Angie Thomas's Reading List

"This was one of my favorites as a child and still is. Though Cassie Logan’s story is set decades before I was born, she, like me, was a black girl living in poverty in Mississippi. She was the hero I aspired to be, and as a reader, this was the first time I read a book and saw myself on its pages."

"As a teenager, I started to dislike reading, mainly because it was hard to find books I identified with. This is one of the few books that pulled me in at that time."

"A sixteen-year-old waits in a jail cell to be tried for murder; Monster stays with you long after you put it down, and though published in 1999, it sadly remains relevant today."

"In college, I attended an elite, mostly white school and shrank myself to make others comfortable. But this was the novel that opened my eyes and helped me become my own person."

"It’s no secret that I’m a huge Tupac fan, but at first, I didn’t know that he wrote poetry—and not just in songs. This book gives insight into Tupac the person and the artist, and it also gave me a sense of myself as a rose growing in concrete."

"Like many in my generation, Harry Potter was a huge part of my life as a kid. The series as a whole comforted me when I needed it most; Harry’s adventures helped me drown out and ignore the nightly gunshots in my neighborhood as I tried to go to sleep. Thank you, J.K. Rowling, for giving me an escape that in some ways saved me."

"Jesmyn is one of the most brilliant writers I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. When I first read this book about a young pregnant girl and her family as they faced Hurricane Katrina, I was not only blown away by her gift, but also by the fact that she, too, is a Black woman from Mississippi. So many of Mississippi’s well-known authors are old, white, or dead—and she is none those things, nor am I. Seeing her succeed showed me that maybe my own author dreams were possible.” -at"

"Before I started working on The Hate U Give , I read this memoir by Emmett Till’s mother. She’s one of the unsung heroes of the civil rights movement, and her strength, bravery, and resilience are truly inspirational."

"This book nurtured my love for young adult fiction. As soon as I started reading it, I was hooked."

"Every single person in America needs to read this book. Enough said."