Speak No Evil

Title: Speak No Evil  

Author: Iweala Uzodinma  

ISBN: 9780062199096  

Publisher: HarperCollins 

Copyright Date: 2018  

Genre: LGBTQ, Fiction, Teen  

Awards or Honors: Michael Printz Award Finalist  

Reading Level: Teenager  

Plot Summary: The book follows the stories of Niru, a son of Nigerian immigrants who live in Washington D.C., and Meridith, a white student also in the Washington D.C. area. Niru has a good life, but he hides being gay from everyone, especially his parents. When his father finds out, he becomes upset and does everything he can to try and change Niru. The family then goes to Nigeria to visit for the summer. While in Nigeria, Niru has an intervention in church over him being gay. The later chapters told from his perspective touches upon his family dynamics, meeting a boy Damien, and learning to drive. Part two is told from the perspective of Meridith, who tells the story of growing up with Niru and being in love with him. She shows her interactions with Niru’s family, as the story jumps through the years back and forth. A police officer shoots Niru when he assumes Niru is a stranger sexually assaulting Meridith outside a club, when they are just having an argument. The ensuing aftermath is public and Meridith struggles to tell everyone the true context and that it was a misunderstanding. The book ends with Meridith talking to Niru’s father.  

Author Background: Uzodinma Iweala is an author and medical doctor. He graduated with his M.D. in 2011. He graduated from Harvard and attended high school in Washington D.C. He is currently the CEO of the Africa Center, a non-profit in Manhattan. His first book was Beasts of No Nation, a story about child soldiers in Africa that became a best seller and a high success. It was later adopted into a 2015 film featuring Idris Elba.  

Iweala has lived in Nigeria and has set up media start-up companies in Lagos. Iweala has also written a book about HIV/AIDS in Africa called Our Kind of People. His latest book is Speak No Evil, released in 2018, that has become a Michael Printz Award Finalist (Bailey, 2019). 

Critical Evaluation for Book: The book is really well written, short but concise sentences with lots of information. A lot of detail and anecdotes that really drive to the heart of characters like Niru, his parents, and Meridith. The author does a good job of showing the complexities of growing up with immigrant parents without demonizing them or painting them as perfect. The details of ketchup stains on his father’s shirt to the honey-roasted peanut he eats add to the characters. Everything is described in detail that helps the reader get an understanding of the scene. The reader will feel like they know the characters and feel like they are in Nigeria or Washington D.C. There are no illustrations. Many of the issues the characters face is going on in America, and the book is timely and brings to focus issues of race, sexuality, immigration and family.  

Creative Use for a Library Program: I would use this book as a library education programs to talk about the differences between police actions against black people versus white people. The book provides a realistic situation of how black people can be wrongly stereotyped as threats by police. The book can be used as a discussion point to discuss police brutality and the need to change our police system and where we see discrepancies in police treatment.   

Speed-Round Book Talk: Niru is black and coming to terms with his sexuality ans he struggles to fit into his world in America and his father’s world of how he thinks Niru should act. He must navigate a white world of people who think he is different all while having a demanding father who expects him to be perfect. His white friend Meridith has always had his back. However, tragedy and the reality of being black in America changes everything. 

Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation: Potential challenges will be for depiction and description of gay characters and lives. Being gay and the discrimination people because of it is a theme in the book. Many books in libraries are challenged for LGBTQ content, and it is possible a group or person would challenge. My defense preparation would be that as a freedom of speech issue, libraries can have LGBTQ content that is educational and inclusive and is not hate speech. Having content that shows LGBTQ people as complex and valued characters in books is important for younger readers.   

Reason for Inclusion: I included this book because it is an award finalist and touches on contemporary issues in America. It also is diverse and presents the perspective and life of a gay black teen, which is often underrepresented and undervalued. The book is also a wonderful and emotional to read. 

Bailey, S. (2019, February 26). The Extraordinary Path of Novelist, Medical Doctor, and Africa Center CEO Uzodinma Iweala. Time Sensitive. https://timesensitive.fm/episode/novelist-medical-doctor-africa-center-ceo-uzodinma-iweala/

Uzodinma, I. (2018). Speak No Evil. [eBook edition]. HarperCollins. https://dalycity.bibliocommons.com/item/show/2752518076