Thirteen reasons why by jay asher
Every once in a while I read a book with a story that I know will stay in my head for a long time. This is one of those books.
Clay comes home from school one day to find on his doorstep a shoebox wrapped in brown paper, addressed to him, and containing 7 cassette tapes labeled by number and side A or B. He pops the first tape in a cassette player and realizes they are from a classmate, Hannah Baker, who recently committed suicide. He realizes that Hannah is using these tapes to tell the events leading up to her suicide. Each side of a tape describes, in order, what each person did that contributed to her decision. The box of tapes MUST be sent to ALL of the thirteen people or a second set of tapes will be released to the general public for all to hear. Since the tapes discuss events that lead to actual crimes, such as rape, it’s important to the thirteen people to keep the tapes a secret among themselves.
Hannah’s words spoken on the tapes are written in italics and her words are interspersed with Clay’s thoughts and actions as he spends the next several hours listening to the tapes and going to the locations she mentions. Clay really liked Hannah and is heartbroken to hear her story and what happened to her, realizing he could have stepped in many times to help.
The power of this book is realizing how “little” things done among students in our classrooms, hallways, at parties, etc., can contribute to situations that, over time, make people desperate enough where suicide might seem to be the only way out. Bullying, harassment, and students just being mean to each other have real consequences and we need to be aware of those affected. And we need to be aware of the people we interact with every day because we never know what else might be going on in their lives.
Authored by Mary Childs. Hosted by Edublogs.
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Written by LibWorm: School Libraries · Filed Under Reading News
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