Woodson, Jacqueline. Hush

Woodson, Jacqueline. Hush. Speak/Penguin, 2002 [0-14-250049-6]

WOW this is a powerful book! Toswiah's father (an African American cop in Denver) sees two while police officers shoot a defenseless African American boy. He knows it is wrong so he says he will testify again them. Down comes the "Blue Wall of Silence!" The family is threatened and even bullets are fired through their living room window. One night the family is whisked away under the witness protection program to live in another city. Here the whole family gets new identities. The father goes into depression and can't find a job because all he knows is policing (which he isn't allowed to do.) The mother becomes a devout Johovah's Witness so not only do the kids lose all their friends but they also lose birthdayday and holidays. The kids are told to look forward, not backwards. This 180 book is a powerful book about personal identity, something with which all teenagers deal.