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When the Ground Is Hard

Malla Nunn

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Jul 23, 2025 Nina ( picturetalk321 ) rated it really liked it

Shelves: world-australia, a-reviewed, author-ofcolour, genre-ya, author-woman, author-hybridnation, 4-star, author-white, theme-education, author-black

This is a children's book (teenagers) full of charm, heart and delicacy. The boarding school atmosphere is well evoked. So is the caste / race system of 1960s Swaziland (today's Eswatini) with a strict hierarchy of white / mixed-race / "native". It's also a coming-of-age story with the 16-year old main character learning about her mother, friendship, death and what you can change and what you cannot change.

There are some harsh themes addressed and these are delicately handled, incl. off-page rap ...more

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Jun 22, 2023 Anna Ruth FL rated it really liked it

Shelves: african-grc, eswatini-grc

My read around the world pick for Eswatini. The book is good from the perspective of Adele Joubert who attends a boarding school for biracial children and is one of the " pretties" as the popular, mean girls call themselves. When she returns after the break she finds herself kicked out of the group and replaced by a new girl who us wealthier. She is then matched with school outcast Little Diamond who is poor and on scholarship. The roommates begin to bond over Adele's copy of Jane Eyre and other ...more

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