This children’s version of the autobiographic novel A Streetcat Named Bob tells a tale of social stratification and deep relationships between pets and humans. James is a homeless busker in London, trying to make ends meet. It is only when he meets the injured stray cat Bob and they stick together that James’ tale takes […]
An epistolary novel about bullying, violence and school shootings. When Brendan and Gary decide they had enough of humiliation at their high school, especially by the hands of the popular football players, they make plans to take revenge on their peers. Their plan goes awry, however, when they start taking hostages.
This is a story about family, loss, suppression and human trafficking: Rosa is living with her mother in Sheffield. When Rosa’s mother thinks about adopting a child, Rosa only slowly warms to the idea. Meanwhile, in an African village, Abela, an orphan from Tanzania is send by her uncle off to England, after her mother […]
A literary respone to the shootings of black teenagers Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown in the USA. In this fictional account, Tariq is 16 years old when he is shot by a white policeman, creating an uproar in his community. No two stories of the event match and so finding out what really happened that […]
A young adult novel about teenage boy Stanley Yelnats, who is sent to a juvenile corrections facility after being falsely accused of theft. At Camp Green Lake, the plot explores the background stories of different characters, touching on themes such as racism, homelessness and illiteracy. Two companion novels are available, Small Steps and Stanley Yelnat’s […]
A play about racism, prejudice, segregation and African American identity in the 1950s. Walter Younger lives with his family of five in a two-room apartment in Chicago’s south side. Walter’s mother is waiting for ten thousand dollars from his father’s life insurance and Walter would like to use that money to open a liquor store. […]
A family tragedy of disenfranchisement, idealism, race relations as well as broken dreams set in an ‘all-black’ neighbourhood in 1950’s Pittsburgh. Troy, who works as a garbage man, has a wife and two sons. They live in a house that Troy bought using the compensation money his brother received for being shot in the head […]
A novel about desire, sexuality, power and coming to terms with life’s adversities. The story is set in post-aphartheid South Africa: David Lurie works as a professor for English in Cape Town when an affair with one of his students costs him his job. Not only does he quit university but also living in the […]
A young adult novel revolving around prejudice, racism and discrimination in the USA. Justyce is top of his class in school and thought he had left his neighborhood behind but what he cannot shake off is the bitter reality of racist assaults on him by white police. When one day he draws the attention of […]
A short excerpt from Morrison’s novel God Help the Child on motherhood, prejudice, racism and discrimination. This short story elaborates on a mother and her difficulties raising a black child: How she thought she needed to be strict with her daughter and how this past behavior still keeps them estranged until the present day – […]
A tragic novel about love, the American dream, acceleration and unrelenting optimism. When narrator Nick moves to a prestigious community on Long Island (New York), he is soon introduced to his mysterious neighbor Jay Gatsby. Little is known about Mr Gatsby except that he is fabulously rich and regularly holds huge parties in his luxurious […]
An epistolary young adult fiction in form of a diary on identity – a story about navigating the world of peer pressure, friendship, teenage angst, love, heartbreak and of course high school. This novel revolves around Amelia ‘Mia’ Thermopolis, a teenager in New York who discovers that she is the princess of a small European […]
A children’s novel in the realm of realistic fiction on rebellion, family and growing up. Jake has been kicked out of every public school in Rhode Island, he burned down the last school that he attended. To avoid being put into a juvenile detention center, he is sent to a home-school run by an eccentric […]
A relentless exploration of racial prejudice and finding your voice as a young adult. 16-year-old Starr is a black student attending an elite school with a white majority, always carefully presenting herself in order to fit in. When her friend is accidentally shot by a police officer in front of her eyes, Starr is not […]
This dystopian novel leads the reader down a dark path towards the perils of religion and oppressive patriarchy. A religious shift in the US-American government calling itself the ‘Pure Movement’ results in women being stripped of their voices: Handcuffs every woman has to wear count their spoken words and if the daily number exceeds 100, […]
A story about the Troubles in Ireland and an unemployed teenager caught in a bloody conflict. Cal is a member of the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland. Like his peers, he goes to school but unlike his peers, he occasionally works as a driver for the Irish Republican Army IRA. This way he becomes complicit […]
A dystopian novel about conformity and otherness set in a world where every teenager is transformed from an “ugly” into a “pretty” with the help of extreme cosmetic surgery when they turn 16. 15-year-old Tally can’t wait, but her friends Shay and David show her the downsides of their society, which causes her to rebel. […]
The young wizard Harry broadens his knowledge and skills in the second volume of the Harry Potter series. Together with his friends Ron and Hermine, he critically investigates Hogwart’s history and the continuing conflict between students from Gryffindor and Slytherin – in which identity seems to play a major role.