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American Road Narratives: Reimagining Mobility in Literature and Film by Ann Brigham
Author: A True Story by Helen Lester
The Big Roads by Earl Swift
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Chopping Spree by Diane Mott Davidson
The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman
Giant Days, Volume 4 by John Allison, Max Sarin, and Whitney Cogar
Hannah and the Homunculus by Kurt Hassler
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Hilda and the Stone Forest by Luke Pearson
I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett
I Say Tomato by Katie Wall
Instructions by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess
Jem and the Holograms, Volume 3: Dark Jem by Kelly Thompson
The Long Cosmos by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran
Lunch Lady and the Field Trip Fiasco by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Mayday by Karen Harrington
The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill
Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson
National Audubon Society Guide to Landscape Photography by Tim Fitzharris
Needled to Death by Maggie Sefton
Noragami Volume 03 by Adachitoka
Over the Ocean by Taro Gomi
Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman
Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel
Ten Things We Did by Sarah Mlynowski
Tip of the Tongue by Patrick Ness
Triangle by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen
Tru & Nelle by G. Neri
The White Road of the Moon by Rachel Neumeier

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 03)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 10)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 24)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 31)
June 2017 Reading Report June 2017 Reading Sources

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The Hate U Give: 07/22/17

The Hate U Give  by Angie Thomas

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas as of writing this review has nearly thirty-thousand ratings on GoodReads. It's one of the breakout hits of 2017. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement on Twitter and Tumblr, this book covers the way the police killing of a black teen tears apart a neighborhood, starting with Starr, who was in the car when it happened.

While it's Khalil who pays the ultimate price — being shot while reaching for his comb during a traffic stop — it's Starr who will be dogged by the fact that she was a witness and a friend. Starr, like her uncle, lives in two worlds — her working class, primarily black neighborhood — and her primarily white, wealthy, private school. She lives her life always aware of where she is — code shifting — being as formal and proper as possible at school and among her classmates, and being less formal with her friends, family, and neighborhood. It's something everyone does — but when you're ______ while Black, it's a survival skill.

What struck me most about The Hate U Give was how active Starr is on Tumblr. Thomas, who is active on both platforms, is the first author I've read who realistically portrays the online/offline culture of both. Actual threads, campaigns, and memorials are mentioned in the book. This book is very much grounded in the time in which it's written, in the same way that Towers Falling is.

I hope The Hate U Give ends up on school curricula across the country. It needs to be read. It needs to be discussed. I also look forward to whatever else Angie Thomas might write.

Five stars

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