Noughts & Crosses Book Review by Charles-Wesley Melomey

Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman

 

Noughts & Crosses is a dystopian tale based on a divide in a city, focusing on two characters separated by their skin colour. This book was inspired by the murder of Stephen Lawrence. The powerless, white, people are described as the noughts and the crosses are the powerful, wealthy people.

Neither noughts or crosses should not mix with each other; this is punishable by death.

Storyline

At the beginning of the book, the key idea we are made to focus on is the difference between the two social classes: the noughts, the powerless and deprived white people and the crosses, the powerful and wealthy people. We are introduced to the two main characters, Callum and Sephy who meet on the beach and casually talk. Callum, a nought, suddenly informs Sephy, a cross, about his admission into the All Crosses school. This is highly unusual and is will be the main plot throughout the book.

In the middle of the book Callum gets ready to go to Heathcroft High School with three other noughts pupils . When he got to school he was surrounded by crosses pupils saying that the ‘blankers’ should not go to their school.

At the end of the book, Callum turns into a terrorist after his father was in jail for apparently planting a bomb in a cross hospital and died jumping over an electric fence. Then they kidnap Sephy but she was able to run away and finds out that she is pregnant with Callum’s baby when Spehy’s father finds out Callum goes into prison and Sephy’s dad gives him a choice: he dies and the baby stays or he kills the baby but he lives but has to be in prison for 30 years. He decides to die and the baby stay and they call it Callie Rose Hadley and that is the Beginning ,  middle and end of Nought & Crosses.

The storyline

At the beginning of the book, the key idea the reader is made to focus on is the difference between the two social classes: the noughts, the powerless and deprived white people and the crosses, the powerful and wealthy black people.

The author introduced two main characters, Callum and Sephy who regularly met on the beach and casually talk. Callum, a nought, suddenly informs Sephy, a cross, about his admission into the All-Crosses school. This is highly unusual and will be the main plot throughout the book.

In the middle of the book Callum gets ready to go to Heathcroft High School with three other noughts pupils . When he got to school, he was surrounded by crosses pupils chanting that the ‘blankers’ should not go to their school.

At the end of the book, Callum turns into a terrorist after his father was jailed for apparently planting a bomb in a cross hospital. Sephy was kidnapped. Sephy becomes pregnant with Callum’s baby. Callum  decides to die. Baby is called Callie Rose Hadley. The story is very intense.

Lessons I have learnt

Discrimination affects everybody and as a society, we should work together to eradicate these issues and put these differences behind us. We should not judge others on what they have or do not have and instead use our strengths to help others.

 LessonWhy I would recommend this books learnt.

I would recommend this book to people at the age of 12 and above because it contains themes of romance, drama and action and this will most likely appeal to this sort of audience. The storyline is not too mature and this makes it a more child-friendly book. It captivates morals that readers can learn from and integrate into their day-to-day lives.