Book cover of New Boy

Book description

'O felt her presence behind him like a fire at his back.'

Arriving at his fourth school in six years, diplomat's son Osei Kokote knows he needs an ally if he is to survive his first day - so he's lucky to hit it off with Dee, the most popular…

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Why read it?

1 author picked New Boy as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is a bold exploration of racism, jealousy, revenge, class, and friendship.

Set in an elementary school in the US in the 1970s, this is a bold re-imagination of Shakespeare’s Othello. Although the characters are children, Chevalier doesn’t devolve into simplistic language and emotions.

She handles heavy themes with a deftness of hand that makes this a compulsively readable, if sometimes uncomfortable book. 

If you love New Boy...

Book cover of Bessie

Bessie by Linda Kass,

Drawing on biographical and historical sources, Bessie reimagines the early life of Bess Myerson, a Jewish woman and piano prodigy, who, in 1945 at age twenty-one, remarkably rises to become one of the most famous women in America.

This intimate fictional portrait reveals the transformation of the nearly six-foot-tall, self-deprecating…

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