When Morning Comes

Starred review from November 28, 2016
This fictionalized account of a student uprising that began in Soweto, South Africa, on June 16, 1976, unfolds through the first-person narratives of four young adults from different backgrounds whose lives intersect. An African student, Zanele, secretly organizes the protest against the Afrikaans Medium Decree Act, which required the use of English and Afrikaans (“the language of the oppressors”) in schools. Her apolitical friend Thabo heads a local gang, extorting money from an Indian store owner, whose daughter Meena, is sympathetic to the students. Meanwhile, Jack, a white Afrikaner, meets, befriends, and comes to love Zanele. Unlikely alliances develop and shift among the four protagonists, each of whom feels pressure from loved ones to conform to expectations. Raina’s story powerfully demonstrates the high stakes of the teenagers’ choices while maintaining a bracing pace that builds steady tension. Each character’s distinct voice contributes to a sense of imminent change; in Zanele’s words, “Morning was coming, and it seemed as if I’d waited for this a long, long time—longer even than I’d been alive.” A riveting and accomplished debut. Ages 14–up.

December 1, 2016

Gr 8 Up-Zanele is a student who is secretly plotting against her South African government. Jack loves his Mustang and lives in a wealthy white neighborhood. Thabo, Zanele's best friend, has many enemies because he is in a gang. Then there is Meena, who finds illegal pamphlets containing what the government claims are terrorists' musings. Instead of throwing them away, she keeps them. Through all four characters, readers learn about apartheid in Johannesburg, South Africa, in the days leading up to the Soweto Uprising of 1976. The uprising was a protest led by black students over the Bantu Education Act, which enforced racial separation in schools. With its issues of racial inequality, the story is easily relatable for today's teens. The narrative is spare and engaging, but it also unloads a wealth of information about the time and a vivid sense of the setting. With careful detail, Raina describes Jack's spacious, wealthy home as well as the grit in Zanele's township, where she lives in a tin shack. The theme of how individual actions can have wide reach runs throughout. A glossary of Zulu and Afrikaans words incorporated in the story and an appended historical note further assist readers. VERDICT An eye-opening view of a rarely covered time and place in YA literature, this title offers rich opportunities for discussion and classroom sharing.-Maeve Dodds, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, NC

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 15, 2016
In her debut novel, Raina applies the now-familiar "teenage girl takes on the government" trope to the Soweto uprising of June 1976.Zanele, a black grade-12 student, is not a reluctant hero. She starts her portion of the narration by describing her role in the attempted bombing of a power plant and goes on to be one of the primary organizers of the student protest against unjust language laws. She is a leader by conviction. The author uses three other narrators to highlight this. Jack is Zanele's most obvious foil. A white boy from a middle-class family, his understanding of racial inequality extends only to his attempts to get close to Zanele, who occasionally assists her mother in serving his family. A black gang member and an Indian shopkeeper's daughter respectively, Thabo and Meena are united by their friendship with Zanele but diverge in the ways in which they engage with the community and the police. The presentation of characters with different racial identities beautifully highlights how those identities shape the characters' understandings and experiences of apartheid and their subsequent reactions to the uprising. Small details, such as Jack and his friends listening to Miles Davis as they put on blackface, stoke the tension in the prose. The violence that erupts is gut-wrenching but unsurprising. Readers who love the fast pace and high stakes of dystopian teen literature should snag this book. This timely reminder of the power and passion of young people contextualizes current student protests by honoring those of the past. (historical note, glossary, glossary sources) (Historical fiction. 13 & up)

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