The Hate U Give

…lists with her debut novel, The Hate U Give (2017), a powerful story about a teenage girl who must navigate between the different social codes of her poor Black neighborhood and her wealthy, mostly white private school. The novel confronted timely issues such as privilege and police brutality.

The Hate U Give grew out of a short story that Thomas wrote as a student in 2009 following the killing of Oscar Grant. The unarmed 22-year-old African American man was fatally shot in the back by a white police officer on a Bay Area…