeing the world of too many shooting headlines through Starr's eyes, shows the other side of the story. Beyond the headlines there are stories, lives, relationships, history, culture that can so easily be erased with a few short words from the media. This is a story that was hard to read and not see thoughts and feelings of myself or others I know in a different light. 

Character: I found the character Starr as a very believable teenager. She was not perfect in how she handled situations, but that is what makes her real. She hid things about        herself and her life from both worlds because she was still trying to figure out who she was and how she wanted to live her life. As she came to terms with her role as a witness and how she wanted to handle that responsibility, she grew in confidence as was able to combine her lives into one. She was able to find her voice.

        Setting: The setting of inner city poor communities vs the media and prejudice feels very         current and something that could happen tomorrow. This title was published in 2017, and         Angie Thomas was inspired to write the novel based on an event that happened in 2009            of a shooting death of Oscar Grant by police. Unfortunately, events have continued to                happen that are similar. That is the power of the messages in this book - too many of the            circumstances remain that leave shooting deaths a possibility. The setting of fear for                blacks when getting pulled over is not a new feeling, it has been around too long.