Books you need to read after watching The Hate U Give
10 YA Must Reads If You Loved The Hate U Give
Angie Thomas’s critically acclaimed, New York Times best-selling novel, ‘The Hate U Give‘, has been described as “A classic of our time” and there’s good reason why. It’s gut-wrenching, important, poignant, raw, honest and beautifully written. With wonderful characters and a plot packed with issues painfully prominent in today’s society, it’s not surprising ‘The Hate U Give’ has taken the world by storm. This October the movie adaptation for ‘The Hate U Give’, a Black Lives Matter inspired novel, will be released. With a star-studded cast including Amandla Stenberg (Everything, Everything, The Hunger Games), Regina Hall (Girls Trip), Russell Hornsby (Seven Seconds), Anthony Mackie (Avengers: Infinity War), Issa Rae (Insecure), Sabrina Carpenter (Girl Meets World) and K.J. App (Riverdale), the movie is certain to pack as big a punch as the book did. If you haven’t read Angie Thomas’s original novel, please do so, you won’t regret it. However, if watching The Hate U Give leaves you craving another powerful read, here are ten YA novels that will undoubtedly help quench your appetite.
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
After he’s arrested for no good reason, perfect student Justyce McAllister is the talk of the school but things go from bad to worse when Justyce is driving with his best friend, Manny, and a off duty white police officer finds their music offensive. Both words and gun shots are fired, with Justyce and Manny caught in the cross fire. In the media fallout, it’s Justyce who’s under attack. In search of answers, Justyce starts a journal, penning letters to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who’s teachings he’s turned to in the hopes that they’ll help him figure things out.
The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon
Natasha’s family are twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica when she meets Daniel on a crowded New York street. She’s a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate, not destiny and definitely not dreams that come true.
Daniel’s a poet and a dreamer, not that he share those things. He’s spent his life living up to his parents high expectations, always the good son and perfect student. But when he see’s Natasha, he forgets all that. Something about her makes him think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store. Natasha and Daniel find themselves swept away, holding onto time as each second that passes, is a second closer to Natasha leaving the country.
Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
Monday Charles is missing, and only Claudia, her best friend, seems to notice. But when Monday’s family refuse to give Claudia a straight answer as to what’s happened, she takes things into her own hands, refusing to believe a teenage girl just vanish without anyone noticing she’s gone.
Pride by Ibi Zoboi
This modern day Pride & Prejudice retelling follows Zuri Benitez, a young Afro-Latino girl who has pride in her family, her roots and her Brooklyn home. But pride might not be enough to save her rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood from becoming unrecognisable.
When the wealthy Darcy family moves in across the street, Zuri wants nothing to do with their two teenage sons, especially the judgemental and arrogant Darius.
But with four sisters pulling her in different directions, cute boy Warren vying for her attention, and college applications looming, Zuri fights to find her place in Bushwick’s changing landscape, or lose it all.
Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson
Jade’s taken every opportunity to get out of her neighbourhood, a place she believes she must escape if she’s ever going to succeed. She accepted a scholarship to a mostly-white private school. She even accepted an invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for ‘at risk’ girls, which in reality turned out to be for black girls, from ‘bad’ neighbourhoods.
But just because her mentor is black doesn’t mean she understands Jade and her experiences, so Jade turns to her art to show these successful women how to make a real difference in the real world.
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds
All American Boys follows Rashad, a black kid attacked by a cop for buying chips, and Quinn, the white kid who saw it all. When the incident goes nationwide, Quinn slowly begins to truly understand the importance of what he saw that day and has to decide whether to come clean about seeing his best friends brother beat up his classmate, thus exposing the systematic prejudice writhe in his community.
Finding Yvonne by Brandy Colbert
With graduation just around the corner, Yvonne is forced to face the truth that, despite having played the violin since she was seven years old, she might not be talented enough to attend a conservatory after high school.
Full of doubt about her future, the mother who left their family and her relationship with her father, Yvonne meets a street musician and fellow violinist who understands her struggle. He’s the complete opposite from Warren, the familiar and reliable boy who has her heart. But when Yvonne becomes pregnant, she has to face a difficult, life changing decision.
Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles
When Marvin Johnson decides to tag along to a party with his twin, Tyler, he expects to return home with him too. Then party is raided by cops and shots are fired and Marvin’s alone.
Then Tyler is found dead and a video leaked online tells the chilling truth: Tyler was shot and killed by a police officer. Terrified as his mother unravels and his brother becomes yet another hashtag, Marvin struggles to understand what justice and freedom really mean in todays society.
How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon
Sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson dies from two gunshot wounds.
Tariq was black. The shooter, Jack Franklin, is white.
Everyone in Tariq’s community has something to say about it, but no two accounts of the event line up and as time passes, the truth is further obscured.
Tariq’s friends, family, and community struggle to make sense of the tragedy as they grapple for a way to say with certainty: This is how it went down.
On The Come Up by Angie Thomas
Although not releasing until February 2019, it would be foolish not to mention Angie Thomas’s incredible sounding second novel, On The Come Up.
Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least make it out of her neighborhood one day. As the daughter of an underground rap legend who died before he hit big, Bri’s got big shoes to fill. But now that her mom has unexpectedly lost her job, food banks and shutoff notices are as much a part of Bri’s life as beats and rhymes. With bills piling up and homelessness staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it—she has to make it.