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In 2015, aspiring author Angie Thomas turned to听Twitter听for advice. Would a young adult novel that deals with a sensitive current issue, like the Black Lives Matter movement, be a 鈥渘o-no,鈥澨齭he wondered.

Her future literary agent, Brooks Sherman, tweeted back that same day: 鈥淔or me, no subject should be off-limits in children鈥檚 books.鈥� It was the push Ms. Thomas needed to move forward, and just two weeks later, more than a dozen publishing houses fought over rights to her book,听鈥淭he Hate U Give,鈥� in a heated auction.

Since the book鈥檚 debut in 2017, 1.5 million copies have been sold in North America. The movie version, set to open Friday, is poised to bring the novel鈥檚 race-relations themes to a wider audience and add to an already complicated national discussion. Although embraced by many educators and book critics, 鈥淭he Hate U Give鈥� has also been banned for its language and criticized by police officers for its potential to create distrust of them. The release of the movie version coincides with the investigation of Dallas officer Amber Guyger 鈥撎齛ccused of shooting her neighbor 鈥� and the outcome of听the trial听of Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke, who fatally shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a way in which, assuming the verdict [of the Van Dyke case] is reached in the coming days, this movie will remind people that we are still very much in the era of racial justice protests against state violence...,鈥� says Khalil Muhammad, a professor of history, race, and public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass., speaking before the Van Dyke verdict was reached Friday.

A familiar plot

鈥淭he Hate U Give鈥澨齬eflects Thomas鈥檚 reaction to the 2009 police shooting of Oscar Grant, an unarmed, 22-year-old black man whose death led to riots in Oakland, Calif. In her story,听a young black teenager is shot by a white officer who mistakes a hairbrush for a gun. The protagonist, 16-year-old Starr Carter, who is also black, witnesses the event and must decide whether to speak up or stay silent, a choice that will affect her community, family, and friendships at her white suburban high school.听

Starr鈥檚 story resonates with young听people in a way that few books do, says Carol Jago, associate director of the California Reading and Literature Project at the University of California, Los Angeles. Part of its appeal is its ability to bring the reader into Starr鈥檚 world, looking out from her vantage point as she navigates the aftermath of her friend鈥檚 death.听

鈥淕ood stories don鈥檛 take a side. They show you a slice of life and then invite you to say, well what do you think? Where do you stand?鈥� Ms. Jago says.

Professor Muhammad adds that 鈥淭he Hate U Give鈥澨齱ill reach people who have perhaps not tuned into the Black Lives Matter movement.

鈥淭he book 鈥� and to some degree the movie 鈥� has been read and will be read by students in all-white spaces, where otherwise the urgency of these issues has not affected them personally,鈥� Muhammad says. He sees it as a vehicle to raise awareness in adults as well. 鈥淸O]ne can always hope that good storytelling and works of art can speak to people when otherwise they might choose to be deaf, dumb, or blind to the problem,鈥� he adds.听

Beyond its racial themes, the novel has been compared to fantasy books like听鈥淭he Hunger Games鈥澨齛nd 鈥淒ivergent,鈥澨齱here strong young women battle established systems.听鈥溙�鈥楾he Hate U Give鈥櫶齣s, yes, a novel about race 鈥� but it is also a dystopian young adult novel that happens to be set in reality,鈥澨齱rites Los Angeles Times critic-at-large, Adriana Ram铆rez. 鈥淎 student in my class, Nicole, stood up one day and asked why Katniss [Everdeen] was white. She made the point that right now, the people she knows most like Katniss are the black girls in her neighborhood.听鈥榃here I grew up, it鈥檚 always 鈥淭he Hunger Games.鈥� 鈥� 鈥�

An opportunity for affirmation听

For readers and viewers who already walk in Starr鈥檚 shoes, the story can be an affirmation of their identities and the struggles they experience. Bridget Jarrett, a district librarian in Jarrell,听Texas, says she knows of a middle-schooler who read the book five times. The student, who is听biracial, has attended the same small private school since kindergarten, where classmates have called her 鈥淥reo鈥� and other derogatory names.

鈥淪he told me she read it five times because she understands the pull that Starr felt to be part of two different worlds, to be black but also to not be black, and to be as nonblack as possible around her private school friends,鈥� says Ms. Jarrett. 鈥淚t鈥檚 speaking to who she is as a person.鈥�

The book, a bestseller, has been well-received but is not without critics. In the city of Katy, Texas, former superintendent Lance Hindt banned the book districtwide in November 2017 after a parent complained about its explicit language, discussion of drug use, and sexual content. (At least one activist听argued that other books in the district鈥檚听collection contained these same elements, such as 鈥淭he Outsiders鈥澨� by S.E. Hinton and some of Shakespeare鈥檚 works, according to the Houston Chronicle.)

Elsewhere, in South Carolina, a local police union issued a complaint to Wando High School in Mount Pleasant in June 2018 over its inclusion of 鈥淭he Hate U Give鈥澨齣n its summer reading list. Union leader John Blackmon said听that the book was 鈥渁lmost an indoctrination of distrust of police鈥� 鈥� even though it includes a character, Uncle Carlos, who acts as a father figure to Starr and is also a police officer. The school did not end up pulling the book.

Jarrett says this kind of reaction is common, especially for works that disrupt the status quo. Books like the Harry Potter series, 鈥淎 Wrinkle in Time,鈥� and even 鈥淐harlotte鈥檚 Web鈥� have been banned at certain points in time, she notes, but generally become more accepted as opinions evolve.

鈥淸In this case], I think it was about the Black Lives Matter movement, and the story it was portraying made people uncomfortable,鈥� she says. 鈥淎s time goes on, I don鈥檛 think this book will be banned in places.鈥�

Advanced reviews of the movie have been mostly positive. Even so, Jago at UCLA听has a concern: Will it be so good that it discourages kids from reading the book, as was the case with some Harry Potter fans?

鈥淚 don鈥檛 blame Angie Thomas for having a movie made,鈥澨齭he says, 鈥渂ut I鈥檓 an English teacher, and my first priority is getting kids鈥� noses in books.鈥澨�

Editor's note:听 This story has been updated to reflect the correct town in Texas where Bridget Jarrett is a librarian.听