Against the backdrop of unrest that becomes increasingly violent, two children—one Black, one white—find they can no longer ignore the divide of race and privilege. Mugo, who is Kikuyu, and Mathew, whose ancestry is British, have grown up together in the Kenyan highlands. Mugo’s father works for Mathew’s, but that has never stopped the children from being friends. As colonial rule comes under increasing challenge by black Africans and the Mau Mau rebellion heats up, however, things change. Mugo’s father is wrongly accused of starting a fire, and the entire family is imprisoned. Meanwhile, Mathew, who accidentally started the fire with his friend Lance—a boy whose rabid racism clearly began as a parroting of his father—remains silent. By the time Mathew speaks up, too much has been lost in Beverley Naidoo’s searing novel set in Kenya in the early 1950s. Naidoo makes tense and complex times accessible and personal through the lives of her vivid characters in this story that moves back and forth between the two boys’ perspectives. (Ages 10–14)

Shortly after World War II, another war raged in Kenya, born out of racial injustice. Thirteen-year-old Mugo is a house servant and companion to eleven-year-old Mathew Grayson, as his father and Bwana Grayson were years earlier. But times are different. Fear of the Kikuyus, who have demanded independence and land repatriation from the British, drives a wedge between the boys and their fathers. When a midnight fire erupts behind the stables, the Kikuyu servants, allegedly in league with the Mau Mau, are blamed, even when the young Bwana confesses his involvement. 2010 African Studies As sociation Children’s Africana Book Award (Honor Book—Older Readers), 2009 Booklist Youth Editors’ Choice, 2009 NYPL 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, 2009 Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books. lmp

Originally published by Puffin Great Britain, in 2007.

What does it mean to be loyal?

Mathew and Mugo, two boys—one white, one black—share an uneasy friendship in Kenya in the 1950s. They're friends even though Mathew's dad owns the land and everything on it. They're friends despite the difference in their skin color. And they're friends in the face of the growing Mau Mau rebellion, which threatens British settlers with violence as black Kenyans struggle to win back their land and freedom. But suspicions and accusations are escalating, and an act of betrayal could change everything.

Internationally acclaimed, award-winning author Beverley Naidoo explores the fragile bonds of friendship in this stunning novel about prejudice, fear, and the circumstances that bring people together—and tear them apart.