The Talk

For readers of The Hate U Give and How to Be an Antiracist, a pressing graphic memoir on 'the talk' in which parents must break it to Black children that the world hates them

'Bell is the Ta-Nehisi Coates of comics' Garry Trudeau, creator of Doonesbury

Darrin Bell was six years old when he had The Talk: his mother told him he couldn't have a realistic water gun. She said she feared for his safety, that police tend to think of little Black boys as older and less innocent than they really are.

Through evocative illustrations and sharp humour, Bell examines how The Talk shaped intimate and public moments from childhood to adulthood. While coming of age in Los Angeles - and finding a voice through cartooning - Bell becomes painfully aware of being regarded as dangerous by white teachers, neighbours and police officers, and thus of his mortality. Drawing attention to the brutal murders of African Americans, and showcasing revealing insights and cartoons along the way, he brings us up to the moment of reckoning when people took to the streets protesting the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

And now Bell must decide whether he and his own six-year-old son are ready to have The Talk.

'You won't be able to put it down' Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home