“Touching”.
Summary
This book is about Justyce, a boy with coloured skin who goes to an elite high school with a lot of white people. As an experiment, Justyce decides to write letters to Martin Luther King. One day, Justyce is unfairly arrested and realizes that people around him don’t see Justyce as a decent boy with good grades, all because of his skin colour. Justyce notices that he is constantly surrounded with racism and decides that he’s not gonna let it slide. This creates a number of encounters until everything becomes too much: Justyce witnesses a shooting.
Review
This is a story that should be read by everyone. This book discusses heavy but important topics that should be taken more seriously. Despite the fact that Justyce is hardworking and gets very good school results, he still gets treated differently by the people around him. As a reader, this makes you think, especially since this topic is now much more in the media.
I liked Nic Stone’s writing style, even though it was a bit confusing at times. Nic Stone sometimes switches perspectives and you also suddenly encounter the story in script form, which can cause a lot of confusion. I had to reread the time that this happened. I also thought that Nic Stone could have gone a little deeper into different topics. The book mostly focuses on the letters to Martin Luther King, but there are not that many letters were written.
Nic Stone’s books manage to engage readers with her important themes that should be discussed way more by many young people. This book certainly grabbed my attention.
Conclusion
A heavy story that should be read by many readers. I would definitely recommend this book to people who want to read more about racism and ethnic profiling. Also a recommended for fans of The Hate U Give.
| Product information |
| Written by: Nic Stone |
| Pages: 288 |
| Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers |
| ISBN: 9781101939499 |
| Interested? But it here! |