The Hate U Give

Parents please be aware: This book has 90 F-words in it that are said regularly and if translated directly to a movie would be R rated. In order to make this into PG 13 movie they were required to have a maximum of 2 F-words and remove the mature content. Parents be aware the book is much more mature than the movie.

The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas is a look into what a lot of black communities go through in the United States. The speaker is a girl named Starr Carter who is sixteen and lives in a neighborhood called Garden Heights. Her friend, Khalil, has an altercation with the cops and ends up being shot. From that point on, there are protests at Garden Heights and legal actions are taken. Throughout the rest of the book, there are themes regarding police brutality against the black community, stereotypes, and racialized poverty. I would recommend this book to anyone older than 16 because this book includes descriptive violence, profanity, and subjects that a younger audience might not completely understand. The only downfall of the book is the limited view. This book definitely has a bias toward one side (against the police). However, one of the main purposes of the book is to bring to light this current issue that the black community has with the police from their perspective. Thus, reading this book could be beneficial to anyone who is not in the black community to see what they experience and struggle. This book is extremely relevant to current issues because of the Black Lives Matter Movement. I recommend anyone to read this book, especially if you want to challenge your views if you do not completely agree with the movement!

This is a must-read for its honesty in the journey of a young black woman living in two worlds. It is a coming-of-age story. We are able to experience what it is like to be this girl and see how she conquers injustice. I think it is important to help people get along. I have seen reviews that say it has too much violence, swearing, or one-sidedness. This is not true because it is a fictional journey of a young girl told in first person. It is not her job to see all sides. It does not make kids hate the police because the girl's uncle is also a policeman and she speaks about how not all police are bad. As for violence, it is all around our kids. They are not ignorant to mass shootings and lockdown drills at school. And swearing is normal for them too, in songs and every movie out there. We shouldn't hold books that have a valuable message to higher standards than what we have in actual society. I hope people reviewing here will sit down and read it.

Tons of strong language, swearing, sexual,references, adult content. Good for 16+ high school student. Should be part of a discussion group or study...either with class/peers/parents. Issues brought up need to be processed and worked through. Definitely provides one side/view to issues, so perspective, audience and material intention should be made clear to readers. Critical thinking is important. Worth a read for sure... just make sure the reader is mature enough emotionally and intellectually.

I bought this for my 12-yr olds to read, but being young and sheltered 12-yr olds they couldn't get past the language, so we'll have them try again next year. The day I started reading this was the day that everybody's feeds were filled with Minneapolis Officer Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd's neck until he died, and Amy Cooper lying to the police about being threatened by a (birdwatching Harvard graduated) black man in Central Park (after he asked her to put her dog on its leash). Angie Thomas, Malala Mousafzai, Greta Thunberg, it's time to listen to the young women.

This book would have been so much better if it didn't contain excessive foul language on every page. It's unfortunate this this was put in when it's a book directed at young teens and would have been more powerful and reached a larger audience if it wasn't so excessive. These global issues need to be addressed but because of the high language content I would suggest directing this book at older teens. The movie is less offensive as a lot of the swearing had to be removed to maintain PG 13 rating.

This book contains mature content ideally directed at high school students or older to read with and adult so they can understand the books meaning and also allow for discussion around the many different perspectives of this important topic. Schools have such incredible influence on students and because this book was written by a young songwriter that used excessive frequent explicit language and sexual content throughout I would use with caution in the classroom. This is Not an ideal book for younger teens as it may give them the impression that this is acceptable behaviour especially when being presented by their teacher. The main theme is THUG LIFE meaning "The Hate U Give Little Infants F***'s Everybody". Students need to be mature enough to understand this main theme . There are 90 F*CK's and a variety of over 200 other words that the author uses for shock value and impact. Lots of chanting of "F*CK THE POLICE" and "MothaF*cker..." . Please take this into consideration if using in the classroom. My hope is that educators find a more appropriate resource to teach the young about global racial issues that create positive change that take create more positive change. I would recommend age 15+ for this book.

Worst commonsense score ever! It says 13 and up but I would say 16. In less than 5 minutes of listening we heard 3 curse words, talk about drugs, grinding, and condoms. Rated it low for that reason only since didn't keep listening. May be a good book, but we will wait several more years to read.

It is not good for kids because it is a lot of gun violence and a lot of profanity for a book made for teens