Noughts And Crosses // Malorie Blackman
I first came across this book when I was studying in Year Nine and, I’m not going to lie, I found it very boring at first. Maybe this was due to the fact that my English teacher insisted on reading it to the class and she was far from engaging. In this world, blacks were first class citizens and whites were ‘the help,’ The story follows a white boy and a black girl from the most diverse upbringings, overcoming the oppressive society to confirm their love for one another. It was not until I read it a year later that the poignancy of this book really hit me about the harrowing effect of prejudice upon ethnic groups. The way Blackman so effortlessly reverses the traditional roles in society to make it more accessible to the hard-to-reach white audience is incredibly compelling and completely engaging.