THUG Life and Ghost Boys

 I know I am totally late in the game, but I finally managed to pick up The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.  It was sitting in my bookshelf for months when I finally decided that it was time to read it.  And yes, I admit that the fact that the movie is coming out soon encouraged me to choose it over something else!

I'm not going to go too much into what the book is about.  Most of you already know!  All I can say is that I don't think I was fully prepared for what The Hate U Give was going to dish out.  Being used to middle grade books, where everything wraps up into a neat little package, THUG didn't quite do that.  We are given answers, but I still had questions.  Ain't that the way life is...

Months before I read THUG, I read Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes.  It's along the same lines, but this is a book geared toward middle grades.   A young black kid named Jerome is shot and killed by a white police officer who mistook a toy gun for a real one.  Jerome comes back as a ghost and meets Emmett Till, who guides Jerome through his life story in order to prevent history from repeating itself.  The twist in the story is that Jerome can be seen by someone living.  Another young person whose life is affected by Jerome's death.  Sarah, the daughter of the white police officer, can see Jerome.  

And so, we have a very complex story about some very serious, very real current events.  

I loved Ghost Boys and so did my youngest, Sophie.  The book made her critically think about the world around her.  She, being 12 years old, is the same age as Jerome when he was killed.  The fact that something similar could happen to her is jolting.  But the difference for me between Ghost Boys and The Hate U Give, was that I still felt uneasy when I finished THUG.  Why is that?

After a long time of processing what I'd read, I resigned to the fact that The Hate U Give is a book for young adults.  It is meant for you to continue asking questions about what you've read.  I suppose I've spent so much time reading middle grade books, that I was looking for that firm closure.  

The main question that kept me thinking was whether or not Officer One-Fifteen felt any remorse for his actions.  How did his life change?  Did he have a family that was affected?  I won't get answers to these questions because this is Starr's story and no one else.  But they are things to think about either way.  The bigger picture...  What can we learn by looking beyond the headlines?

I would LOVE to start a Project LIT program at my kids school!

Our young adults need books like The Hate U Give.  They need to ask themselves questions about the world around them.  They need to look at the bigger picture.  They need to know that there are many sides to one story.  They need to speak up, to have a voice.  They need to read books outside of their comfort zone.  They need to know that there are books about kids like them.  They need more diverse books.

Obviously I need to expand my kid lit to include more young adult.  After all, these are the books that my own kids are reading.  I've already added to my bookshelf One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus, They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera, and Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. I know that each one of these books will keep me guessing, keep me questioning, and keep me engaged.