“It is books that are the key to the wide world; if you can’t do anything else, read all that you can.” – Jane Hamilton

Read any of the following books and tell us what you think! To enter the Black History Scholar Book Review Competition, submit a review of between 500 and 1,000 words on ONE of the following books:

JUPITER WILLIAMS
By SI Martin (Hodder Children’s Books)

London 1800, Jupiter is young, black, living at the African Academy in Clapham with other boys from wealthy Sierra Leonean families. His life is a mixture of privilege and dispossession as he copes with the cruelty of his teachers, the rivalries and tensions among his diverse schoolmates, a consuming sense of duty towards his younger brother Philip and guilt over the death of another brother in Africa three years ago. Throughout Jupiter strives to maintain his dignity, his Christian faith and pride in his roots. But beyond the relative ease of Clapham lies another London, where poor black communities struggle for survival along the squalid reaches of the Thames.

The Young Warriors
By VS Reid, (Longman Publishing)

Five Maroon boys pass the tests of skill and endurance to become warriors in their village. When they go out hunting to celebrate, they suddenly discover that the forest is full of their enemies, the English Redcoats. The defeat of the Maroons seems certain but the young warriors help to bring about a great victory.

Kindred
By Octavia Butler, (Beacon Press)
(Recommended for 14-15 year olds)

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned across the years to save him. After this first summons, Dana is drawn back, again and again, to the plantation to protect Rufus and ensure that he will grow to manhood and father the daughter who will become Dana's ancestor. Yet each time Dana's sojourns become longer and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not her life will end, long before it has even begun.

The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano
By Olaudah Equiano, (Penguin Classics)

Olaudah Equiano's Narrative recounts his kidnapping in Africa at the age of ten, his service as the slave of an officer in the British Navy, his ten years of labour on slave ships until he was able to purchase his freedom in 1766, and his life afterward as a leading and respected figure in the antislavery movement in England.

 

There are three age categories in this competition:

• 11 and 12 year olds
• 13 and 14 year olds
• 15 year olds

Closing date for submissions: Friday 01 February 2008

 

First Prize in each age category is:

• The title of Black History Scholar 2008 (in Literature)
• An educational scholarship fund of £1,000
• Publication of the winning book reviews

 

How to enter:

1. You can enter this competition as an individual
2. Only one book review per entrant will be accepted
3. All entries must be:
   Between 500 and 1,000 words long;
   Typed on A4 paper and double spaced;
   Accompanied by a Scholar Competition Entry Form
4. Send your entries to:
   Black History Scholar 2007/08
   3Ci
   P.O. Box 21515
   London E10 7XF
5. The closing date for all book review entries is Friday 01 February 2008

For further information contact us on 020 8539 7913 or email

Book Review Guide

download the guide

Right-click link and choose Save Target As to download 

View the general competition rules here »