This book is a 10/10!
I finished it on Monday at work. The ending was...amazing. I just couldn't put it down. Of course, I can't tell you the ending, but I was surprised by it. It wasn't something I was expecting at all, but it was exciting! This book is definitely recommended reading :-)
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Nineteen Minutes - 50 pages to end
Hmm...I'm surprised I didn't post anything about picking up this book again. But what the hey - Back in January, I picked up Nineteen Minutes by Jodie Picoult, but I never finished it. I read about 200 pages in and then returned it to the library due to a change in my job and a lack of free time. But I picked it up again, hoping that this time, I'd finally finish it.
So, I'm about 50 pages from the end (40 is more accurate). The book is about a 17 year old boy who becomes the killer in a Columbine-like school shooting. He kills 10 people, wounds 19. Out of an entire school, I'd say that's small beans...but anyway. I really like the topic of this book. The bullied gets revenge.
As someone who was at the bottom of the social ladder throughout school, I sympathize with this kid. I was "secretly bullied." It's so easy to be "secretly bullied." I was one of the last girls to be chosen for a team in gym class (never last because I wasn't the fat girl), the girl who rode the bus because Mommy and Daddy didn't buy me a Jeep for my 16th birthday, was always told "this seat's taken," when you could choose your seat in class, was pointed and laughed at just to make me feel insecure, etc. I never thought about shooting up my school (though I will admit to wanting to kill one girl who stole not one, but two groups of my friends). I imagined that one day I'd be rich and famous and my old school-mates would be begging me to be their friend. My 10th year reunion is coming up...so much for being rich and famous.
As a teacher, I see meanness in school every day. It's unspoken, but THERE and this book is a fictional testament to what happens when meanness is accepted as "part of growing up" by the school community. I've worked in schools with bullying policies, but they don't really help. It's like telling a dog he can't run after that squirrel. In human terms, we call it "Teaching tolerance." It's nice, but it doesn't work. I have no real solutions, though, and I don't think anyone else does either.
I can't wait to see how this book ends. Will the kid actually go to jail or be acquitted on the basis of PTSD, after years of bullying? EXCITING!!!
So, I'm about 50 pages from the end (40 is more accurate). The book is about a 17 year old boy who becomes the killer in a Columbine-like school shooting. He kills 10 people, wounds 19. Out of an entire school, I'd say that's small beans...but anyway. I really like the topic of this book. The bullied gets revenge.
As someone who was at the bottom of the social ladder throughout school, I sympathize with this kid. I was "secretly bullied." It's so easy to be "secretly bullied." I was one of the last girls to be chosen for a team in gym class (never last because I wasn't the fat girl), the girl who rode the bus because Mommy and Daddy didn't buy me a Jeep for my 16th birthday, was always told "this seat's taken," when you could choose your seat in class, was pointed and laughed at just to make me feel insecure, etc. I never thought about shooting up my school (though I will admit to wanting to kill one girl who stole not one, but two groups of my friends). I imagined that one day I'd be rich and famous and my old school-mates would be begging me to be their friend. My 10th year reunion is coming up...so much for being rich and famous.
As a teacher, I see meanness in school every day. It's unspoken, but THERE and this book is a fictional testament to what happens when meanness is accepted as "part of growing up" by the school community. I've worked in schools with bullying policies, but they don't really help. It's like telling a dog he can't run after that squirrel. In human terms, we call it "Teaching tolerance." It's nice, but it doesn't work. I have no real solutions, though, and I don't think anyone else does either.
I can't wait to see how this book ends. Will the kid actually go to jail or be acquitted on the basis of PTSD, after years of bullying? EXCITING!!!
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