The Nickel Boys Lesson Plan

The Nickel Boys draws thematic parallels from Whitehead's other works, which often deal with issues of racial justice. In the acknowledgments, Whitehead cites The White House Boys: An American Tragedy, by Roger Dean Kiser, and The Boys of the Dark: A Story of Betrayal and Redemption, by Robin Gaby Fisher, as "excellent accounts" of the real-life Dozier School that inspired Nickel Academy. He also recommends Tom Murton/Joe Hyams's Accomplices to the Crime: The Arkansas Prison Scandal as useful "ground's-eye view of prison corruption," and Julianne Hare's Historic Frenchtown: Heart and Heritage in Tallahassee as a history of the Frenchtown African-American community.