The Sellout opens up with the most fraught of American judicial paradigms: a black man appearing before the Supreme Court to hear if what he's done with his life is legally allowed. It's not just any old offense being considered either. We're talking slavery and segregation, remixed for 2015.

On Wednesday night Jacqueline Woodson won the 2014 National Book Award for Young Peoples Literature. After she left the stage the host of the National Book Awards, Daniel Handler, told the crowd that she, a Black woman, "was allergic to watermelon" and then implored the crowd at the National Book Awards to "let that settle in your mind." I found myself staring at my laptop and choking on a waterfall of watermelon seeds.