With spring break right around the corner, many people are looking for something to do with their free time. In that case, I have a great book for you!

The Hate U Give is a young adult novel written by Angie Thomas. The book follows Starr Carter, a sixteen year old black girl from a town called Garden Heights. One night, Starr goes to a party and runs into her old friend Khalil. Garden Heights isn’t a very safe town, so when a gang fight breaks out at the party and gunshots are fired, the people are panicked, but not surprised. Starr and Khalil run and drive away together, unaware that Khalil has a broken taillight. Khalil is pulled over by a white police officer, who ends up shooting and killing Khalil and pointing his gun at Starr, despite the fact that they were both unarmed.

From then on, Starr struggles with speaking up, getting justice for Khalil, and finding her voice. Along the way, Starr deals with smaller conflicts such as interracial relationships, racist friends, helping her community out, and fitting in at a predominantly white school.

This book discusses many topics and has a lot of knowledge to offer to readers, especially readers that don’t have much exposure to racial diversity. Despite this book discussing some controversial topics like police brutality, I still recommend it because it contains many great themes that can open your eyes and give people something to relate to or learn from. The Hate U Give is also becoming a movie and is currently in post production. Expect to see this film hit theaters later this year!