The author of several outstanding novels for children and teens chronicling the tragedy of apartheid and issues in its aftermath, Beverley Naidoo has now written a collection of seven powerful short stories spanning the second half of the twentieth century in South Africa. The first story is set in 1948, when Afrikaners took over the South African government and the racial classification hierarchy called apartheid became law. The final two stories, set in 1995 and 2000, look at the aftermath of apartheid—the gains that have been made, and the challenges that remain. Naidoo’s protagonists—black, white, colored, Indian—are children and teens who, regardless of their race, are all trying to make sense of the world in which they live. In every case, it is a world that demands they behave certain ways in spite of their uncertainty or their beliefs, or to face the consequences of being true to themselves. In the days of apartheid, those consequences for a Black South African, even a teenager, could mean imprisonment, or even death, as Khulu is all too aware in the story “The Typewriter.” For a young white child, it might mean having her father taken away by the government and living in fear that her mother, too, might disappear, as is the case for Lily in the story “One Day, Lily, One Day.” Naidoo, who grew up in South Africa, was exiled in the 1960s after her involvement in antiapartheid efforts. Each of her stories speaks with honesty and conviction of obstacles that have been overcome, and ones that still remain. (Ages 12–18)

We are the young people,
We will not be broken!
We demand freedom
And say
"Away with slavery
In our land of Africa!"

For almost fifty years apartheid forced the young people of South Africa to live apart as Blacks, Whites, Indians, and "Coloreds." This unique and dramatic collection of stories -- by native South African and Carnegie Medalist Beverley Naidoo -- is about young people's choices in a beautiful country made ugly by injustice.

Each story is set in a different decade during the last half of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, and features fictional characters caught up in very real events. Included is a Timeline Across Apartheid, which recounts some of the restrictive laws passed during this era, the events leading up to South Africa's first free democratic elections, and the establishment of a new "rainbow government" that leads the country today.

A Junior Library Guild Selection