Get reading with the Best Books for Teens

Angie Thomas’s debut novel talks about racism, police brutality, and how the two intersect with black communities is a book that should not be missed. It revolves around the story of Star, a sixteen-year-old girl torn between her upper-class high school, and the poor neighborhood that she lives in. When police kill her best friend Khalil, she is the only witness to the crime. What she says could tear her community apart, and Khalil’s death makes national news as conversations about police brutality bubble up.

The Hate U Give is a contemporary novel that will hit home for Americans of every class and race. It brings the struggle of the Black Lives Matter movement to a novel format. It’s a story that is chilling, but it’s also hugely influential in the cultural landscape that we find ourselves in today. It was even turned into a feature film which makes it even more poignant.

In many cases, novels are a way to escape the real world and the struggles that it entails. The Hate U Give isn’t one of those. Instead, it transports you into the mind of Star and the tightrope she is walking as she tries to figure out the right thing to do. This novel is essential in significant ways, and it’s even more important for teens who aren’t black to read. If you want to foster empathy, understand the current state of civil rights, or seeing the perspective of someone different than yourself, it doesn’t get much better than this. The Hate U Give is a modern classic, and it should be on the reading list of every teenager in America.

Article source: https://www.technobuffalo.com/best-books-teens