Asher, Jay. (2007). Thirteen Reasons Why. New York: Penguin Group
Chapter book: Yes Genre: Realistic Fiction
When I was younger and people would argue and bully each other and call each other names we would say, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me.” Oh if only that were true. Who knew that today not only will words hurt you but in some instances cause young people to do the unthinkable. Commit suicide! No longer do young people fuss today and make up tomorrow now there’s Facebook, MySpace and twitter. Today it’s called cyber bullying and it never stops. As in the case with Hannah Baker who gives us Thirteen Reasons Why.
In the story Thirteen Reasons Why it takes place in small town where everyone knows everyone’s business. A few days after Hannah Baker commits suicide her friend Clay Hansen receives a strange package on his doorsteps. It was a shoebox with seven cassette tapes inside detailing her reasons why. After hearing the first tape Clay is perplexed should he continue to listen or throw the shoebox away. But what if there are more? What if he is the very reason she is gone? And what if the wrong person should find out? His wanting to know outweighed his fear of what he would do if he was. As he continued to listen so many thoughts ran through his mind so many emotions began to surface. Was this the reason she left them? For some twisted kind of revenge? No she left them because she knew Clay would tell her story the way she intended for it to be heard.
Clay, honey, your name does not belong on this list. You don’t belong in the same way as the others. It’s like that song: One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn’t belong. And that’s you, Clay. But you need to be here if I’m going to tell my story. To tell it more completely. (P.200)
What I enjoyed most about this story was the intensity of the two way dialogue between Clay and Hannah. Moreover, when Hannah went to talk with Mr. Porter for the last time you could just imagine Clay’s feeling of helplessness. I thought this story was very well written. In addition, I highly recommend this story to students 14 and above. Below is a website for the book.
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