Noughts & Crosses series

The series by English author Malorie Blackman is a critically acclaimed series of young adult novels, including a novella, set in a fictional dystopia.

This novel describes an alternative history where humans evolved while Pangaea was still intact. Without the barriers to exchange of domesticable animals, among other factors, the African people gained a technological and organizational advantage over the Europeans rather than the other way around, and made Europeans their slaves. At the time of the story, slavery has been abolished, but Jim-Crow type segregation operates to keep the Crosses (Blacks) in control of the noughts (Whites). Also, the close proximity of the various nations of the world in a single supercontinent and the lack of natural defences have forced the nations of the world to learn to cooperate. An organization called the Pangaean Economic Community exists, and seems to be similar to the United Nations in scope but similar to the European Union in powers, and it is playing a role in forcing change.

Sephy Hadley is a Cross (meaning that she has dark skin) and the daughter of a wealthy politician named Kamal. Callum McGregor is a nought (meaning that he has light skin). They used to play together when Jasmine Hadley (Sephy's mother) employed Meggie McGregor (Callum's mother) as a Nanny. However, Jasmine fired her when Meggie could not provide an alibi for Jasmine when her husband confronted her about his suspicions of her infidelity (this is only revealed later in the novel, though it is strongly implied). Since then, Sephy and Callum's friendship has been secret. As best friends, their relationship is frowned upon by society, in the same way that interracial friendships in the Southern United States were thought of before 1960, but in reverse.

Callum is one of the first few noughts to start at Heathcroft High, a school mainly for Crosses and only the best performing Noughts. Sephy is overjoyed to find that Callum has joined her class. But the majority of her classmates do not accept her association with a nought. They develop a more intimate connection. Sephy however does not care, and sits at the nought table, which annoys Callum and he ignores her a bit and they fall out. They make up, however. Meanwhile, Callum's brother and father join the Liberation Militia (LM), a violent terrorist organisation supposedly aimed at promoting equality between the two races, and Sephy's mother becomes an alcoholic.