Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does -- or does not -- say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.
Angie Thomas' searing debut about an ordinary girl in extraordinary circumstances explores issues of racism and criminal justice with intelligence, heart, and unflinching honesty.
"Starr’s voice commands attention from page one, a conflicted but clear-eyed lens through which debut author Thomas examines Khalil’s killing, casual racism at Williamson, and Starr’s strained relationship with her white boyfriend. Though Thomas’s story is heartbreakingly topical, its greatest strength is in its authentic depiction of a teenage girl, her loving family, and her attempts to reconcile what she knows to be true about their lives with the way those lives are depicted — and completely undervalued — by society at large." -- Publishers Weekly
Recommended Age | 15 and up |
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Author | Angie Thomas |
ISBN | 0062498533 |
Publication Date | Feb 28, 2017 |
Publisher | Balzer + Bray |
Language | English |