Tough Luck — Nina Milton

Tough Luck is a modern story for children, sending its narrator, 13-year-old Brandon, a boy of Afro-Caribbean extract, on a "quest" with his friend Helen. Their friendship strengthens as they confront inner-city racial tension and through the discoveries they make within their own family histories. Together, they explore and learn a little of the history of slavery. Told in an upbeat and easy to read style, these two children rapidly become kids you want to get to know. Tough Luck is upbeat and radical enough to attract a readership across the diverse ethnicity of middle schoolchildren in Britain and in the rest of the world. It will be attractive to teachers, parents and librarians, especially for its historical content and how it tackles the subject of racial violence head-on.