Edited by Beverley Naidoo
A multicultural collection of international extracts, short stories and poems about young people gaining insight into themselves and their society through challenging experiences.
Both new and well-known authors have been selected to appeal to readers in their mid-teens. Settings cross place and time, from the 1920s to the future. The book has been widely used as a source book for GCSE English and English Literature.
Literature has the tremendous quality of allowing us to engage imaginatively in the lives of others. It enables us to move beyond ourselves and our own experiences. If we allow ourselves to respond to it fully, it can be a great educator. For those of us brought up monoculturally, literature which springs from outside our own boundaries can be a life-line.
– From the Introduction by Beverley Naidoo
Contents An extract from Tell Freedom - Peter Abrahams An extract from I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou Still I Rise - Maya Angelou An extract from Basketball Game - Julius Lester Once Upon A Time - Gabriel Okara Private Eloy - Samuel Feijoo Small Avalanches - Joyce Carol Oates An extract from Hand On The Sun - Tariq Mehmood Back In The Playground Blues - Adrian Mitchell A personal essay, Young, Gifted and Black - Beverley Naidoo India - Ravinder Randhawa A Tanned Version and Looking - Hummarah Quddoos True Grit, Hard Graft - Dawn Newton Homecoming - Lerato Nomvuyo Mzamane If Someone Were To Ask Me - Manelisi An extract from Brother In The Land - Robert Swindells The Child - David Upshall Free As I Know - Accabre Huntley
Anyone reading it must look at themselves, as well as the person beside them on the bus or behind the counter with newly opened eyes.
– The Guardian, UK
