Genre: Fiction
Publication Date: September 1, 2009
Synopsis:
Valerie Leftman and her boyfriend, Nick keep a hate list of all the people that they hate in high school. Valerie starts the hate list after being bullied and bothered by the popular kids for years. She meets Nick and he's also bullied by kids even though he's a newer student.
Valerie and Nick add a name to the hate list after someone has been mean to them, bothered them, bullied them, etc. Nick decides to act upon the list, and brings a gun into school one day and picks off people from the list one-by-one. Valerie puts her life in danger to save one of the almost victims.
She spends the summer recovering and getting ready to face her school for her senior year. Valerie must overcome this terrible event in her life, and atone for her part in the shooting.
Review:
I picked this book out and another like it for my controversial book project for my graduate class. As a teacher I think about bullying, shootings, and depression a lot when it comes to my students. I thought this book would be good to read, because I like to talk to my students about books that are thought provoking, important, evocative, and compelling. I figured once I read this then I'd be able to use it as a book talk Friday book in my classroom. After reading it I'm not sure it's right for my middle school students, but it was a very good read.
I think the main characters, Valerie and Nick, are characters that so many students can relate to in school. There are students bullied everyday in school, because they're different, poor, odd, geeky, etc. Valerie and Nick were different and therefore bullied. They needed a way to vent those feelings, so Valerie created a hate list. It was petty and stupid, but doesn't that describe a lot of high school students?
Nick is difficult to empathize with since you never really get to know him. The book starts after his death in the shooting and you really only see him from Valerie's point of view. Valerie has a difficult time letting go of her love for Nick. Nick was the first person that she could be herself with, and her first real boyfriend. She didn't see his depth of hate and unhappiness until it was too late. She has a very difficult time letting go of her love for him, which is difficult for her to deal with as well as her family and friends.
This book in my opinion is pretty realistic. It's a normal town, school, kids, etc. It's something that could happen anywhere, which is scary but also brings the lesson to your heart. Students deal with bullying everyday. They are young, impressionable, and have a very hard time coping with this problem. They don't always reach out, their parents don't always see it, and teachers can't be everywhere at all times.
What I loved about this book is that Valerie learns that there are depths and layers to people that she didn't know about before she put them on her hate list. I think even the victim needs to understand that other people are going through things as well. Does that make it right to pick on other people? No, of course not, but it does help us understand why kids do the things they do.
I think this book would be important for high school students to read to understand the impact they have on one another. Students say and do things everyday without much thought, and they need to understand that those actions and words often do affect other people. They do not live in a bubble.
This book helped me looks at my students in a different way. It helped me see that the students in my class picking on other students are self-conscious and usually decide to attack first. It helped me to watch the actions of my students in a deeper manner to see their motivations and feelings. I think it's helped me be a better teacher, friend, wife, and mother. We all need to step back sometimes and look at what we say, do, and act like.
5/5 stars
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