I first discovered it as a local public school board of education, which I shall not name on here but it is in the Capital Region, had to decide if they were going to ban it from their school libraries per a parent's request. They voted NO. Praise God!! NO, they are NOT going to ban this book. I'll give my own thoughts regarding the banning of books at the end of this review.
SUMMARY
Sasha F----- is a teenager who likes to wear skirts. They identify as agender. They are on the autism spectrum as well but very high functioning. They were biologically born a male. (Please look up the definition of agender as I'm not going to give the definitions on here). They live in a middle-class section of Oakland, California up in the foothills and attend a private school called Maybeck.
Richard is a teen who attends a large public high school in the economically-deprived flatlands of Oakland. He is being raised by a single mother.
After school each day, they take the 57 bus where their paths cross for about eight minutes. But one afternoon in early November, their paths collide due to one single reckless act of violence. This leaves Sasha badly burned on both legs and leaves Richard charged with a felony: two hate crimes and the possibility of life imprisonment.
MY THOUGHTS
This book is a look at justice vs injustice. It's a look at right and wrong; of victim and perpetrator and that the crime isn't simple...that it's something quite complicated and very heartbreaking.
This case received international attention and put both teenagers into the spotlight.
This is a look at class, race, gender, identity, morality, forgiveness, and the justice system in our nation. This will get you to look differently at empathy, crime, punishment and people who are different from you.
As a Christ follower, I firmly believe that God's Word is true where the Scriptures say He created us to be male and female. But in today's culture, there are some mixed up teens......and I believe it is their true feelings....some feel male in a female body; some feel female in a male body; and some feel neither. I know gay people and trans people. I know one non-binary person. In fact, they are friends with my oldest daughter. However, I am not the judge of their lives nor of their sexual identification or lack thereof. I figure the Lord Almighty will solve all of that in the end.
I feel that this is an important book to read because as an older American, I have had implicit bias towards some of the types of people mentioned in this book. Thankfully, I am learning and hopefully changing my thought processes.
I honestly loved the pages where the author lists the various terms being used in today's culture with the definitions. It was helpful.
I loved that the author interviewed many people for this book and that she also got to know Sasha and Richard. I found my self being so sad that Richard thought a homophobic was someone who loved females and was born a male. He honestly didn't know the meaning of the word. My heart went out to both teenagers because both teens were full of all kinds of emotions.
I thoroughly enjoyed that the author went into the development of teenagers brains and explained about the limbic system.
I am so relieved as to how Richard faced time and that Sasha is at MIT (at least as of the publication of the book).
There were so many great quotes in this book. Here are a couple of my faves:
"It's true that in terms of pure intellect, teenagers are just as smart as adults, just as able to reason, and just as knowledgeable about the consequences of risky behavior. But they are also wired differently.Many people have observed that adolescents tend to be more reckless, impulsive, and vulnerable to peer pressure than adults. It turns out that at least part of this explanation for this behavior can be found in the structure of the teenage brain." (pg 173, The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater, c.2017).
And then the author goes on to explain the development of the brain in simple terms that anyone can understand it. I do remember learning about the teen brain in a graduate school psych class and as adults, we tend to forget that yes, teenagers brains are not fully developed until about age 25.
Another good quote was found on page 220:
""To forgive, you have to forget," he (Richard) counseled. "Because otherwise you haven't truly forgiven.""
And these quotes:
"'Our system is focused on blame and punishment and not on healing and learning", says Lauren Abramson, who founded the Community Conferencing Center in Baltimore, Maryland, one of the oldest and most widely respected RJ (Restorative Justice) programs in the nation. "There's a different way to deliver justice that's been proven in many cases to be more socially effective and more cost-effective." (pg 238)
And the author does explain about Restorative Justice which I had heard of but didn't know much about. WHY is our nation not doing this in every high school? in every justice system in every town/state?? A 16 year old is not the same as a 35 year old!!
And this was sobering to me:
"If being a man meant always having to act confident and never being able to admit feeling sadness or self-doubt, it was just as much of a trap as being a woman was. He was happier now than he'd been before he transitioned, but he still yearned for something else, some place outside of gender." (pg 290)
(this was said by Andrew, Sasha's best friend who had become a transgender male after being born female).
Now, we who are Christians...true Christ followers who desire to love as Jesus loves....we know that what is missing in these lives is the connection between their souls and Christ/God. They are missing HIS Love. That is what we know fills our souls.
But may we also recognize that until people come to know Christ for themselves, that our job is to love them as we want to be loved.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 12 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 10.
My views on book banning:
NO ONE should be banning books. If you, as a parent, do not want your child under the age of 18 reading a certain book, whether it's non fiction or fiction, simply tell them. Tell them WHY. Be the parent!! But we as parents have no right to stop others from reading books. Books should not be banned from classrooms (Unless it's developmentally inappropriate for that age level/grade level) and definitely should not be banned from libraries whether it's a public school, private school, or town library. I'm so thankful we put boundaries around our daughters' reading and that eventually we allowed them to read books on all kinds of topics/genres.
Reading books expands your mind. And this one? Will cause you to be more empathetic towards people who are different from you. Try it!
PLEASE NOTE: Florida and Texas are the two states that ban the most books. This book has been banned from several schools along with 49 other ones and probably more.
1 comment:
Hi Faith, The 57 Bus is a good book, and I am glad I am reading it. Yes, it is a book that teaches empathy. I also agree with your views on transgender individuals. The story in this book is tragic all the way around. Good review.
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