Thank you Angie Thomas for writing this book! It is exactly what America needs. Like any book that completely awes me, this has sat on my currently reading shelf despite the fact I finished it months ago. I get nervous when I try to review books that are so important and sooo good! The thing that I really loved about this book is how well-balanced it is. There are cops who are racist and unnecessarily violent, there are cops who are genuinely trying to do the right thing. There are good families in bad neighborhoods, there are bad families in bad neighborhoods. There are racists who will attack and even kill someone because of the color of that persons skin, there are racist who would never think of being so violent but are just as hateful with their voices. Every side of this story has an equal and opposite side in this story and it is just incredible that anyone was able to do that so well.

I am white. I went to school in a predominately white town. My school was full of Haileys, my town was full of Haileys. I wish I had had this book to hand out to anyone who ever thought I was "uptight" because I wasn't laughing at their racist "joke" or told me to "lighten up" when I refused to hang out with someone who was always making racist comments. I think if they knew that black people still have to struggle then they wouldn't have thought what they were saying was funny or harmless. They never understood that even though we don't have (openly) segregated schools anymore, even though slavery is illegal now, racism is still a huge problem and it effects people every day. This book approaches the issues from so many different angles that I don't think it would put off anyone that thinks like that, and I am sure this story will change the minds of many people who do.