Billy by: Albert French is a gripping realistic novel that will make you think about the cruel acts of those in our past. French's main focus of the novel is to show the never-ending racism of the early 1900's. Billy Lee Turner is a 10-year-old young “nigger” who murders a young 15-year-old white girl according to the sheriff and the biased opinion of the girl's cousin. The murder was really in self-defense; I mean you can't even say it was murder. The only reason it was considered that was cause she was white, he was black, and most of the country was racist then. Due to that reason Billy is then executed by the electric.
You are filled with empathy for young Billy and wish there was some way you could help him. You feel so much pain for Billy and the situation that he is in and you feel bad about anytime you have discriminated against someone. Billy exposes the discrimination that used to underline our country. Billy really opens your eyes to how cruel the world can be and that anything can happen because we live in a cruel world.
You learn a lot about from Billy about yourself. French does a good job making you think about the wrong that is done in this novel. He also makes it very easy to imagine and to put you in the characters shoes, which is a great, but different experience. Next time you catch yourself discriminating read Billy because it makes you feel bad about what you did and make you think deeply why it was wrong and how badly you could have impacted the person whom you discriminated about. Billy is a novel that can change your look on life so don't miss out on reading it.