Books that cover the topic of Human Rights
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Things Fal
l Apart by Chinua Achebe
Okonkwo is the greatest wrestler and warrior alive, and his fame spreads throughout West Africa like a bush-fire in the harmattan But when he accidentally kills a clansman, things begin to fall apart. Then Okonkwo returns from exile to find missionaries and colonial governors have arrived in the village. With his world thrown radically off-balance he can only hurtle towards tragedy.
Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie
As teenagers in Lagos, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship and people are fleeing the country if they can. The self-assured Ifemelu departs for America. There she suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships, all the while feeling something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze had hoped to join her, but post 9/11 America will not let him in and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Thirteen years later, Obinze is a wealthy man while Ifemelu has achieved success as a blogger. After so long apart will they find the courage to meet again, face to face?
Asylum by Rachel Anderson
Set in an about to be demolished highrise block of flats, various characters have arrived from a variety of situations; their lives and their stories, interweave, change and affect each other and travel towards deeply moving, often funny, happy and painful outcomes.
At the core of the story are two asylum seekers: All fifteen year old Sunday wanted was a country that was democratic and respectful of human life. All eight year old Rosa wanted was somewhere safe, away from the bad things of the past.
Chains by L.H. Anderson
What would you risk to be free? It is 1776 and Isabel, Curzon, and Ruth have only ever known life as slaves. But now the young country of America is in turmoil,there are whisperings then cries of freedom from England spreading like fire, and with it is a whole new type of danger. For freedom being fought for one is not necessarily freedom being fought for all, especially if you are a slave. But if an entire nation can seek its freedom, why can't they? As war breaks out, sides must be chosen, death is at every turn, and one question forever rings in their ears, Would you risk everything to be free?
I know why th
e Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
In this first volume of her six books of autobiography, Maya Angelou beautifully evokes her childhood with her grandmother in the American south of the 1930s. She learns the power of the white folks at the other end of town and suffers the terrible trauma of rape by her mother's lover.
"I write about being a Black American woman, however, I am always talking about what it's like to be a human being. This is how we are, what makes us laugh, and this is how we fall and how we somehow, amazingly, stand up again." (Maya Angelou)
The Handm
aid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Offred is a Handmaid in The Republic of Gilead, a religious totalitarian state in what was formerly known as the United States. She is placed in the household of The Commander, Fred Waterford, her assigned name, Offred, means 'of Fred'. She has only one function: to breed. If Offred refuses to enter into sexual servitude to repopulate a devastated world, she will be hanged. Yet even a repressive state cannot eradicate hope and desire. As she recalls her pre-revolution life in flashbacks, Offred must navigate through the terrifying landscape of torture and persecution in the present day, and between two men upon which her future hangs.
The Tes
tament by Margaret Atwood
More than 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results. Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third voice: a woman who wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets.
Unhear
d Voices by Malorie Blackman
In March 1807, the British Parliament passed an Act making the trading and transportation of slaves illegal.
It was many years before slavery, as it was known then, was abolished, and slavery still continues today in different ways, but it was a big step forward towards the empancipation of a people.
Cry 
Freedom by John Briley
Under South Africa's brutal apartheid regime, black activist Steve Biko has been working tirelessly for years to undermine the system when he meets white journalist Donald Woods. Initially suspicious of Biko and his motives, Woods finds himself united with Biko in common cause after Biko reveals to him the true extent of police atrocities in the black townships. And when tragedy strikes, the powerful bond that has been forged between them leads Woods to make a courageous stand on his friend's behalf, risking everything to expose the horrors of this murderous regime.
Parrot and
Olivier in America by Peter Carey
Olivier is a French aristocrat, the traumatized child of survivors of the Revolution. Parrot is the son of an itinerant printer who always wanted to be an artist but has ended up a servant.
Born on different sides of history, their lives will be brought together by their travels in America. When Olivier sets sail for the New World, ostensibly to study its prisons but in reality to save his neck from one more revolution. Parrot is sent with him, as spy, protector, foe and foil.
The Last
Runaway by Tracy Chevalier
When modest Quaker, Honor Bright sails from Bristol with her sister, she is fleeing heartache for a new life in America, far from home. But tragedy leaves her alone and vulnerable, torn between two worlds and dependent on the kindness of strangers. Life in 1850s Ohio is precarious and unsentimental. The sun is too hot, the thunderstorms too violent, the snow too deep. The roads are spattered with mud and spit. The woods are home to skunks and porcupines and raccoons. They also shelter slaves escaping north to freedom. Should Honor hide runaways from the ruthless men who hunt them down?
Bend it like B
eckham by Narinder Dhali
If you are 18, love football and can bend a ball like Beckham, the world must be your oyster, right? Wrong. If you are Jess, 18, Indian and a girl, forget it.
Jess just wants to play football but her wedding obsessed parents have other ideas so she hides it from them. But when Jess and her friend Jules join a ladies team and get spotted by a talent scout, it all kicks off
Invisible M
an by Ralph Ellison
It is sometimes advantageous to be unseen, although it is most often rather wearing on the nerves . . . Invisible man tells the extraordinary story of a man invisible 'simply because people refuse to see me'. Published in 1952 when American society was in the cusp of immense change, the powerfully depicted adventures of Ellison's invisible man, from his expulsion from a Southern college to a terrifying Harlem race riot, goes far beyond the story of one individual to give voice to the experience of an entire generation of black Americans.
The skin I'm I
n by Sharon Flake
Maleeka suffers every day from the taunts of the other kids in her class. If they are not getting at her about her homemade clothes or her good grades then it is about her dark, black skin.
When a new teacher, whose face is blotched with a startling white patch, starts at their school, Maleeka can see there is bound to be trouble for her too. But the new teacher's attitude surprises Maleeka. Miss Saunders loves the skin she is in. Can Maleeka learn to do the same?
The Bon
e Sparrow by Zana Fraillon
Born in a refugee camp, all Subhi knows of the world is that he is at least 19 fence diamonds high and the nice Jackets never stay long. At night he dreams that the sea finds its way to his tent, bringing with it unusual treasures. One day it brings him Jimmie. Carrying a notebook that she is unable to read and wearing a sparrow made out of bone around her neck, both talismans of her family's past and the mother she's lost. Jimmie strikes up an unlikely friendship with Subhi beyond the fence.
As he reads aloud the tale of how Jimmie's family came to be, both children discover the importance of their own stories in writing their futures.
George by Alex Gino
When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl. George thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part . . . because she's a boy.
The Clothes on their Backs by Linda Grant
In a red brick mansion block off the Marylebone Road, Vivien, a sensitive, bookish girl grows up sealed off from both past and present by her timid refugee parents. Then one morning a glamorous uncle appears, dressed in a mohair suit, with a diamond watch on his wrist and a girl in a leopard-skin hat on his arm. Why is Uncle Sándor so violently unwelcome in her parents' home?
Refugee by Alan Gratz
Josef is a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world. Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety in America. Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe They all go on harrowing journeys in search of refuge. All will face unimaginable dangers. But there is always the hope of tomorrow. Although Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud are separated by continents and decades, shocking connections will tie their stories together in the end.
Roots by Alex Haley
Tracing his ancestry through six generations, slaves and freedmen, farmers and blacksmiths, lawyers and architects and back to Africa, Alex Haley discovered a sixteen-year-old youth, Kunta Kinte.
It was this young man, who had been torn from his homeland and in torment and anguish brought to the slave markets of the New World, who held the key to Haley's deep and distant past.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Afghanistan, 1975: Twelve year old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return to Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry Rasheed. Nearly two decades later, a friendship grows between Mariam and a local teenager, Laila, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. When the Taliban take over, life becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear. Yet love can move a person to act in unexpected ways and lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston
She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze, when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. When sixteen year old Janie is caught kissing shiftless Johnny Taylor, her grandmother swiftly marries her off to an old man with sixty acres. Janie endures two stifling marriages before she finally meets the man of her dreams, who offers not diamonds, but a packet of flowering seeds.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel, a black man falsely charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty six year old Jean Louise Finch ‘Scout’, returns home from New York City to visit her ageing father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise’s homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt.
If this is a Man by Primo Levi
If this is a man is an autobiographical memoir that questions how it was possible for prisoners to retain their sense of humanity. Levi was arrested and deported to Auschwitz in February 1944 along with 650 other people in twelve goods trains, where only himself and two others survuved. This book is a troubling and honest revelation of the sufferings he endured during the eleven months he spent there .
The Truce
describes his flight from the hell in which he had been incarcerated.
The Crossing by Manjeet Mann
The sea carries our pain. The stars carry our future.
Natalie's world is falling apart. She's just lost her mum and her brother marches the streets of Dover full of hate and anger. Swimming is her only refuge. Sammy has fled his home and family in Eritrea for the chance of a new life in Europe. Every step he takes on his journey is a step into an unknown and unwelcoming future. A twist of fate brings them together and gives them both hope. But is hope enough to mend a broken world?
Night of the Party by Tracey Mathias
After withdrawing from the EU, Britain is governed by a far-right nationalist party. Its flagship policy allows only those born in Britain to live here, everyone else is an "illegal", subject to immediate arrest and deportation. But an election is coming soon.
18 year old Londoner Ash is wrestling with grief after the loss of his sister Sophie, who died in a drug related accident at a party. He meets Zara on a stalled tube train and immediately falls for her. But Zara has secrets: not only is she an "illegal", but she is the only person who knows the truth about Sophie's death. Associating with Zara could jeopardize Ash's future, and if Zara tells what she knows about the night Sophie died, she will have no future in Britain. The election could save them. Or will it bring disaster?
Slave Girl by Patricia McKissack
Clotee is a slave in a Virginia plantation.
To her, freedom is the greatest word in the world.
In the slave quarters, people pray for freedom, or as they call it 'heaven'.
But when will it come?
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller's classic parable of mass hysteria draws a chilling parallel between the Salem witch-hunt of 1692 - 'one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history' - and the American anti-communist purges led by Senator McCarthy in the 1950s. The story of how the small community of Salem is stirred into madness by superstition, paranoia and malice, culminating in a violent climax, is a savage attack on the evils of mindless persecution and the terrifying power of false accusations.
A depiction of innocent men and women destroyed by malicious rumour, The Crucible is also a powerful indictment of McCarthyism and the 'frontier mentality' of Cold War America.
Beloved by Toni Morrison
It is the mid-1800s. At Sweet Home in Kentuckhy, an era is ending as slavery comes under attack from the abolitionists. The worlds of Halle and Paul D. are to be destroyed in a cataclysm of torment and agony. The world of Sethe, however, is to turn from one of love to one of violence and death, the death of Sethe's baby daughter Beloved, whose name is the single word on the tombstone, who died at her mother's hands and who will return to claim retribution.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Pecola Breedlove longs for blond hair and blue eyes, so that she will be as beautiful and beloved as all the blond, blue-eyed children in America.
In the autumn of 1941, the marigolds in her garden will not bloom, and her wish will not come true. Pecola's life is about to change in other painful and devastating ways.
The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo
When twelve year old Sade's mother is killed, she and her little brother Femi are forced to flee from their home in Nigeria to Britain. They are not allowed to tell anyone as their journey is secret, dangerous and illegal. Their dad promises to follow but once the children arrive in London, things get worse when they are abandoned by the people they had been told would protect them.
Sade faces challenge after challenge, but her dad has always taught her to stand up for what is right and to tell the truth no matter what. With that strength of spirit in her heart, Sade will find the courage to fight for the new, happy life she, Femi and her dad deserve.
Twelve Yeas a Slave by Soloman Northup
Twelve Years a Slave, sub-title: Narrative of Solomon Northup, citizen of New-York, kidnapped in Washington city in 1841, and rescued in 1853, from a cotton plantation near the Red River in Louisiana, is a memoir by Solomon Northup as told to and edited by David Wilson.
It is a slave narrative of a black man who was born free in New York state but kidnapped in Washington, D.C., sold into slavery, and kept in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana. He provided details of slave markets in Washington, D.C. and New Orleans, as well as describing at length cotton and sugar cultivation on major plantations in Louisiana.
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Cry the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice.
Remarkable for its contemporaneity, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.
Witch Child by Celia Rees
When Mary sees her grandmother accused of witchcraft and hanged for the crime, she is silently hurried to safety by an unknown woman. The woman gives her tools to keep the record of her days, paper and ink. Mary is taken to a boat in Plymouth and from there sails to the New World where she hopes to make a new life among the pilgrims. But old superstitions die hard and soon Mary finds that she, like her grandmother, is the victim of ignorance and stupidity and once more she faces important choices to ensure her survival.
American Pastoral by Philip Roth
Seymour "Swede" Levov, a legendary high school athlete, a devoted family man, a hard worker and the prosperous heir of his father's Newark glove factory comes of age in thriving, triumphant postwar America. But everything he loves is lost when the country begins to run amok in the turbulent 1960s. Not even a most private, well-intentioned citizen, it seems, gets to sidestep the sweep of history as Swede is not allowed to stay forever, blissful living out life in rural Old Rimrock in his 170 year old stone farmhouse with his pretty wife (his college sweetheart and Miss New Jersey of 1949) and his lively albeit precocious daughter, the apple of his eye ... that is until she grows up to become a revolutionary terrorist.
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowsell
Eleanor is the new girl in town, and she has never felt more alone. All mismatched clothes, mad red hair and chaotic home life, she could not stick out more if she tried. Then she takes the seat on the bus next to Park. Quiet, careful and in Eleanor's eyes, impossibly cool, Park's worked out that flying under the radar is the best way to get by. Slowly, steadily, through late night conversations and an ever growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall in love. They fall in love the way you do the first time, when you are 16 and you have nothing and everything to lose.
If I was your Girl by Meredith Russo
Amanda Hardy is the new girl at school. Like everyone, all she wants is to make friends and fit in. But Amanda is holding back. Even from Grant, the guy she is falling in love with.
Amanda has a secret. At her old school, she used to be called Andrew and secrets always have a way of getting out.
For Esme, with Love and Squalor
This is the squalid, or moving, part of the story, and the scene changes. The people change, too. I'm still around, but from here on in, for reasons I'm not at liberty to disclose, I've disguised myself so cunningly that even the cleverest reader will fail to recognize me.
This collection of nine stories includes the first appearance of J. D. Salinger's fictional Glass family, introducing Seymour Glass in the unforgettable 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish'.
Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
It is 1950, and as the French Quarter of New Orleans simmers with secrets, 17 year-old Josie Moraine is silently stirring a pot of her own. Known among locals as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, Josie wants more out of life than the Big Easy has to offer. She devises a plan get out, but a mysterious death in the Quarter leaves Josie tangled in an investigation that will challenge her allegiance to her mother, her conscience and Willie Woodley, the brusque madam on Conti Street.
Josie is caught between the dream of an elite college and a clandestine underworld. New Orleans lures her in her quest for truth, dangling temptation at every turn, and escalating to the ultimate test.
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
World War II is drawing to a close in East Prussia and thousands of refugees are on a desperate trek toward freedom, many with something to hide. Among them are Joana, Emilia, and Florian, whose paths converge en route to the ship that promises salvation, the Wilhelm Gustloff. Forced by circumstance to unite, the three find their strength, courage and trust in each other tested with each step closer to safety. Just when it seems freedom is within their grasp, tragedy strikes. Not country, nor culture, nor status matter as all 10,000 people, adults and children alike, must fight for the same thing: Survival.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
This brutal, shattering glimpse of the fate of millions of Russians under Stalin shook Russia and shocked the world when it first appeared. Discover the importance of a piece of bread or an extra bowl of soup, the incredible luxury of a book, the ingenious possibilities of a nail, a piece of string or a single match in a world where survival is all. Here safety, warmth and food are the first objectives. Though twice decorated for his service at the front during the Second World War, Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) was arrested in 1945 for making derogatory remarks about Stalin, and sent to a series of brutal Soviet labour camps in the Arctic Circle, where he remained for eight years. Released after Stalin's death, he worked as a teacher, publishing his novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
Daughter of the Wind by Suzanne Staples
Life is both sweet and cruel to strong willed young Shabanu, whose home is the windswept Cholistan Desert of Pakistan. The second daughter in a family with no sons, she has been allowed freedoms forbidden to most Muslim girls. But when a tragic encounter with a wealthy and powerful landowner ruins the marriage plans of her older sister, Shabanu is called upon to sacrifice everything she has dreamed of. Should she do what is necessary to uphold her family’s honor, or listen to the stirrings of her own heart?
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Shocking and controversial when it was first published. The Grapes of Wrath is Steinbeck's Pultizer Prize-winning epic of the Joad family, forced to travel west from Dust Bowl era Oklahoma in search of the promised land of California. Their story is one of false hopes, thwarted desires and powerlessness, yet out of their struggle Steinbeck created a drama that is both intensely human and majestic in its scale and moral vision.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Enter a vanished and unjust world: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Where black maids raise white children, but aren't trusted not to steal the silver. There's Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child and nursing the hurt caused by her own son's tragic death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue and white Miss Skeeter, home from College, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared. No one would believe they could be friends and fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in a search of a truth and together they have an extraordinary story to tell.
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriett Stowe
When a Kentucky farmer falls on hard times he is forced to sell his slaves and among them is Uncle Tom. Uncle Tom, an enslaved person, depicted as saintly and dignified, noble and steadfast in his beliefs While being transported by boat to auction in New Orleans, Tom saves the life of Little Eva, an angelic and forgiving young girl, whose grateful father then purchases Tom who is a brutal plantation owner.
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
For decades, a quartet of Chinese women who have emigrated to San Francisco, gather to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Over the years, their stories have informed the lives of four daughters who feel the weight of family and world history on their shoulders. With wit and sensitivity, this novel explores the deep, complicated and sometimes painful connections between mothers and daughters.
The Land by M. D. Taylor
Ever since running away at the age of fourteen, Paul Edward, the son of a white landowner and a black slave, has had one dream, to own land every bit as good as his daddy's. While growing up, Paul Edward loved and feared his father, but he loved the land unconditionally. After a rash act of youthful rebellion, he leaves his family behind and vows to succeed on his own. However, for anyone black and coming of age in 1880s Mississippi, this is no simple goal. Paul-Edward will do what it takes to make his dream come true, along the way discovering his own strength, learning the value of friendship and even falling in love.
Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry by M. D. Taylor
'We have no choice of what colour we're born or who our parents are or whether we're rich or poor. What we do have is some choice over what we make of our lives once we're here.'
The Mississippi of the 1930s was a hard place for a black child to grow up in, but still Cassie did not understand why farming his own land meant so much to her father. During that year though, when the night riders were carrying hatred and destruction among her people, she learned about the great differences that divided them, and when it was worth fighting for a principle, even if it brought terrible hardships.
Let the Circle be Unbroken by M. D. Taylor
A sequel to the Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, continues the story of the Logan family in Mississippi during the Depression. The children, especially Cassie, are happy in their warm, stable family but outside is a climate of fear and tension. Their friend T.J. goes on trial for murder and stands before an all white jury. Cousin Suzella tries to pass for white, with humiliating consequences and when Cassie's neighbour stands up for her right to vote, she and her cousin are driven from their home. Cassie is realising what it means to grow up black and powerless, but her family stand together, proving that courage, love and understanding can defy even the deepest prejudices.
The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
Celie has grown up poor in rural Georgia, despised by the society around her and abused by her own family. She strives to protect her sister, Nettie, from a similar fate. Nettie escapes to a new life as a missionary in Africa, while Celie is left behind without her best friend and confidante who is then married off to an older suitor, sentenced to a life alone with a harsh and brutal husband.
Celie then meets Shug Avery, her husband’s mistress and a jazz singer with a zest for life and her stepson’s wife, Sophia, who challenges her to fight for independence.
The U
nderground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. All the slaves lead a hellish existence, but Cora has it worse than most; she is an outcast even among her fellow Africans and she is approaching womanhood, where it is clear even greater pain awaits.
When Caesar, a slave recently arrived from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they take the perilous decision to escape to the North. Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher is sent to find Cora and they are forced to flee again. Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.
Night by Elie Wiesel
Born into a Jewish ghetto in Hungary, as a child, Elie Wiesel was sent to the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. This is his account of that atrocity: the ever-increasing horrors he endured, the loss of his family and his struggle to survive in a world that stripped him of humanity, dignity and faith. Describing in simple terms the tragic murder of a people from a survivor’s perspective, Night is among the most personal, intimate and poignant of all accounts of the Holocaust. A compelling consideration of the darkest side of human nature and the enduring power of hope, it remains one of the most important works of the twentieth century.
I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
I Am Malala tells the remarkable true story of a girl who knew she wanted to change the world, and did.
Raised in the Swat Valley in Pakistan, Malala was taught to stand up for her beliefs. When terrorists took control of her region and declared that girls were forbidden from going to school, Malala fought for her right to an education. On 9 October 2012, she nearly paid the ultimate price for her courage when she was shot on her way home from school. No one expected her to survive. Now, she is an international symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest person ever to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah
Life is not safe for Alem. His father is Ethopian, his mother Eritrean. Their countries are at war, and Alem is welcome in neither place.
So Alem is excited to spend a holiday in London with his father - until he wakes up to find him gone. What seems like a betrayal is in fact an act of love, but now Alem is alone in a strange country, and he must forge his own path.