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From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

Starr’s childhood friend, Khalil, is driving her home when they are pulled over by the police for a broken taillight. After patting Khalil down, the white officer tells him to stay put and walks back to the patrol car. Khalil opens the driver’s door and asks Starr if she’s okay. The police officer shoots and kills Khalil. Over the next 13 weeks, Starr struggles with shock, grief, anger, fear, rage, and indecision about whether to testify. Several issues complicate Starr’s thinking: worry about a local gang leader who intimidates through fear and violence; worry about jeopardizing her father, a current business owner and former gang member who changed his life trajectory while in prison; her strained friendship with two friends who aren’t African American at the private school she attends; her mixed feelings about her white boyfriend; her mother’s wish to move the family to a safer neighborhood; and her relationship with her police officer uncle. Starr and the other characters in this novel are vibrant and fully realized; her life and community are multifaceted and complex. It’s in Starr’s loves of Harry Potter, and her complicated feelings about her half-brother’s other sister, who gets more of his time, but has a less stable family life. It’s in the authentic moments of humor, and in the way hope lives side by side with fear and anger in a story that is so much more than its plot and theme. (Age 13 and older)

CCBC Choices 2018 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2018. Used with permission.

From Publisher's Weekly

Starred review from June 5, 2017
A routine traffic stop turns tragic for two African American teens, leaving one dead and the other irrevocably changed by the shooting and its aftermath of legal battles, survivor's guilt, and race riots. Thomas's fictionalized story of the Black Lives Matter movement is powerful, and the star turn here by reader Turpin makes it all the more riveting. Turpin, who was PW's 2016 Narrator of the Year, delves into the character of Starr, who struggles with whether to come forward with the truth about the shooting when doing so means her own life will come under terrible scrutiny. She conveys the complexity of the 16-year-old protagonist who sounds both youthful and mature for her age, as she relies on code-switching to navigate two different social settings-her mostly black neighborhood and mostly white school-until, partway through the novel, she starts breaking all the rules she's previously used to compartmentalize her life. Turpin also turns in memorable performances for various supporting characters, especially Starr's parents, who come from contrasting backgrounds and approach Starr's crisis differently, and several of the kids at school. Turpin's remarkable sensitivity carries this performance to the ranks of greatness. A HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray hardcover.

From Horn Book

Starred review from March 1, 2017
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter lives a life many African American teenagers can relate to: a life of double consciousness. Caught between her rough, predominantly black neighborhood and the proper, predominantly white prep school she attends, Starr has learned how to speak with two different voices and only say certain things around certain people. This precarious balance is broken when Starr witnesses the shooting of her (unarmed) childhood friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. What follows is a gut-wrenching chain of events that alters all Starr holds dear. New relationships are forged, old ones are severed, and adversaries arise as Starr's family, friends, school, and neighborhood react to Khalil's death, including questioning who Khalil was, and whether his death was justified. Between her neighborhood's no-snitching code and inaccurate media portrayals, Starr must decide whether or not to speak outand her decision could endanger her life. With a title taken from rapper Tupac Shakur's acronym THUG LIFE ( The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody ), the novel introduces numerous components of the urban experience, thug life included. From drug addicts to police officers, most characters are multifaceted, proving that Starr's world is not all black or white (or black vs. white, for that matter). The story, with so many issues addressed, can feel overwhelming at times, but then again, so can the life of an African American teen. Debut author Thomas is adept at capturing the voices of multiple characters, and she ultimately succeeds in restoring Starr's true voice. Thomas has penned a powerful, in-your-face novel that will similarly galvanize fans of Kekla Magoon's How It Went Down (rev. 11/14) and Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely's All American Boys (rev. 11/15). eboni njoku

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From School Library Journal

Starred review from January 1, 2017

Gr 8 Up-After Starr and her childhood friend Khalil, both black, leave a party together, they are pulled over by a white police officer, who kills Khalil. The sole witness to the homicide, Starr must testify before a grand jury that will decide whether to indict the cop, and she's terrified, especially as emotions run high. By turns frightened, discouraged, enraged, and impassioned, Starr is authentically adolescent in her reactions. Inhabiting two vastly different spheres-her poor, predominantly black neighborhood, Garden Heights, where gangs are a fact of life, and her rich, mostly white private school-causes strain, and Thomas perceptively illustrates how the personal is political: Starr is disturbed by the racism of her white friend Hailey, who writes Khalil off as a drug dealer, and Starr's father is torn between his desire to support Garden Heights and his need to move his family to a safer environment. The first-person, present-tense narrative is immediate and intense, and the pacing is strong, with Thomas balancing dramatic scenes of violence and protest with moments of reflection. The characterization is slightly uneven; at times, Starr's friends at school feel thinly fleshed out. However, Starr, her family, and the individuals in their neighborhood are achingly real and lovingly crafted. VERDICT Pair this powerful debut with Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely's All American Boys to start a conversation on racism, police brutality, and the Black Lives Matter movement.-Mahnaz Dar, School Library Journal

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Kirkus

Starred review from December 15, 2016
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter is a black girl and an expert at navigating the two worlds she exists in: one at Garden Heights, her black neighborhood, and the other at Williamson Prep, her suburban, mostly white high school. Walking the line between the two becomes immensely harder when Starr is present at the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend, Khalil, by a white police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Khalil's death becomes national news, where he's called a thug and possible drug dealer and gangbanger. His death becomes justified in the eyes of many, including one of Starr's best friends at school. The police's lackadaisical attitude sparks anger and then protests in the community, turning it into a war zone. Questions remain about what happened in the moments leading to Khalil's death, and the only witness is Starr, who must now decide what to say or do, if anything. Thomas cuts to the heart of the matter for Starr and for so many like her, laying bare the systemic racism that undergirds her world, and she does so honestly and inescapably, balancing heartbreak and humor. With smooth but powerful prose delivered in Starr's natural, emphatic voice, finely nuanced characters, and intricate and realistic relationship dynamics, this novel will have readers rooting for Starr and opening their hearts to her friends and family. This story is necessary. This story is important. (Fiction. 14 & up)

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Booklist

Starred review from December 15, 2016
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two very different worlds: one is her home in a poor black urban neighborhood; the other is the tony suburban prep school she attends and the white boy she dates there. Her bifurcated life changes dramatically when she is the only witness to the unprovoked police shooting of her unarmed friend Khalil and is challenged to speak outthough with trepidationabout the injustices being done in the event's wake. As the case becomes national news, violence erupts in her neighborhood, and Starr finds herself and her family caught in the middle. Difficulties are exacerbated by their encounters with the local drug lord for whom Khalil was dealing to earn money for his impoverished family. If there is to be hope for change, Starr comes to realize, it must be through the exercise of her voice, even if it puts her and her family in harm's way. Thomas' debut, both a searing indictment of injustice and a clear-eyed, dramatic examination of the complexities of race in America, invites deep thoughts about our social fabric, ethics, morality, and justice. Beautifully written in Starr's authentic first-person voice, this is a marvel of verisimilitude as it insightfully examines two worlds in collision. An inarguably important book that demands the widest possible readership. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: From the moment this book sold, it has been high-profile. An in-the-works movie adaptation will further push this to the head of the class.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

From Publisher's Weekly

Starred review from November 28, 2016
At home in a neighborhood riven with gang strife, Starr Carter, 16, is both the grocer's daughter and an outsider, because she attends private school many miles away. But at Williamson Prep, where she's among a handful of black students, she can't be herself either: no slang, no anger, no attitude. That version of herselfâ€""Williamson Starr"â€""doesn't give anyone a reason to call her ghetto." She's already wrestling with what Du Bois called "double consciousness" when she accepts a ride home from Khalil, a childhood friend, who is then pulled over and shot dead by a white cop. Starr's voice commands attention from page one, a conflicted but clear-eyed lens through which debut author Thomas examines Khalil's killing, casual racism at Williamson, and Starr's strained relationship with her white boyfriend. Though Thomas's story is heartbreakingly topical, its greatest strength is in its authentic depiction of a teenage girl, her loving family, and her attempts to reconcile what she knows to be true about their lives with the way those lives are depictedâ€"and completely undervaluedâ€"by society at large. Ages 14â€"up. Agent: Brooks Sherman, Bent Agency.

From AudioFile Magazine

Starr is from a gang-ridden neighborhood but attends a private, mostly white, school. Differences between these worlds widen when Starr is the sole witness of the murder of her childhood friend by a white policeman. Bahni Turpin's narration of this scene is poignant and horrific as unarmed Kahlil questions the officer's stopping him and the officer becomes aggressive and shoots him three times in rapid succession. Starr is haunted by the event. Her fear and anger illuminate culture clashes and disparities, injustice and racism. This gripping story is not just issues oriented. Turpin's portrayals of all the characters are rich and deep, environments are evocatively described, and Starr's fraught struggles to understand life's complexities are believable. Many intense, difficult moments are relieved by the humor and the warmth of Starr's unique family. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine