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This week's topic is discrimination, where this post contains 5 different books in different genres, but all based around the same issue that is extremely topical and prevalent at the moment.
1. The Rabbits | John Marsden & Shaun Tan (allegory • picture book)
"The rabbits came many grandparents ago.
They built houses, made roads, had children.
They cut down trees.
A whole continent of rabbits…"
Key themes: The Rabbits is an allegory of when European settlers first came to Australia and the mass environmental and cultural damage that they caused.
Rating:
✔ Quick, easy read
✔ Beautiful illustrations
⚠ The Rabbits is recommended to Year 8+.
2. THUG | Angie Thomas (YA)
"Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighbourhood 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... 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."
Key Themes:
Racism
Police brutality
Community
Identity
Rating:
✘ mention of drugs
✘ sexual references
✘ explicit language
✔ easy read
⚠ THUG is recommended to Year 8+.
3. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry | Mildred D. Taylor (historical fiction)
"Why is the land so important to Cassie's family? It takes the events of one turbulent year—the year of the night riders and the burnings, the year a white girl humiliates Cassie in public simply because she's black—to show Cassie that having a place of their own is the Logan family's lifeblood. It is the land that gives the Logans their courage and pride—no matter how others may degrade them, the Logans possess something no one can take away"
Key Themes:
Racism
Poverty
Independence
Coming of age
Hope
Rating:
✔ Easy read, mainly aimed at Years 7-8, but a relevant book that can be enjoyed by all years.
♛ Winner of the Newberry Medal, a prestigious literature prize.
4. Hope in a Ballet Shoe | Michaela & Elaine DePrince (non-fiction • autobiography)
"Growing up in war-torn Sierra Leone, Michaela DePrince witnesses atrocities that no child ever should. Her father is killed by rebels and her mother dies of famine...
But there is hope: the Harmattan wind blows a magazine through the orphanage gates. Michaela picks it up and sees a beautiful image of a young woman dancing. One day, she thinks, I want to be this happy… And then Michaela and her best friend are adopted by an American couple and Michaela can take the dance lessons she's dreamed of since finding her picture…
Life in the States isn't without difficulties. Unfortunately, tragedy can find its way to Michaela in America, too, and her past can feel like it's haunting her.
A heart-breaking, inspiring autobiography by a teenager who shows us that, beyond everything, there is always hope for a better future."
Key Themes:
Hope
Coming of age
War
Rating:
✘ deaths
✘ war-related themes that may be upsetting
✔ easy read
⚠ Hope in a Ballet Shoe is recommended to Year 8+.
5. Murder in Mississippi | John Safran (non-fiction • biography • true crime)
"When filming his TV series Race Relations, John Safran spent an uneasy couple of days with one of Mississippi's most notorious white supremacists. A year later, he heard that the man had been murdered – and what was more, the killer was black… Over six months, Safran got deeper and deeper into the South, becoming entwined in the lives of those connected with the murder – white separatists, black campaigners, lawyers, investigators, neighbours, even the killer himself. And the more he talked with them, the less simple the crime, and the world, seemed."
Key Themes:
True crime
Thriller
Justice
Historical - real event
Rating:
✘ confronting events
✘ graphic/violent elements
• complex language
⚠ Murder in Mississippi is recommended to Year 9+.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King was a human rights activist who had contributed invaluably to the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. in the 1960s. 50 years ago, Black people were racially discriminated against to the extent that bathrooms were separated and Black people could be arrested for using bathrooms "exclusively reserved for Whites".
He was the driving force behind crucial campaigns like the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, which was a measure to end segregation on public buses. (at the time, Black Americans were forced to be in different carriages and had to vacate their seats to White Americans)
Have you ever heard of King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech? He had given this speech to 200,000 people outside Lincoln's Memorial in 1963 and the overwhelming support eventually pressured the American President John Kennedy to
Today, his bravery and passion to fight for what is right is what people remember the most of Martin Luther King. His determination and perseverance are rare qualities, but we hope that one day you would be able to defend for something that is right just like him.
segregation: the action or state of setting someone or something apart from others.