Naughts & Crosses [Hardcover]

 

 

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This book.... IS THE BEST BOOK EVER!!! The whole plot is clever and fab!! Sephy has to put up with a lot considering her age. I like the way that... I cannot actually explain how good this book actually is. Please buy this book as you are in for a treat. Also, this book is not suitable for children under 12 due to the story line. It is a bit complex for young minds. But, if you are old enough you MUST read this book!!!

Sephy Hadley, daughter of one of the most powerful politicians in the land, is a Cross. Callum McGregor, a naught, is a second class citizen in a world ruled by Crosses. The two grow up together and remain friends, even after Mrs. McGregor is unjustly fired from her job as a maid for the Hadleys.

Told from the alternating viewpoints of Callum and Sephy, what's different about these black and white star-crossed lovers in this nameless dystopian world is that despite our mind's conditioned expectations, Sephy, the privileged Cross, is not white. It is Callum, the oppressed nought, who is. Wait! Let me get this straight, I would say to myself at the beginning, as images of poor, oppressed blacks and wealthy, healthy whites kept tripping up my brain. And this is precisely why the UK author's YA thriller novel works so well; she turns all our expectations, everything we thought we knew about history and the world, and turns it upside down, throwing up a mirror at our unjust world.

In Noughts and Crosses, slavery has ended, but conditions for the noughts are still deplorable, something like the American South of the 1960s. Noughts and Crosses attend segregated schools and many noughts, like Callum's parents, cannot afford to send all their children to school. When Mrs. Hadley fires Meggie McGregor over a misunderstanding, the family is destitute. Jude, Callum's older brother, is taken out of school and blames the Hadleys, and all Crosses ' 'daggers ' for the injustices he and his family are forced to endure. Callum, on the other hand, has been more fortunate, one of the few noughts to win a coveted scholarship to Sephy's exclusive private school.

But all is not well. A mob of students demonstrates outside the school on Callum's first day at Heathcroft and Sephy and Callum end up on the news, with Sephy inadvertently breaking her friend's heart by shouting out to the crowd, 'Stop it! You're all behaving like animals. Worse than animals ' like blankers!' 'Blankers', of course, is Blackman's fictional derogatory term for whites, who are perceived as blanks, zeros, nothings, 'a waste of space'.

Things keep going downhill for the two in this thought-provoking coming-of-age tale as Sephy insists on showing the world that she is not afraid to be friends with a nought. In so doing, not only does she make things harder for herself and Callum, but she is ostracized and beaten up in the girls' toilets by some older girls for being a 'blanker lover'. "[Noughts have] blank, white faces with not a hint of colour in them. Blank minds which can't hold a single original thought. That's why they serve us and not the other way around', one of the bully girls spits out.

The book barely alludes to race -- and never to religion or ethnicity -- but Malorie Blackman cleverly plays with our preconceptions. For instance,noughts want to get tans so their skin can look more like the rich mahoganied complexion of Crosses. In one scene, a nought girl cuts herself and is forced to wear a brown plaster on her forehead because pink ones don't exist. Says Blackman, in an interview with The Guardian,

"If you're the majority you don't necessarily see it because you don't need to see it and that's what I wanted to explore by turning the tables."

The terrorist Liberation Militia seems the only way out of poverty and self-hatred to many noughts, Callum's father and older brother Jude among them. When a massive bomb explodes in a nearby shopping centre, Jude and Ryan McGregor are accused. Callum is expelled from school for being the son of a suspected terrorist. Jude disappears, and Ryan McGregor is killed by an electric fence, trying to escape prison. In spite of their strong bond, the unjust world adults have created is conspiring to keep Sephy and Callum apart.

Upon his return from his aunt's house where he and his mother have been hiding out, Callum learns that Sephy has left him a letter asking him to escape the country with her. But he is too late; Sephy has left town for boarding school.

Broken at the death of his father and disillusioned with the world, Callum joins the Liberation Militia, hardening his heart to Sephy and learning to hate all Crosses. Though she believes Callum chose not to run away with her because he didn't love her, Sephy joins a pro-equality group in the hopes of building a more just world.

The two do not meet again until Sephy is kidnapped two years later by the LM. Sephy is now 17, Callum 19. For those who have never read the book, I won't spoil the ending.

As an English teacher and high school librarian I have booktalked this book and recommended it to many a teen -- and even to adults. Reading teens can't get enough of the Noughts and Crosses series, of which there are four titles, all with black and white covers and clever titles like "Checkmate" and "Double Cross". The first title is on the reading list for 14 to 16-year-olds in UK high schools.

Malorie Blackman, who herself is black and for years resisted writing about racism, says no US publisher would touch her book (it was published in the UK shortly after 9/11). "I can understand [why]", she says. "It's about terrorist activity - Callum becomes a terrorist because it's the only action open to him."

While the plot is at times a little too abrupt and the characters of Sephy and Callum are not as well-developed as they could be, Blackman has created sympathetic characters and a good voice for the two protagonists. Blackman's real strength as a YA novelist is in creating an engrossing alternate reality and in weaving a gripping tale. This was my second time reading the book, and still I stayed up past 2 am to get to the end. A highly readable and well-told story that is disturbingly realistic.

In NAUGHTS & CROSSES, the author creates a very believable alternate world that is almost like our own--but the main difference is a major one. Everything you think you know about race relations and prejudice holds true, but is switched. The ruling class to which Sephy Hadley's family belongs are the black Crosses, named for their supposed closeness to God. The other, the white Naughts, like Callum and his family, are second-class citizens. In this world, it's unacceptable for a Naught and a Cross to be real friends, and unthinkable for them to fall in love. Callum and Sephy are breaking all the rules of the society they live in.

The two have known each other from a very young age, when Callum's mother worked in the Hadley household. Even after she loses her job, though, Sephy and Callum remain secretly close. They meet in secrecy, forced to tell lies and make up excuses, but they never stop seeing each other, no matter how difficult it is. Soon, though, they'll see each other every day--but that's not as good as it sounds. A new law has been passed, and a limited number of Naughts will now be allowed to attend Cross schools. Callum has been accepted into Sephy's school, and Sephy's excited to see her best friend more often. Callum, however, knows that letting their friendship be public could prove very dangerous for both of them. Things continue to get worse when Sephy and her mother are nearly caught in a terrorist bombing. Sephy's life is saved when Callum pulls her out of the building just in time, but nobody's fooled--that's no coincidence. Suspicion falls on Callum's family.

Callum's father is the prime suspect in planting the bomb, supposedly on the orders of a radical Naught terrorist group, the Liberation Militia, or L.M. They're devoted to their goals of rights for Naughts, and they'll go to any length to achieve them. This world even has a parallel to Martin Luther King, Jr.; Alex Luther is an activist whose goal is to achieve equality peacefully. Callum's mother is a supporter of his, but Callum's father and brother don't believe that Alex Luther's way of doing things will actually get anything done. The events that unfold after the bombing threaten not only Sephy and Callum's relationship, but their very lives and the lives of those around them.

NAUGHTS & CROSSES is a fantastic story, and one that will keep your mind occupied long past the final pages. The world created in Malorie Blackman's novel is one that is much like our own, and inspires a lot of "what if?" questions. What if that was our world? It's not so far off to imagine. How would our lives be different? They almost certainly would be. You wouldn't be where you are now. You wouldn't be who you are now; everything would be remarkably different, but still so much the same.

Malorie Blackman's writing does plenty to draw you in and keep your attention with the story, not bothering with the excessive and often boring detail used by some authors. It's definitely a page-turner! Sephy and Callum are very well-developed main characters, and the secondary characters are quite believable, as well. The story is told in alternating chapters narrated by Sephy and Callum, which really adds a lot to it. Sephy and Callum are remarkable people, showing the strength that love can have, the bridges it can cross, and the determination to see past what's on the outside. That last quality is one that is, sadly, not as common in our world (or Sephy's and Callum's) as it should be. Sephy and Callum also show how willing children are to love, regardless of the prejudices of their world, before their minds are poisoned by their elders. Sephy and Callum became friends at a young age and, remarkably, they stayed that way (and became more), despite the prejudices of their society. NAUGHTS & CROSSES is a remarkable book, one that you won't want to put down once you've started reading.

Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce

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5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing
This book was probably one of my favourite books, and it was my favourite in the series. People who wonder what it would be like if slavery had been the opposite way around should... Read more

Published on Feb 9 2007 by J. Speirs

5.0 out of 5 stars This book makes you appreciate what you have.
Sephy and Callum. Two best friends. Two lovers completely devoted to one another.

This book takes us through the captivating beautiful yet excessively sad lives of... Read more

Published on Dec 11 2006 by Cassandra Mortmain

5.0 out of 5 stars Noughts and Crosses
Wow, fantastic and thrilling are all I have to say about this. This story is set in a world where Crosses rule over noughts. Read more

Published on Dec 16 2004 by emily-r

5.0 out of 5 stars This is for everyone
Noughts and crosses is about two people who are struggling to be together in a world dominated by crosses. Read more

Published on July 15 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars NOT A BOOK LIKE IT (DONT READ THIS IF U HAVENT YET READ IT!)
dont lk, people who dont wanna no the plot!(...)
this was an absolutely moving & action-filled bk by the 1 and only malorie blackman. Read more

Published on May 13 2004 by iluvkanyewest

5.0 out of 5 stars A world of predudice
In a world where there is predudice against white people, 2 yuong adults, (Callum and Sephy), whom are both of different colours and backgrounds, are forced to surrendor their... Read more

Published on April 22 2004 by Lucy

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read
This book is amazing. it all about racsim, inequality, and prejudice but the subliminal messages are about love, hate, the struggles in life, and disappointment.

Published on Mar 20 2004 by sabrina

5.0 out of 5 stars you must read this book!!!
when i first picked this book up, i almost put it back down. for some insane reason it didnt jump at me but i opened it anwyay, and i read it. Read more

Published on Feb 18 2004 by Franki

5.0 out of 5 stars Will turn your view of the world upside down
"Noughts and crosses" is being marketed as a children's book but don't let that keep you from reading it - I'm in my mid-20'es and absolutely loved it. Read more

Published on Jan 15 2004 by Lisa L. Hansen

5.0 out of 5 stars Noughts and Crosses is the best!
Noughts and Crosses, is a book about a world full of discrimination and segregation, where coloured people rule over white people. Read more

Published on Dec 8 2003 by Garima

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