Nickel Girl

Author Name: Colson Whitehead

"The Nickel Boys" tells the story of Elwood, a boy framed for car theft and taken to the Nickel Correctional Facility for being underage. Carrying the words of Martin Luther King Jr. in his heart and mind, he is determined to resist and get out as soon as possible. Unlike his only friend at the facility, Turner, who is desperate and doubts they will ever get out, the facility, which claims to raise children to become good young men, is nothing but a chamber of horrors where they are abused and broken, and at the same time, it is a headquarters for shady businesses run by corrupt officials and merchants.
The Nickel Boys is based on the true history of the Dozier School, a reform school in Florida that operated for 111 years. University research revealed its racist history of beating, torturing, and murdering students. The investigation revealed approximately 55 graves on the school grounds by December 2012.










We learn with Thiong'o the value of knowledge, which colonialism withheld from the Kenyan people. He tells us about the emergence of formal education and independent, rebellious schools in Kenya. His dream, which he promised his mother he would spare no effort to achieve, was to learn. But how can a child cling to his dream amidst the shadows of World War II and his family crises? This childhood memoir serves as Thiong'o's testimony in defense of his right to dream, at least, despite all the difficulties, and of his mother's significant role in his life, which has led him to become one of Africa's greatest writers worldwide.