Brilliant! In the wake of the many horrific school shootings this novel has a way of making you look at these tragic events in many different ways.
Poor Peter, the boy who finally put an end to the teasing, bullying, ridicule and constant put downs by the jocks and yet poor everyone else who’s lives ended far too soon. Would the people killed grown up to be successful or would they have continued placing blame on everyone else for their own miserable lives?
How many of the popular crowd at Sterling High felt like Josie? How many in your high school do you think are actually being who they want to be and rejecting the person the society of school thinks they should be? Did you know who you were in high school? Did you laugh when the crowd was laughing, did you sit quietly and let them laugh, or did you get up and voice your own opinion even when it wasn’t the popular one?
We’ve all been there. Sitting beside the labeled “geek” of the class, partnered with the “too cool to care” jock, labeled something that we didn’t in our heart believe was right. When we tell the teacher or our parents too often we’re to ignore it, that it’ll pass, that it’s just high school but when we’re in high school it’s our life.
How are you going to deal? How did you deal with it? Of course there are many other ways than what Peter did but this novel, these 19 minutes, have you understanding, however frightening it may be, what drove him to shoot.
Take a look for yourself – it’s definitely worth the peek.
Thanks for reading,
Sarah Butland