The gifted students at Crenshaw are not often introduced to much literature at home, and the books and plays they read in Little’s class, including The Crucible and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, seem difficult at first, but the students come to appreciate and connect to the works. They see the works as ways to reflect on their own experiences and traumas, and Little helps them develop a love of literature. Books are their passport to college and a better life, as well as their tickets to better self-understanding. 

Shakespeare's Othello is one of the flash points between Little and Moultrie. Moultrie thinks it’s critical for her students to read works with black characters and to immerse them in black culture and history. Little, however, wants Moultrie to prepare students in 11th grade for Little's rigorous senior AP class. Little and Moultrie clash over this book as well as many other elements of Moultrie’s curriculum, such as her creative assignments and writing prompts on African proverbs.