Top Three Songs

Faber Drive - Obvious

Michael Jackson- Black or White

Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder- Ebony and Ivory

Fun Game that is related to Naughts and Crosses

1. Have the class split into two different groups. Decided which one is the Naughts and which one is the Crosses. Give one person in each group a marker and give them an object to draw. For the Crosses make the object simple, for the Naughts make the object more difficult.

What is this game suppose to represent?

In the book Naughts and Crosses the Naughts have less lenient rules while the Crosses don't have to work as hard. This game is suppose to show how the Crosses could do less and still be considered the Alpha dogs.

With this game you can change it from drawing a picture to figuring out math problems. As long as the game still shows the different classes and their expectations.

Official Naughts and Crosses Website

www.malorieblackman.co.uk/noughtsandcrosses/noughtsandcrosses

-You can find links to Blackman's other books, information about all of her books, ways to contact her, and video messages from Malorie Blackman.

Summary on Naughts and Crosses

In an alternate society dealing with racism we meet Callum and Sephy.They both begin high school at Heathcroft (an unknown thing for naughts)and situations will happen that will change their friendship forever.

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After Callum find out that his older brother and father have joined the Liberation Militia his older sister Lynette throws herself in front of a bus. Later, Callum is expelled from school after the Liberation Militia bombs a local mall. Callum, caught up in all of grief, neglects to talk to Sephy. Meanwhile, Sephy begins drinking and decides that she wants to go to a boarding school so she can get away from alcohol mother and the absence of her father. Having not heard from Callum she writes him a letter asking his to run away with her, but of course, he doesn't receive it until it's too late.

Three years later, when Sephy returns from Chivers Boarding school, Callum is deep into the LM, Stiletto Unit. The day she returns, Callum sends a message asking Sephy to meet him in their secret place on the beach. After finally having their first kiss together, Sephy finds out the meeting was actually a trap set up by the LM.

Sephy is forced into a car, taken miles away from her family's house, and put in a dark, damp, basement. She believes there is no way she will get out alive, and asks Callum to be the one to kill her. But soon he realizes that the feelings he still holds for Sephy will not allow him to kill her, and secretly they have sex.

The same night, the LM is betrayed and the members that return to their secret hide-out agree that they must kill Sephy Hadley. Not wanting them to due so, Callum allows her to escape. The LM members agree to split up and lay low for six months, and within that time Callum finds out that Sephy is pregnant.

While trying to contact Sephy, Callum is captured and sent to hang. Sephy's father makes Sephy a deal, if she has an abortion, Callum will not hang. Even though the deal will save Callum's life, Sephy knows that it is not what he wants. He would rather hang then kill their unborn child.

On the day of his hanging, Sephy goes and proclaims her love for Callum. Callum's final words were, "I Love You Too!"

Writing Naughts and Crosses

Although many people believe that Malorie Blackman wrote Naughts and Crosses based off of Romeo and Juliet, we have the real insight into why she wrote this spectacular book.

The idea of writing a book that dealt with slavery in cased Blackman's mind completely. Even though her close friend wasn't please with the idea, Blackman didn't let that get in the way. Sure slavery is a painful subject of the past but the legacy of it still lives with us.

"I really believe that the subject of slavery is really important- especially this day and age." - Malorie Blackman

Blackman wanted to show major divisions of society through two main characters, Callum (Naught) and Sephy (Cross). She wanted her book to show the different view points of the divisions of society. The Naughts representing the lower class, while the Crosses represented the upper class and ruling society. Blackman also used Callum and Sephy to show that our perspectives color our thinking.

How did the title Naughts and Crosses come up?

Naughts and Crosses (Tic-Tac-Toe) is a game that invariably nobody wins. Blackman believed that game pretty much summed up racism, nobody won. One of Malorie Blackman's favorite quotes is;

"Racism is man's gravest threat to man- the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason." - Abraham Joshua Heschel

Blackman's Awards

Awards!

Smarties Silver Book Award (2004) - Cloud Busting

BBC Big Read Top 100 Title (Number 61)- Naughts and Crosses

FCBG Children's Book Award (2002)- Naughts and Crosses

Sheffield Chilren's Book of the Year Award (2002)- Naughts and Crosses

Wirral Children's Paperback of the Year Award (2003)- Naughts and Crosses

Lancashire Children's Book of the Year Award (2002)- Naughts and Crosses

Fantastic Fiction Award (2004)- Naughts and Crosses

Stockport Children's Book of the Year Award (2000)- Key Stage 4- Tell me No Lies

BAFTA for the best Children's Drama (2000)- Pig-Heart Boy

Wirral Children's Paperback of the Year Award (1999)- Pig-Heart Boy

UKRA Award Winner (1998)- Pig-Heart Boy

Stockport Children's Book of the Year Award (1997)- Key Stage 3- Antidote

(Doubleday/Yearling)

Excell/Write Thing Children's Author of the Year Award (1997)

Young Telegraph/ Fully Booked Children's Book of the Year Award (1996)- Thief!

W H Smith's Mind Boggling Book Award (1994) Hacker

Young Telegraph/Gimme 5 Children's Book of the Year Award (1994)- Hacker

And Many More!

Malorie Blackman

A proud author of over 50 books, Malorie Blackman has earned many awards including the Fantastic Fiction Award (2004) and the Race & Media Award (2000). Her first book was Not So Stupid! and was written in 1990. Along with novels Blackman has written dozens of movie scripts, original drama scripts, and plays.

But writing wasn't Blackman's first job. She use to work as a Database manager, Systems Programmer, and many more. After taking an acting class however, Blackman decided to become a writer.