The New York Times Book Review - Marilyn Stasio
Dashka Slater wrote The 57 Bus for teenagers, but her audience should also include parents…Slater doesn't apologize for Richard; she just asks us to consider where he came from and to question the ingrained prejudice of a legal system that eventually locked him up for five years.
From the Publisher
Stonewall Book Award—Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children's & Young Adult Literature Award Winner
YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist
A School Library Journal Best Books of 2017!
A Washington Post Best Book of 2017!
One of The New York City Public Library Notable 50 Best Books for Teens!
The California Book Awards Young Adult Winner!
An ILA Notable Book for a Global Society!
Oklahoma Sequoyah Book Award Winner!
"A sensitive study of an incident wrapped up in so many modern conundrums." —The Financial Times
"Slater artfully unfolds a complex and layered tale about two teens whose lives intersect with painful consequences. This work will spark discussions about identity, community, and what it means to achieve justice." —School Library Journal, starred review
"An outstanding book that links the diversity of creed and the impact of impulsive actions to themes of tolerance and forgiveness." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"This painful story illuminates, cautions, and inspires." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
"It is likely that this account will spark conversations, debates, and contemplation, perhaps leading readers to define for themselves what justice means."—VOYA
"[A] multi-layered lesson on the healing power of humanity." —Shelf Awareness, starred review
"Slater has crafted a compelling true-crime story with ramifications for our most vulnerable youth." —The Horn Book
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2017-07-17
In the fall of 2013, on a bus ride home, a young man sets another student on fire.In a small private high school, Sasha, a white teen with Asperger's, enjoyed "a tight circle of friends," "blazed through calculus, linguistics, physics, and computer programming," and invented languages. Sasha didn't fall into a neat gender category and considered "the place in-between…a real place." Encouraged by parents who supported self-expression, Sasha began to use the pronoun they. They wore a skirt for the first time during their school's annual cross-dressing day and began to identify as genderqueer. On the other side of Oakland, California, Richard, a black teen, was "always goofing around" at a high school where roughly one-third of the students failed to graduate. Within a few short years, his closest friends would be pregnant, in jail, or shot dead, but Richard tried to stay out of real trouble. One fateful day, Sasha was asleep in a "gauzy white skirt" on the 57 bus when a rowdy friend handed Richard a lighter. With a journalist's eye for overlooked details, Slater does a masterful job debunking the myths of the hate-crime monster and the African-American thug, probing the line between adolescent stupidity and irredeemable depravity. Few readers will traverse this exploration of gender identity, adolescent crime, and penal racism without having a few assumptions challenged. An outstanding book that links the diversity of creed and the impact of impulsive actions to themes of tolerance and forgiveness. (Nonfiction. 14-18)
