Welcome to Week 1 of the Online Book Club discussion of The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead.
The Online Book Club, if you've never joined us before, is a book discussion group that takes place entirely online. Each week, I write a new blog post that talks about different aspects of the book, and you can interact directly with me and other readers by leaving your comments. Check back each week and see what new topics we're talking about.
The Nickel Boys tells the story of two boys who are "students" at a juvenile reformatory school called Nickel Academy. The school is basically a jail with students being beaten and mistreated on a daily basis. Elwood, the main character, is determined to escape the school to start his life over again, but as the book progresses, we see that leaving Nickel Academy isn't as easy as it might seem.
If you want to follow along with us, but you aren't interested in reading the book, you can always watch the movie adaptation on Amazon Prime. Don't have a subscription to Amazon Prime? No problem! You can request one of the Roku Express 4K+ Streaming Devices at the library. Check out the trailer above if you want to get a feel for the how the story plays out on screen. Feel free to still leave comments on the blog posts, even if you're only watching the series and not reading the book.
We'll read the first six chapters for next week, so make sure to check those out before reading the next blog post. I can't wait to hear from you in the comments!
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