Gypsy Girl

Author: Rumer Godden

First line: "If anyone," said the teacher, Mrs. Blount, in the classroom, "any one" and her eyes looked sternly along the lines of tables filled with boys and girls, "teases or bullies or jeers at Kizzy Lovell, they will answer for it to me."

Why you should read this book: This engaging story discusses the issue of Gypsies, now known as Travellers, living in England in the 1970s, glossing over civil rights for a more powerful examination of pure civility. When Kizzy's teacher uses threats to ask for more respect toward the unusual girl in her first grade class, others suggest she has made a mistake, and should have tried to romanticize the girl's life, but Kizzy cares nothing for their world, preferring the company of her great-great-grandmother and her geriatric horse, Joe, in the solitary caravan in the woods. When fate steal both Gram and the caravan away from her, Kizzy is forced to venture into the world she hates, teaching the people of the village to love her for her true self.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You continue your campaign to wipe those who refuse to conform off the face of the planet.