The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives
The riveting New York Times bestseller and Stonewall Book Award winner that will make you rethink all you know about race, class, gender, crime, and punishment. Artfully, compassionately, and expertly told, Dashka Slater's The 57 Bus is a must-read nonfiction book for teens that chronicles the true story of an agender teen who was set on fire by another teen while riding a bus in Oakland, California.

Two ends of the same line. Two sides of the same crime.

If it weren’t for the 57 bus, Sasha and Richard never would have met. Both were high school students from Oakland, California, one of the most diverse cities in the country, but they inhabited different worlds. Sasha, a white teen, lived in the middle-class foothills and attended a small private school. Richard, a Black teen, lived in the economically challenged flatlands and attended a large public one.

Each day, their paths overlapped for a mere eight minutes. But one afternoon on the bus ride home from school, a single reckless act left Sasha severely burned, and Richard charged with two hate crimes and facing life imprisonment. The case garnered international attention, thrusting both teenagers into the spotlight. But in The 57 Bus, award-winning journalist Dashka Slater shows that what might at first seem like a simple matter of right and wrong, justice and injustice, victim and criminal, is something more complicated—and far more heartbreaking.

Awards and Accolades for The 57 Bus:

A New York Times Bestseller

Stonewall Book Award Winner

YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist

A Boston Globe-Horn Book Nonfiction Honor Book Winner

A TIME Magazine Best YA Book of All Time

A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist

Don’t miss Dashka Slater’s newest propulsive and thought-provoking nonfiction book, Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed, the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Winner which National Book Award winner Ibram X. Kendi hails as “powerful, timely, and delicately written.”

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The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives
The riveting New York Times bestseller and Stonewall Book Award winner that will make you rethink all you know about race, class, gender, crime, and punishment. Artfully, compassionately, and expertly told, Dashka Slater's The 57 Bus is a must-read nonfiction book for teens that chronicles the true story of an agender teen who was set on fire by another teen while riding a bus in Oakland, California.

Two ends of the same line. Two sides of the same crime.

If it weren’t for the 57 bus, Sasha and Richard never would have met. Both were high school students from Oakland, California, one of the most diverse cities in the country, but they inhabited different worlds. Sasha, a white teen, lived in the middle-class foothills and attended a small private school. Richard, a Black teen, lived in the economically challenged flatlands and attended a large public one.

Each day, their paths overlapped for a mere eight minutes. But one afternoon on the bus ride home from school, a single reckless act left Sasha severely burned, and Richard charged with two hate crimes and facing life imprisonment. The case garnered international attention, thrusting both teenagers into the spotlight. But in The 57 Bus, award-winning journalist Dashka Slater shows that what might at first seem like a simple matter of right and wrong, justice and injustice, victim and criminal, is something more complicated—and far more heartbreaking.

Awards and Accolades for The 57 Bus:

A New York Times Bestseller

Stonewall Book Award Winner

YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist

A Boston Globe-Horn Book Nonfiction Honor Book Winner

A TIME Magazine Best YA Book of All Time

A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist

Don’t miss Dashka Slater’s newest propulsive and thought-provoking nonfiction book, Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed, the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Winner which National Book Award winner Ibram X. Kendi hails as “powerful, timely, and delicately written.”

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The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives

The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives

by Dashka Slater
The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives

The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives

by Dashka Slater

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Overview

The riveting New York Times bestseller and Stonewall Book Award winner that will make you rethink all you know about race, class, gender, crime, and punishment. Artfully, compassionately, and expertly told, Dashka Slater's The 57 Bus is a must-read nonfiction book for teens that chronicles the true story of an agender teen who was set on fire by another teen while riding a bus in Oakland, California.

Two ends of the same line. Two sides of the same crime.

If it weren’t for the 57 bus, Sasha and Richard never would have met. Both were high school students from Oakland, California, one of the most diverse cities in the country, but they inhabited different worlds. Sasha, a white teen, lived in the middle-class foothills and attended a small private school. Richard, a Black teen, lived in the economically challenged flatlands and attended a large public one.

Each day, their paths overlapped for a mere eight minutes. But one afternoon on the bus ride home from school, a single reckless act left Sasha severely burned, and Richard charged with two hate crimes and facing life imprisonment. The case garnered international attention, thrusting both teenagers into the spotlight. But in The 57 Bus, award-winning journalist Dashka Slater shows that what might at first seem like a simple matter of right and wrong, justice and injustice, victim and criminal, is something more complicated—and far more heartbreaking.

Awards and Accolades for The 57 Bus:

A New York Times Bestseller

Stonewall Book Award Winner

YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist

A Boston Globe-Horn Book Nonfiction Honor Book Winner

A TIME Magazine Best YA Book of All Time

A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist

Don’t miss Dashka Slater’s newest propulsive and thought-provoking nonfiction book, Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed, the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Winner which National Book Award winner Ibram X. Kendi hails as “powerful, timely, and delicately written.”


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780374303235
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date: 10/17/2017
Pages: 336
Sales rank: 23,574
Product dimensions: 5.80(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.10(d)
Lexile: 930L (what's this?)
Age Range: 12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Award-winning journalist Dashka Slater has written for such publications as The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Salon, and Mother Jones. Her New York Times-bestselling young-adult true crime narrative, The 57 Bus, has received numerous accolades, including the Stonewall Book Award, the California Book Award, and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor. It was a YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist and an LA Times Book Award Finalist, in addition to receiving four starred reviews and being named to more than 20 separate lists of the year’s best books, including ones compiled by The Washington Post, the New York Public Library, and School Library Journal. In 2021, The 57 Bus was named to TIME magazine’s list of the 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time. The author of fifteen books of fiction and nonfiction for children and adults, Dashka teaches in Hamline University’s MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults program. She lives and writes in Oakland, California.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xiii

Monday, November 4, 2013 3

Oakland, California 6

Part 1 Sasha 9

Tumbling 11

Pronouns 13

1001 Blank White Cards 16

Luke and Samantha 21

Gran Turismo 2 26

How Do You Know What Gender You Are? 28

Genderqueer 31

Gender, Sex, Sexuality, Romance: Some Terms 33

Sasha's Terms 36

Becoming Sasha 37

Bathrooms 40

Bathrooms Revisited 42

Skirts 43

Running 46

The Petition 48

Clipboards 50

Best Day Ever 52

Dress Code 53

Sasha and Nemo 55

Part 2 Richard 57

Book of Faces 59

An Old Friend 62

Oakland High School 64

Miss Kaprice 66

The Princess of East Oakland 69

The Best Mother Ever 75

Hopes and Prayers 77

Where He Left Off 81

How It Was Before 83

Fighting 85

Arrested 87

Now It's a Good Day 89

If 91

Murder 93

Working 96

Stripped 98

Trust Issues 100

Resolve 102

Part 3 The Fire 103

Monday, November 4, 2013 105

The 57 Bus 107

4:52 p.m. 110

Fire 114

Watching 117

The Man with the Mustache 119

Phone Call 120

The Rim Fire's Revenge 123

The Ten O'Clock News 125

Locked Out 126

Maybeck 128

Shyam 130

I Knew My Baby 132

The Interview, Part 1 134

Miranda Warning 137

The Interview, Part 2 139

The Interview, Part 3 142

A Man in a Kilt 144

This Is Real 146

Booked In 151

Surgery 155

Still Kinda Dying 157

Charges 160

Direct Files 161

Court Date 165

Reeling 167

The Desk 168

Under the Influence of Adolescence 172

Life at Bothin 176

Not Visiting 178

The First Letter 180

Into the Briefcase 181

Skirts for Sasha 182

The Second Letter 184

Let's All Take Care of Each Other 187

Homophobic 189

What They Sent 191

No H8 193

Y'All Don't Know 196

The Circle 198

Skinned 200

God Is Good 201

Does It Have to Be Me? 204

Back at Maybeck 205

Worst Days Ever 207

Reunion 209

Part 4 Justice 213

Binary 215

Cruel and Unusual? 216

Back at Juvie 218

What If? 221

Not Ready 223

What to Say 224

Always Okay 226

We the People 227

Pretty 229

Dancing 232

Ripples 234

Ass Smacking 236

Restorative Justice 240

Not Wanting To 242

The People vs. Richard 243

Tired 245

Department 11 246

Maybe 248

Suitcase 249

A Prayer 251

Bargaining 253

The Deal 255

The Fine Print 257

A Structured Environment 259

Look Where His People Went 261

Victim-Impact Statement 263

Nerd Fraternity 265

How It Ended Up 267

Mail Delivery 269

Chad 270

Opportunity 271

Then and Now 276

Risky Thinking 279

Progress Report 283

A Level of Maturity 287

Andrew and the Binary 289

Birthdays 291

1001 No-Longer-Blank White Cards 294

Some Gender-Neutrality Milestones 297

Some Numbers: US Juvenile Incarceration 301

Acknowledgments 303

Credits 306

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