NO.

1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

THE HATE U GIVE

READING GUIDE
“ANGIE THOMAS HAS WRITTEN A
STUNNING, BRILLIANT, GUT-WRENCHING
NOVEL THAT WILL BE REMEMBERED
AS A CLASSIC OF OUR TIME.”
John Green, author of
The Fault in Our Stars

“THE HATE U GIVE IS GOING TO BE ONE OF

THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS OF 2017.
NO HYPERBOLE, JUST FACTS.”
Nikesh Shukla,
editor of The Good Immigrant

ABOUT THE BOOK

9781406372151 • £7.99 • Paperback
For readers aged 14+ • eBook available Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor
To be published on 6 April 2017 neighbourhood where she was born and raised and her
posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance
between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness
to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil,
by a police officer. Now what Starr says could destroy
her community. It could also get her killed. Inspired by
the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and
gripping YA novel about one girl’s struggle for justice.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ANGIE THOMAS is an exciting and powerful new
voice in YA fiction. She was born, raised, and still lives
in Jackson, Mississippi. She studied Creative Writing
at Belhaven University, where she was one of the only
black students — a theme which she visits in The Hate
U Give. A former teen rapper, she won the inaugural
Walter Dean Myers Grant awarded by the
We Need Diverse Books campaign.

The Hate U Give is her first novel. You can find her on
Twitter @acthomasbooks.

Photo by Anissa Hidouk

#TheHateUGive • @acthomasbooks • @WalkerBooksUK

BOOK TALK
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter is thrust into the national spotlight after her childhood friend is killed by a
white police officer after a routine traffic stop. As she works through her grief and her relationships with
family and friends, she must navigate the vastly different worlds of her suburban private school and her
poor, urban neighbourhood. This gripping debut novel by Angie Thomas echoes conversations about
police brutality dominant in the news and moves readers beyond Twitter hashtags. Readers will feel
energized to promote and advance social justice against police brutality and racism.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. As Starr and Khalil listen to Tupac, Khalil explains ablaze at the police precinct . . . A gas station near
what Tupac said “Thug Life” meant. Discuss the the freeway gets looted . . . My neighbourhood is
meaning of the term “Thug Life” as an acronym and a war zone” (Chapter 9, p. 138). Respond to this
why the author might have chosen part of this as development and describe some parallels to current
the title of the book. In what ways do you see this in events.
society today? (Chapter 1, p. 21)
6. How do you think Starr would define family? What
2. Chapter 2 begins with Starr flashing back to two about Seven? How do you define it?
talks her parents had with her when she was young.
One was about sex (“the usual birds and bees”). The 7. Chris and Starr have a breakthrough in their
second was about what precautions to take when relationship – Starr admits to him that she was in
encountering a police officer (Chapter 2, p. 24). the car with Khalil and shares the memories of
Have you had a similar conversation about what Natasha’s murder (Chapter 17, pp. 296–301).
to do when stopped by the police? Reflect upon or Discuss why Starr’s admission and releasing of this
imagine this conversation. burden to Chris is significant. Explore the practice of
“code switching” and discuss how you might code
3. Thomas frequently uses motifs of silence and voice switch in different circumstances in your own life.
throughout the book. Find instances in the book
where silence or voice and speech are noted, 8. How and why does the neighbourhood react to the
and talk about the author’s possible intentions for grand jury’s decision (Chapter 23)? How does Starr
emphasizing these motifs. use her voice as a weapon, and why does she feel
that it is vital that she does? Refer back to “Thug
4. At the police station after Starr details the events Life” and discuss how the acronym resonates in this
leading up to the shooting, the detective shifts her chapter.
focus to Khalil’s past. Why do you think the detective
did this? Discuss Starr’s reaction to this “bait” 9. Starr pledges to “never be quiet” (Chapter 26,
(Chapter 6, pp. 103–104). p. 438). After reading this book, how can you use
your voice to promote and advance social justice?
5. Once news of Khalil’s shooting spreads across the Reflect on how you and your community discuss and
neighbourhood, unrest arises: “Sirens wail outside. address inequality.
The news shows three patrol cars that have been set

#TheHateUGive • @acthomasbooks • @WalkerBooksUK

AUTHOR ANGIE THOMAS’S   “He was resisting.”
  “I heard he was an ex-con and a drug dealer.”
INSPIRATION FOR THE BOOK   “He had it coming. Why are people so mad?”
  “They were just doing their job.”
I remember the first time I saw Emmett Louis Till.   I hate to admit it, but I still remained silent.
  I couldn’t have been more than eight years old. I came   I was hurt, no doubt. And angry. Frustrated. Straight-up
across his photo in a Jet magazine that marked the anniversary pissed. I knew plenty of Oscars. I grew up with them and I was
of his death. At the time I was convinced he wasn’t real, or at friends with them. This was like being told that they deserved to
least that he wasn’t a person. What was supposed to be his die.
face was mutilated beyond recognition. He looked more like   As the unrest took place in Oakland, I wondered how my
a prop from a movie to me; a monster from some over-the-top community would react if that happened to one of our Oscars.
horror flick. I also wondered if my classmates would make the same
  But he was a person, a boy, and his story was a cautionary comments if I became an Oscar. I wasn’t an ex-con or a drug
tale, even for a black girl in Mississippi who was born more dealer, but I was from a neighborhood they were afraid to visit.
than three decades after he died. “Know your worth,” my mom They once jokingly said it was full of criminals, not knowing
would say, “but also know that not everyone values you as that’s where I lived until months later.
much as I do.”   From all of those questions and emotions, The Hate U Give
  Still, Emmett wasn’t real to me. There was no way I’d ever was born.
have to worry about anything like that happening to me or   I’ve always told stories. When I can’t find a way to say the
to someone I knew. Things had changed, even in Mississippi, words out loud, I create characters who do it for me. The Hate
which is unfortunately more known for its racism than anything U Give started as a short story my senior year. It was cathartic
else. Nobody ever told me to sit on the back of the bus or at the time, and I thought I was done telling Starr and Khalil’s
made me drink from a “Colored” fountain. I never saw a KKK story because I foolishly hoped Oscar wouldn’t happen again.
member. I had never been called nigger. Emmett and the stories   But then there was Trayvon. Michael. Eric. Tamir. There were
of his time were history. The present had its own problems. more conversations just like the ones I heard at school but on
  I grew up in a neighborhood that’s notorious for all the a wider scale. Politicians and officials echoed my classmates,
wrong reasons: drug dealers, shootings, crime, insert other which led to more anger and disappointment for me, my peers,
“ghetto” stereotypes here. I wasn’t worried about the KKK and the kids in my neighborhood who saw themselves in those
wandering onto my street; I was more worried about the gentlemen. In the midst of it, three words suddenly created a
gunshots I heard at night. Yet, while those things were daily variety of reactions whenever uttered: Black Lives Matter.
threats, they were slightly outweighed by the good – the things   I did the only thing I knew how to do: I expressed my feelings
you wouldn’t see unless you lived there. My neighbors were through story, in hopes that I would give a voice to every kid
family. The neighborhood drug dealer was a superhero who who feels the same way I do. As we witness injustice, prejudice,
gave kids money for snacks and beat up pedophiles who tried and racism rear their ugly heads again in this political climate
to snatch little girls off the street. The cops could be superheroes both in the US and abroad, I think it’s even more important to
too, but I was taught at a young age to be “mindful” around let young people know that they aren’t alone in their frustration,
them. So were my friends. We’d all heard stories, and though fear, anger, and sadness. We must also provide glimmers of
they didn’t come with mutilated photos, they were realer than light in the midst of the darkness. I hope that I’ve done that.
Emmett.   But my ultimate hope is that every single person who reads
  But just like Emmett, I remember the first time I saw the video The Hate U Give walks away from it understanding those
of Oscar Grant. feelings and sharing them in some way. And then, maybe then,
  I was a transfer student in my first year at the fine arts Emmett Louis Till can truly become history.
college I’d later graduate from. It was in a nicer part of town
than where I lived, but only ten minutes away from it, and it
was very, very white. A majority of the time I was the only
black student in my creative writing classes. I did everything
I could so no one would label me as the “black girl from the
hood.” I would leave home, blasting Tupac, but by the time I
arrived to pick up a friend, I was listening to the Jonas Brothers.
I kept quiet whenever race came up in discussions, despite
the glances I’d get because as the “token black girl,” I was
expected to speak.
  But Oscar did something to me. Suddenly, Emmett wasn’t
history. Emmett was still reality.
  The video was shocking for multiple reasons, one being
that someone actually caught it on tape. This was undeniable
evidence that had never been provided for the stories I’d heard.
Yet my classmates, who had never heard such tales, had their
own opinions about it.
  “He should’ve just done what they said.”

#TheHateUGive • @acthomasbooks • @WalkerBooksUK

 “FEARLESSLY HONEST AND HEARTBREAKINGLY HUMAN.
EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK.”
Becky Albertalli, author of Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda

“THE HATE U GIVE IS TRAGICALLY TIMELY, HARD-HITTING, AND

AN ULTIMATE PRAYER FOR CHANGE. DON’T LOOK AWAY FROM
THIS SEARING BATTLE FOR JUSTICE. RALLY WITH STARR.”
Adam Silvera, New York Times bestselling author
of More Happy Than Not

“TEENAGERS NEED TO READ THIS.”

Louise O’Neill, author of Only Ever Yours

“A PAGE TURNER BRIMMING WITH POP CULTURE

REFERENCES AND HUMOUR.”
New York Times

“EVERY SO OFTEN THE RIGHT BOOK COMES ALONG AT THE RIGHT

TIME AND QUITE DESERVEDLY CATCHES FIRE …
THE HATE U GIVE IS THAT BOOK.”
Salon

“WITTY, GENEROUS, AND REAL.”

Entertainment Weekly’s Must List

“HONEST, POWERFUL, GENTLE AND VERY TIMELY.”

Juno Dawson

“DOES THE THING THAT ALL GREAT BOOKS DO BEST:

THEY MAKE YOU FEEL ALIVE.”
Nicola Yoon

Reading guide written by Shanetia P. Clark, Associate Professor of Literacy, Salisbury University.
Permission to reproduce and distribute these pages has been granted by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.

#TheHateUGive • @acthomasbooks • @WalkerBooksUK