Malorie Blackman

I usually shy away from English authors, I don't know why but they don't have the same style as American authors. This is only my opinion and this is what I've found out after read many books, but Malorie Blackman changed that. My mate said she was reading Noughts & Crosses and loved it. So I went into the library and had all 4 books read within 2 weeks. She's still on Checkmate, lol.

If you like Romeo & Juliet you should like Noughts & Crosses, she never wanted it to seem like Romeo & Juliet but you do see the parallels between them as you read.

She wanted to write a book on slavery, so she started Noughts & Crosses. Nought's means the underclass and crosses mean the upper-class. Then came Callum (a nought) and Sephy (a cross) who fall in love despite that they're star-crossed like Romeo & Juliet.

I think this book would have been just like every other slavery book if Blackman hadn't changed it around, Black's are the Crosses, they are the upper-class and White's are the Nought's they're the lower-class, they're the slavers for the Crosses. When I first read this I thought what a good idea, but I wasn't sure if she was going to pull it off, but she did. It's amazing to see the past, changed backwards. It shows lot racism but it's unlike what happened 40/50 years ago and even today, because the blacks are the racist people.

Blackman says that she always wanted to write about Callum, Sephy and their daughter Callie Rose and this is where the book Noughts & Crosses comes from. It started out as just the stories of their lives, but then more aspects came into it, like racism and love etc.

There are 4 books all together, I know a lot of you will say I've only read three but you've missed one out.

Nought's & Crosses
An Eye For An Eye
Knife Edge
Checkmate

Malorie Blackman was asked to do a book for World Book Day, and that's where an eye for an eye came about. It's only about 30 pages long but I think it's still a good book. If you get Nought's & Crosses the newest edition it should have An Eye For An Eye in the back.

My favourite book is Noughts & Crosses because I love reading about Callum & Sephy but the distance in Checkmate between Sephy and her teenager daughter Callie Rose is very good, it shows how much Callie resents her mom for her dad dying etc.

Read all of the books, they're fantastic.

Blackman's also written many episodes of English TV, and many other books including Pig Heart Boy, which became a TV show.

Hope this helped. Please comment.

Kirsty.