Hello, I’m going to talk about a book I’ve read in my school two years ago, called Face, written

by Benjamin Zephaniah in 1999.

The author was born in 1958 in Birmingham in the UK. He has always written poetry although
he abandoned school at the age of 13 due to dyslexia. His first performance was at the age of
10. Benjamin kept on writing and performing, but at the age of 22, he moved to London and
published his first book, Pen Rhythm. In the early 80s, Zephaniah’s poetry was heard
everywhere, which was his mission. In the 90s, his book publications and television
appearances increased in Britain. He also started writing child’s books and young people
appreciated the fact that he was not afraid to write about the real world where there are
bullies, guns, racism and war. Just then, in 1999, he wrote one of his most recognized books
called Face.

The story takes place in East London, and it is about Martin Turner, a popular teenager and
leader of The Gang of Three, who has to self-discover himself after a tragic car accident which
left him burnt, mostly in his face. After this event, people start treating him differently and
Mark and Matthew, his friends, and Natalie, his girlfriend, begin to drift away from him. That’s
when he has to face many changes in his life, such as leave his friends in the past and move on.

In the beginning of the story, Martin was popular, confident, athletic and trouble-maker. Mark
was the silly one, stubborn and wanted to be popular as well. Matthew was the quiet one, shy,
smarter than both, Martin and Mark, and thought everything twice. Natalie was smart, popular
and very superficial. After what happened to Martin, they all changed, but I’ll leave you to read
it yourself.

I really enjoyed reading this book because I think it is fantastically well-done and that it is
definitely worth your time reading. I loved that the book teaches not to treat people based on
their appearances or how they look but on their values. Another thing I really enjoyed was
that it was really easy to read since it was really catchy and it was not hard to understand at
all. I would totally recommend this book to young people, since it leaves an inspiring message
and the writing and vocabulary is simple.