Alternatives to To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird is worth reading — but don’t make it the only book about racial justice on your list, or you’re missing the point.
It’s not that Harper Lee’s coming-of-age classic isn’t a good book — it is. The problem comes when we try to make it the great American novel about racial justice — which it’s not. How could it be when it’s focused on racism as an incident in the coming-of-age story of a white woman and when its hero is a white man who never actually comes out and condemns racism? So read To Kill a Mockingbird — please read all the banned books! — but also read these books that shift perspective from a young white girl to actual experiences of people of color.
The Hate U Give BY ANGIE THOMAS
If Scout were a young Black woman and Tom Robinson was her friend, you’d get close to the vibe of this YA novel. Starr Carter lives in a poor Black neighborhood and attends a ritzy white private school, putting her smack in the middle of two worlds. Those worlds collide when her best friend is killed in a police shooting during a routine traffic stop — while Starr is sitting in the passenger seat. Like Mockingbird, The Hate U Give looks at the ways racism affects institutions we trust — like the courts or the police.
All American Boys BY JASON REYNOLDS AND BRENDAN KIELY
Quinn didn’t see what happened in the store, but he did see the aftermath: His friend’s police offer brother relentlessly beating Rashad. Told in Quinn and Rashad’s alternating perspectives as they navigate the aftermath of Rashad’s beating, this is a hard book to read in light of everything that’s happening in the world right now. That’s exactly why you should read it.
Dear Martin BY NIC STONE
Justyce is used to living in a world where the fact that he’s a young Black man is enough to make the people around him fear and suspect him — but that doesn’t mean he likes it. He finds solace writing letters to his hero Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who made great strides for Black civil rights — but who also ended up dead because of racism. (The sequel, Dear Justyce — about two friends who grow up together in Atlanta before their paths diverge — one to Yale University, one to the Fulton Regional Youth Detention Center — is also a contender.)
Internment BY SAMIRA AHMED
Mockingbird was set in the past, but Internment imagines the future: In a not-too-distant United States, Muslim-Americans are forcibly relocated to internment camps. Teenage Layla is one of them, and she’s more than ready to join the brewing rebellion. Though Internment has some literary flaws (including an unfocused second act and spotty character development), its premise is enough to make it worth reading. When is it OK to decide someone’s existence makes her a threat to society?
The Round House BY LOUISE ERDRICH
Young Joe is the Scout figure in this story: When his mother is raped and beaten, Joe wants to bring her attacker to justice, but the law around the Ojibwe reservation is so twisted and complicated that justice is hard to find, even for his father, who works as a judge. As his mother retreats more and more into herself, Joe turns to Ojibwe myths and spirits (which the book treats — appropriately — with the same world-shaping significance as Greek myths and spirits) to solve the mystery. This is a stark and lyrical reminder that justice looks different depending on the color of your skin and where you live.
Monster BY WALTER DEAN MYERS
Steve is on trial for his role in the shooting of a convenience store clerk — Steve was supposed to stand lookout while another kid robbed the store, but the clerk ended up dead. Steve didn’t kill him, though, so he doesn’t understand why his whole life has turned upside down. Of course, we see through Steve’s story that it’s more complicated than he wants to believe. The open ending means that we have to make up our own minds about how guilty Steve is — as well as what guilt the judicial system, racism, peer pressure, and profiling play in Steve’s trial.
The House You Pass on the Way BY JACQUELINE WOODSON
If you want a book entangled with rural Southern history but told from a Black perspective, Woodson’s dreamy, lyrical novel is a solid bet. Staggerlee’s grandparents are famous for dying in a civil rights era bombing. Her parents are infamous in their small town for their interracial marriage. Staggerlee knows she doesn’t want to become famous as “the gay girl” in town, but she can’t keep denying who she really is.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption BY BRYAN STEVENSON
This non-fiction book illuminates the inherent racism of the U.S. criminal justice system through the story of one man's experiences. Stevenson demonstrates how the death penalty traces its roots back to Jim Crow "justice," pushing readers to question what they think they know about American justice and the American dream. The author is the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. (I’d probably read the original with high schoolers, but there is a young adult version if you’re reading with younger students.)
Beloved BY TONI MORRISON
This is the hardest book on the list — both in terms of complexity and subject matter — and not every kid will be ready to tackle this in high school. It’s worth reading if you have a student who can handle it, though. This is a horror novel — a gorgeous, dreamy, lyrical horror novel — about a woman who has escaped from slavery but remains haunted by its — literal — ghosts. This book recognizes the personal and na- tional trauma of slavery and its legacy in its dense, difficult story of the costs of surviving. Tom Robinson could be Sethe’s grandson; her history is his history.
