Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses is an intense and rewarding story of courage, determination and belief. The passionate love story between two friends living in two different worlds inspires the readers to not only see the main plot but also to live in the story.

For Sephy, life is natural luxury but what appears to be simple at first goes deeper than can she can ever imagine. Being in love with a Nought is not easy. She is frowned upon every day she spends with him. Callum lives day by day. For him, life is a duty. Not only has he been brought into a Nought family, he carries the burden of loving a Cross. Will Sephy and Callum ever have a future together while living in this world of discrimination or will their love for each other be enough?

Noughts and Crosses is a book about love and hate. Noughts hate crosses; crosses hate noughts. Noughts are thought to be inferior, and so try to help their cause through violence. Crosses are powerful, but don’t give noughts a fair chance. The cause of all this is simple: noughts are white and crosses are black.

However, one ray of hope shines out of this racist thunderstorm. Sephy Hadley, the daughter of a well-known politician, is a cross. She loves Callum McGregor, a nought. Both their families have vowed to wipe the other off the face of the planet. And at the end, something comes to pass that neither side could have ever expected …

This book is not for the faint-hearted. Some of the issues tackled are not suitable for people who like a book with a lovely end. As a result, I would say that only secondary school students and above would enjoy this book. Having said this, I thought that Noughts and Crosses was one of the most exciting books I have ever read. It combines secrecy, love and war with remarkable finesse, and at the same time tackles some issues in a way that does not seem clichéd.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Noughts and Crosses, and I think that Malorie Blackman deserves to be commended for writing a book on racism without introducing the melodramatic whimpering that plagues so many other similar novels. Its mark: a great big thumbs-up and I look forward to buying Knife Edge, the sequel.

Noughts and Crosses is unlike any other book I have read. It looks at the racial issues that existed a few decades ago and turns them upside own. This book also takes these issues to the extreme.

This book looks at the story of two young friends: Sephy and Callum. Sephy is a cross with rich parents with their own private beach and Callum is a nought who has next to nothing. The book looks at the troubles facing their relationship in a world where crosses are shamed for being anywhere near crosses.

The chapters alternate between Sephy and Callum showing their different feelings both for each other and for the world they live in. The book is exceptionally well written and is a good read for any age-group. The alternating character viewpoint makes it different and more interesting than a normal book. With this and an exciting twisting plot, Noughts and Crosses is a must read for anyone.

The story is set in a world where the Crosses rule everything and the Noughts have no power and very few rights. Sephy is a Cross, and Callum is a nought.

The story is told through the eyes of Sephy and Callum, so we see a very clear image of how each of them is feeling. I think that Malorie Blackman uses the power of people's thoughts to the full extent in this book, and it works very well.

Callum and Sephy are very good friends, although relationships between Noughts and Crosses are strictly forbidden. The author uses real facts to emphasize the points that she is making through the eyes of the character.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and thought it was very gripping as well as being very powerful.

Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses novel was one of the best books I have ever read. I would like to commend its excellence as it kept me wanting more.

The story is about a couple who are in love and are best friends. It is about racism but what would have been history between black and white people is reversed so that black takes the position of the whites' superiority.

The book had many shocks and surprises throughout, but managed to keep it realistic. Everything you could possibly imagine to go wrong, went wrong: very wrong ...

Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses is a very well written book. It showed us the racism in our society and how that can lead to terrible things. It wasn't offensive which was very good, but it still made a very heartfelt message. It basically reversed rôles from white to black and that was very cleverly done. Tragic that two lovers couldn't live in peace, just because of their colour and race. It showed me how racism could and does destroys many lives.

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