RealLiterature: Home
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UW Tacoma is situated on the land of the Puyallup people. The UW Tacoma Library recognizes the Puyallup Tribe and its elders past and present for their ongoing efforts to sustain tribal sovereignty, preserve their culture, and care for this place.
Books
Books will be provided for students, on a first-come, first served basis. These are yours to keep and do not need to be returned at the end of the quarter. If there are books remaining, faculty and staff are welcome to them.
Other Book Clubs on Campus
Emerging Practices Reading Circle for UW Tacoma faculty. Collaboration with the Office of Research.
Staff Reads for UW Tacoma staff
Student Success Reading Group
If you are interested in learning about our work in creating this book club at UW Tacoma, please check out our Open Access book here.
About Real Lit[erature]
Inspired by the UW Tacoma Strategic Plan, the goals of the Real Lit[erature] are to create a greater awareness and discussion of the experiences that are being had by our students, staff, and community members. By interacting with narratives that reflect different experiences, it will provide opportunities to dialogue with peers about shared and disparate experiences. Additional benefits include creating community by reducing isolation, and enhancing campus education through peer-based discussion groups.
Note: Because of COVID-19, we have launched Real Lit Remote. For Spring 2020 and Summer 2020 quarters, all discussions will happen remotely, via Zoom.
AUT 2020
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Slay by A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2019! "Gripping and timely." --People "The YA debut we're most excited for this year." --Entertainment Weekly "A book that knocks you off your feet while dropping the kind of knowledge that'll keep you down for the count. Prepare to BE slain." --Nic Stone, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin and Odd One Out Ready Player One meets The Hate U Give in this dynamite debut novel that follows a fierce teen game developer as she battles a real-life troll intent on ruining the Black Panther-inspired video game she created and the safe community it represents for Black gamers. By day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the only Black kids at Jefferson Academy. But at home, she joins hundreds of thousands of Black gamers who duel worldwide as Nubian personas in the secret multiplayer online role-playing card game, SLAY. No one knows Kiera is the game developer, not her friends, her family, not even her boyfriend, Malcolm, who believes video games are partially responsible for the "downfall of the Black man." But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, news of the game reaches mainstream media, and SLAY is labeled a racist, exclusionist, violent hub for thugs and criminals. Even worse, an anonymous troll infiltrates the game, threatening to sue Kiera for "anti-white discrimination." Driven to save the only world in which she can be herself, Kiera must preserve her secret identity and harness what it means to be unapologetically Black in a world intimidated by Blackness. But can she protect her game without losing herself in the process?ISBN: 9781534445420Publication Date: 2019
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Fresh Ink by Careful--you are holding fresh ink. And not hot-off-the-press, still-drying-in-your-hands ink. Instead, you are holding twelve stories with endings that are still being written--whose next chapters are up to you. Because these stories are meant to be read. And shared. Thirteen of the most accomplished YA authors deliver a label-defying anthology that includes ten short stories, a graphic novel, and a one-act play. This collection will inspire you to break conventions, bend the rules, and color outside the lines. All you need is fresh ink.ISBN: 1524766283Publication Date: 2018-08-14
AUTHORS INCLUDE: Schuyler Bailar, Melissa de la Cruz, Sara Farizan, Sharon G. Flake, Eric Gansworth, Malindo Lo, Walter Dean Myers, Daniel José Older, Thien Pham, Jason Reynolds, Aminah Mae Safi, Gene Luen Yang, Nicola Yoon
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This Time Will Be Different by A Kirkus Reviews Best Book * A 2020 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection. Misa Sugiura delivers a richly crafted contemporary YA novel about family, community, and the importance of writing your own history.
Katsuyamas never quit--but seventeen-year-old CJ doesn't even know where to start. She's never lived up to her mom's type A ambition, and she's perfectly happy just helping her aunt, Hannah, at their family's flower shop. She doesn't buy into Hannah's romantic ideas about flowers and their hidden meanings, but when it comes to arranging the perfect bouquet, CJ discovers a knack she never knew she had. A skill she might even be proud of. Then her mom decides to sell the shop--to the family who swindled CJ's grandparents when thousands of Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during WWII. Soon a rift threatens to splinter CJ's family, friends, and their entire Northern California community; and for the first time, CJ has found something she wants to fight for.ISBN: 9780062473448Publication Date: 2019-06-04
Author information taken from author's website:
I was born in Chicago, Illinois to Japanese immigrants. We moved to the suburbs when I was three, and I grew up in an almost-all-white town and went to almost-all-white schools. It was actually a very nice life: there was a field with wild strawberries and a pony at the end of my street, and a pond across the street where we caught tadpoles in the summer and went ice skating in the winter. But as one of the only Asian kids in my school, I often felt like an outsider. Also, I was just a weird kid. I spent a lot of time with my head buried in a book, or just in my own imagination.
Speaking of books, I’ve loved reading for as long as I can remember; some of my earliest memories are of poring over the pictures in my Mother Goose nursery rhyme books that my mother read to me so that I would hear English and be ready for nursery school. In first grade, my childhood across-the-street friend introduced me to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series (which I remember with great fondness, though we now understand them to espouse problematic attitudes about Native Americans), Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends, E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web, Fred Gwynne’s A Chocolate Moose for Dinner, and to a lovely (now out of print and probably also problematic) book of verse by William Cole, entitled Beastly Boys and Ghastly Girls.
I loved writing, too. My first love was poetry because it was short and it demanded that I pay attention to word choice and rhythm, something I still love to work with when I write. I never wrote stories unless they were assigned, though I did start a chapter book with a friend in fourth or fifth grade; it was inspired by Mary Norton’s The Borrowers, and it was about a group of little dolls who come to life at night and have adventures. My alter ego was Emily, a smart, athletic, popular type with long blond braids and blue eyes, which should tell you quite a lot about who and what I longed to be.
There was a very long period (decades!) when I didn’t see myself as the creative writing type. That period began when I started focusing on taking the right classes to get into a good college and ended when I challenged myself to write a novel at age 46. You hear about writers and artists who say things like, “I write because I have to write. The story/poem demands to be written. The characters demand to be heard.” That has never been me. Ever. I have to choose to write, to force myself to think about who my characters are and what their story is.
Outside of writing, I’ve also always been a swimmer. I joined a swim team when I was eleven, and it took me all the way through college. After college, I went to Japan for three years to teach English at Kobe Jogakuin High School, and then returned to the U.S. to get a teaching certificate and a Masters degree in Education. I taught high school English for several years in Santa Clara, CA before I had kids, took a long hiatus, and decided to try writing a novel. Luckily for me, the author thing worked out, and here I am today, writing my very long bio!
Sessions happen via zoom Mondays and Thursdays.
Mondays
Apr 6, 2020 02:00 PM
Apr 13, 2020 02:00 PM
Apr 20, 2020 02:00 PM
Apr 27, 2020 02:00 PM
May 4, 2020 02:00 PM
May 11, 2020 02:00 PM
May 18, 2020 02:00 PM
May 25, 2020 02:00 PM
Thursdays
Apr 9, 2020 10:00 AM
Apr 16, 2020 10:00 AM
Apr 23, 2020 10:00 AM
Apr 30, 2020 10:00 AM
May 7, 2020 10:00 AM
May 14, 2020 10:00 AM
May 21, 2020 10:00 AM
May 28, 2020 10:00 AM
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The Poet X by ISBN: 0062662805Publication Date: 2018-03-06Winner of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Pura Belpré Award!
Elizabeth Acevedo is a New York Times bestselling author. She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. Acevedo has been a fellow of Cave Canem, Cantomundo, and a participant in the Callaloo Writer’s Workshops. She is a National Poetry Slam Champion, and resides in Washington, DC.
Real Lit[erature] Discussions
Winter Quarter 2020
UW Tacoma Library
All meetings take place in SNO 136 unless otherwise indicated.
SKYPE WITH AUTHOR ELIZABETH ACEVEDO!
When: January 15, 12:30-1:00
Where: UW Tacoma, Key 102
EVERYONE IS WELCOME!
Thursday, January 9, 2020
12:30-1:20 p.m.
Meet one another, get your book, read the community agreements, ask your questions
Thursday, January 16, 2020
12:30-1:20 p.m.
Discussion through to page 92
Thursday, January 30th, 2020
12:30-1:20 p.m.
Discussion through to page 181
Thursday, February 13, 2020
12:30-1:20 p.m.
Discussion through to page 270
Thursday, February 27, 2020
12:30-1:20 p.m.
Discussion through the end of the book
Find The Poet X at your local public library
Available in English in audiobook CD, book, eAudiobook, eBook, and large print. Also available in Spanish.
Hear from the author: Check out these videos!
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There There by "Not since Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine has such a powerful and urgent Native American voice exploded onto the landscape of contemporary fiction. Tommy Orange's There There introduces a brilliant new author at the start of a major career. "We all came to the powwow for different reasons. The messy, dangling threads of our lives got pulled into a braid--tied to the back of everything we'd been doing all along to get us here. There will be death and playing dead, there will be screams and unbearable silences, forever-silences, and a kind of time-travel, at the moment the gunshots start, when we look around and see ourselves as we are, in our regalia, and something in our blood will recoil then boil hot enough to burn through time and place and memory. We'll go back to where we came from, when we were people running from bullets at the end of that old world. The tragedy of it all will be unspeakable, that we've been fighting for decades to be recognized as a present-tense people, modern and relevant, only to die in the grass wearing feathers." Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame in Oakland. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life together after his uncle's death and has come to work the powwow and to honor his uncle's memory. Edwin Frank has come to find his true father. Bobby Big Medicine has come to drum the Grand Entry. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil Red Feather; Orvil has taught himself Indian dance through YouTube videos, and he has come to the Big Oakland Powwow to dance in public for the very first time. Tony Loneman is a young Native American boy whose future seems destined to be as bleak as his past, and he has come to the Powwow with darker intentions--intentions that will destroy the lives of everyone in his path. Fierce, angry, funny, groundbreaking--Tommy Orange's first novel is a wondrous and shattering portrait of an America few of us have ever seen. There There is a multi-generational, relentlessly paced story about violence and recovery, hope and loss, identity and power, dislocation and communion, and the beauty and despair woven into the history of a nation and its people. A glorious, unforgettable debut"
"Not since Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine has such a powerful and urgent Native American voice exploded onto the landscape of contemporary fiction. Tommy Orange's There There introduces a brilliant new author at the start of a major career. "We all came to the powwow for different reasons. The messy, dangling threads of our lives got pulled into a braid--tied to the back of everything we'd been doing all along to get us here. There will be death and playing dead, there will be screams and unbearable silences, forever-silences, and a kind of time-travel, at the moment the gunshots start, when we look around and see ourselves as we are, in our regalia, and something in our blood will recoil then boil hot enough to burn through time and place and memory. We'll go back to where we came from, when we were people running from bullets at the end of that old world. The tragedy of it all will be unspeakable, that we've been fighting for decades to be recognized as a present-tense people, modern and relevant, only to die in the grass wearing feathers." Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame in Oakland. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life together after his uncle's death and has come to work the powwow and to honor his uncle's memory. Edwin Frank has come to find his true father. Bobby Big Medicine has come to drum the Grand Entry. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil Red Feather; Orvil has taught himself Indian dance through YouTube videos, and he has come to the Big Oakland Powwow to dance in public for the very first time. Tony Loneman is a young Native American boy whose future seems destined to be as bleak as his past, and he has come to the Powwow with darker intentions--intentions that will destroy the lives of everyone in his path. Fierce, angry, funny, groundbreaking--Tommy Orange's first novel is a wondrous and shattering portrait of an America few of us have ever seen. There There is a multi-generational, relentlessly paced story about violence and recovery, hope and loss, identity and power, dislocation and communion, and the beauty and despair woven into the history of a nation and its people. A glorious, unforgettable debut" -A Junior Library Guild selection (JLG.)Call Number: PS 3615 .R32 T48 2018ISBN: 9780525520375Publication Date: 2018-06-05
Tommy Orange is a graduate of the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. An enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, he was born and raised in Oakland, California.
Tacoma Reads: Discussion with Tommy Orange
Friday, September 20 at 6:30 p.m.
Rialto Theater
Free registration required
Real Lit[erature] Discussions TBA
Fall Quarter 2019
UW Tacoma Library
Tacoma Reads
This fall the UW Tacoma Library and Center for Equity & Inclusion's Real Lit[erature] diversity book club will participate in Tacoma Reads, a local community reading program that seeks to unite the community in dialogue around contemporary themes through reading a common text.
Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes
Author Tommy Orange is a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, a united Nation of two tribes with distinct cultures, traditions, social dances, ceremonies, and languages.
Find There, There at your local public library
Available in English in audiobook CD, book, eAudiobook, eBook, and large print.
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Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He's about to take his first-ever trip to Iran, and it's pretty overwhelming-especially when he's also dealing with clinical depression, a disapproving dad, and a chronically anemic social life. In Iran, he gets to know his ailing but still formidable grandfather, his loving grandmother, and the rest of his mom's family for the first time. And he meets Sohrab, the boy next door who changes everything. Sohrab makes sure people speak English so Darius can understand what's going on. He gets Darius an Iranian National Football Team jersey that makes him feel like a True Persian for the first time. And he understand that sometimes, best friends don't have to talk. Darius has never had a true friend before, but now he's spending his days with Sohrab playing soccer, eating rosewater ice cream, and sitting together for hours in their special place, a rooftop overlooking the Yazdi skyline. Sohrab calls him Darioush-the original Persian version of his name-and Darius has never felt more like himself than he does now that he's Darioush to Sohrab. When it's time to go home to America, he'll have to find a way to be Darioush on his own.Call Number: PZ7.1.K5362 Dar 2018ISBN: 9780525552963Publication Date: 2018-08-28
Adib Khorram is the author of Darius the Great is Not Okay. If he's not writing (or at his day job as a graphic designer), you can probably find him trying to get his 100-yard Freestyle under a minute, learning to do a Lutz Jump, or steeping a cup of oolong. He lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where people don't usually talk about themselves in the third person. You can find him on Twitter (@adibkhorram), Instagram (@adibkhorram), or on the web at adibkhorram.com.
Awards for Darius the Great is Not Okay
- 2019 William C. Morris YA Debut Award
- 2019 Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature
- 31st annual Lambda Literary Award Finalist
- 2019 YALSA Best Fiction For Young Adults Top 10
- Publishers Weekly Flying Start
- 2018 TIME‘s 10 Best Young Adult and Children’s Books of the Year
- Boston Globe Best Children's Books of 2018
- Wall Street Journal Children's Books: Best of 2018
- BuzzFeed Best YA Books of 2018
- Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year
- Kirkus Best Books of the Year
- New York Public Library’s Best Books of the Year
- Book Expo Young Adult Buzz Panel Selection
- Indies Introduce Selection
- Indie Next Top Ten Pick
Thursday, April 4, 2019
12:30-1:20 p.m.
SNO 270 (Chihuly Room)
Meet one another, get your book, read the community agreements, ask your questions!
Thursday, April 11, 2019
12:30-1:20 p.m.
SNO 270 (Chihuly Room)
Discussion through to page 71
Thursday, April 25, 2019
12:30-1:20 p.m.
SNO 270 (Chihuly Room)
Discussion through to page 159
Thursday, May 9, 2019
12:30-1:20 p.m.
SNO 270 (Chihuly Room)
Discussion through to page 239
Thursday, May 16, 2019
12:30-1:20 p.m.
SNO 270 (Chihuly Room)
Discussion through to the end of the book
Thursday, May 23, 2019
12:30-1:20 p.m.
SNO 136 (Library 1st Floor)
Skype discussion with author Adib Khorram
Counseling services
UW Tacoma offers free counseling to currently-enrolled UW Tacoma students and consultation to faculty and staff. Visit the Student Counseling Center website for more information: tacoma.uw.edu/studentcounseling​
Discussion Questions & Prompts
Handouts
Find Darius the Great is Not Okay at your local library:
Print, English: King County Library System | Pierce County Library System | Tacoma Public Library
CD audiobook, English: King County Library System
eBook, English: Pierce County Library System | King County Library System | Tacoma Public Library
eAudiobook, English: King County Library System
How to get a public library card: King County Library System | Pierce County Library System | Tacoma Public Library
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The 57 Bus by Stonewall Book Award Winner--Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children's & Young Adult Literature Award YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist One teenager in a skirt. One teenager with a lighter. One moment that changes both of their lives forever. If it weren't for the 57 bus, Sasha and Richard never would have met. Both were high school students from Oakland, California, one of the most diverse cities in the country, but they inhabited different worlds. Sasha, a white teen, lived in the middle-class foothills and attended a small private school. Richard, a black teen, lived in the crime-plagued flatlands and attended a large public one. Each day, their paths overlapped for a mere eight minutes. But one afternoon on the bus ride home from school, a single reckless act left Sasha severely burned, and Richard charged with two hate crimes and facing life imprisonment. The case garnered international attention, thrusting both teenagers into the spotlight.Call Number: HV6618 .S56 2017ISBN: 9780374303235Publication Date: 2017-10-17
Dashka Slater has written many books, including Escargot which won the Wanda Gag Book Award, Baby Shoes, The Antlered Ship, which was a Junior Library Guild Selection and received four starred reviews, and Dangerously Ever After. Her non-fiction young adult novel The 57 Bus won the Stonewall Book Award and was a YALSA finalist. She lives in California. Find her at dashkaslater.com.
Thursday, January 17, 2019
12:30-1:20 p.m.
SNO 270 (Chihuly Room)
DISCUSSION GROUP
Part 1: Sasha
Discussion theme: Gender identity
Thursday, January 31, 2019
12:30-1:20 p.m.
SNO 270 (Chihuly Room)
DISCUSSION GROUP
Part 2: Richard
Discussion theme: Hate crimes and bias
Thursday, February 14, 2019
12:30-1:20 p.m.
SNO 270 (Chihuly Room)
DISCUSSION GROUP
Part 3: The Fire
Discussion theme: Restorative justice and criminal justice/prison-industrial complex
Thursday, February 28, 2019
12:30-1:20 p.m.
SNO 270 (Chihuly Room)
DISCUSSION GROUP
Part 4: Justice
Discussion theme: Support and allyship
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
12:30-1:20 p.m.
SNO 136
SKYPE CALL WITH AUTHOR DASHKA SLATER
Pronouns: What are pronouns and why are they important?
UW Tacoma Center for Equity & Inclusion
Imagining Transgender 'Inclusion' in Libraries
by Sunny Kim, Micah Kehrein, Reed Garber-Pearson, and Bean Yogi
Presentation at 2017 WLA Conference, November 2017
Pro/Con: Can restorative justice help victims and rehabilitate criminals?
by Christina L. Lyons
"Restorative Justice" in CQ Researcher
Find The 57 Bus at your local library:
Print, English: King County Library System | Pierce County Library System | Tacoma Public Library
Print, English, large print: King County Library System
eBook, English: Pierce County Library System | King County Library System
Audiobook, English: King County Library System
How to get a public library card: King County Library System | Pierce County Library System | Tacoma Public Library
Part 1: Sasha
- Was there anything that surprised you in the list on page 47? Any new terms or concepts?
- Thinking about your own issues of identity (culture, religion, gender, etc.) how does it feel to be identified correctly? Is it validating?
- Being misgendered is frequently felt as a microaggression. Have you experienced microaggressions?
A microaggression is a term used for brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioural, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative prejudicial slights and insults toward any group. (Wikipedia) - The book shares two experiences had by Sasha’s parents surrounding sexuality and gender roles. What role do you think these experiences play in the narrative?
- Andrew and Sasha have different experiences with how their gender identity is perceived by their community, and how they choose to share their identity with others. Why do you think it was important to hear about Andrew’s experience? Did you like that “balance?”
- “Surely it is not too late to stop things from going wrong. There must be some way to wake Sasha. Divert Richard. Get the driver to stop the bus. There must be something you can do.”
Describe your reaction to this scene, which foreshadows events that we know are going to happen. What is the role of the bystander? What is Dashka Slater advocating for? - What did you think of the card game created and played by Sasha and their friends? What do you think this game means? How does this game tie to concepts of identity and/or rigid structures? What card would you add to the game?
Part 2: Richard
- Bias is a big topic that comes into play in both Sasha and Richard’s narratives. What struck you about the bias that each face, now that we have both of their backstories? What is common, what is different? How does bias affect them, how does it shape their experiences and narratives? How does bias act differently when it is racial versus gender, or does it?
- At the very start of the book, you got a glimpse of the incident that is going to be discussed in the next section, the fire. You already know that it is going to be labeled as a hate crime. What do you know about hate crimes? What is your understanding of how hate crimes are handled differently than other types of violent crime?
- What are different models of hate crime legislation that you are aware of? -- I agree, it is a vital question, and interesting in light of some international students who are present. What are methods of asking without setting up the possibility of feeling attacked?
- Circling back to the discussion from Part 1 about the passage about there being something you can do, how do you interpret that now that we have Richard’s backstory. Has your interpretation or ideas about this passage changed? What would you do?
- The role of mentors/allies/advocates in one’s life is a theme that emerges from Richard’s narratives. What sort of mentorship have you experienced, and how did it impact your life? What are the ramifications of Richard experiencing advocacy as a teenager?
- How should we think about these acts of violence when the perpetrators are teenagers? Based on Richard’s narrative and what we’ve seen about him so far, do you think he was acting out of hate? What role does intent have versus identity?
Part 3: The Fire
- What struck you about the fire?
- We see strong parallels in the way that people in both Richard’s and Sasha’s lives find out about the fire--absentia from school, a network of phone calls. Did anything surprise you about the responses people had to the fire?
- “Studies show that more than 90 percent of juveniles who are interrogated by the police don’t wait to talk to an attorney and don’t understand the rights police have read them.”
What are your thoughts on the interrogation that Richard faced? - The book spends a lot of time on binaries: the way the world is structurally divided into female/male, and how these structures do not make sense, especially for someone like Sasha. But there are also glaring binaries in our criminal justice system—things are either legal or illegal, you’re either a victim or an offender. What do you think about this way of thinking about people who have committed a crime?
- What did you think of Richard’s letters? Restorative justice processes ask perpetrators to speak with their victims in order to cultivate empathy and understanding about their actions. Richard wrote these letters on his own, without the request of a judge or court. How does that make you think about restorative justice and criminal justice?
- The chapter presents a tension between standing up against bullying and hatred, and showing compassion and empathy for Richard. Do you think that this dichotomy is accurate? Is it fair? Can you be both against hatred and bullying, but also be compassionate and try to understand the other side?
Part 4: Justice
- How do you define allyship? What does it mean to you? How did you see allyship reflected in this story?
- Debbie reacts to the hugs from Richard’s family: “It was good. I’m really glad. It was worth coming here today just for that” (“Always Okay,” p. 240). This is a departure from “Not Ready” when “it was just too soon. [Debbie] needed more time [before she could meet with Jasmine]” (p. 237).
Jasmine broke through a boundary that began some emotional healing. Reflect on the expected power dynamics of creating positive change: could we have anticipated that the “criminal’s” family could get the ball rolling? - Richard’s lawyer held onto the letters he wrote to Sasha until after the sentencing. Sasha and their family read them, they felt differently about the sentencing and came to Richard’s resentencing to advocate for leniency. What are your thoughts on this? How might the outcome have changed had those letters made it to Sasha earlier?
- Do you think there is a tension between being an ally to Sasha or being an ally to Richard? Is it possible to be both? Is there a false dichotomy? Think about Richard’s friends’ experience at Oakland High, and about Sasha’s family’s experience after receiving Richard’s letters. Is allyship singular, multifaceted, intersectional, etc? How do you approach allyship in your life?
- What do you wish allyship in this story had looked like? What did you want to change? What did you want done differently?
- What did you think of the ending of the book? Dashka Slater ended this narrative with a list of milestones for gender identities and a list of statistics about incarcerated youth of color. What was your reaction to these lists?
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The Hate U Give by Eight Starred Reviews! #1 New York Times Bestseller! "Absolutely riveting!" —Jason Reynolds "Stunning." —John Green "This story is necessary. This story is important." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Heartbreakingly topical." —Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A marvel of verisimilitude." —Booklist (starred review) "A powerful, in-your-face novel." —The Horn Book (starred review) Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.Call Number: PZ7.1.T448 Hat 2017ISBN: 9780062498533Publication Date: 2017
Angie Thomas was born, raised, and still lives in Jackson, Mississippi. A former teen rapper, she holds a BFA in creative writing from Belhaven University. Her award-winning, acclaimed debut novel, The Hate U Give, is a #1 New York Times bestseller and major motion picture from Fox 2000, starring Amandla Stenberg and directed by George Tillman, Jr. Her second novel, On the Come Up, is on sale now.
Subject Librarian
Values: Black Lives Matter
We at the UW Tacoma Library stand in solidarity with our Black community and other communities of color. We condemn police brutality. We are committed to doing the anti-racist work that needs to be done — including dismantling the ways libraries, universities, and our own institution have been complicit in anti-blackness and institutionalized racism.
To read more, please see our blog.