YA Materials, Literature Log, Book #9: The Nickel Boys

 Title: The Nickel Boys

Author: Colson Whitehead

Category: Alex Award Title


Elwood is an intelligent, driven black boy growing up in Tallahassee, Florida in the 1960's, where he lives with his grandmother and attends school. When he is given the opportunity to attend classes at a university a drive away from his home, he hitchhikes to class, an innocent choice that lands him with a conviction helping to steal a car and sentenced to a "reform school" called the Nickel Academy. Elwood quickly realizes that the Nickel Academy is less a school and more a torture chamber, and only his friendship with another boy named Turner keeps him going through his time there, despite their very differing views.


I had read Whitehead's novel The Underground Railroad before reading this one, but I feel that The Nickel Boys hit far harder. This book was tough to read at times, though is no less important for this. The Nickel Boys was inspired by a true story of an actual reform school in Florida that operated for over one hundred years before it shut down, and was responsible for the deaths of many of its students despite several investigations (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_School_for_Boys). This history, related to carefully and honestly by this novel, is important, especially since there are many survivors of the Florida School still alive today. I think this book could be used with teens during Black History Month, or perhaps in connection with a unit on the Civil Rights Movement in history class, as the events of the novel take place in the 60's. 

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