I have been trying to read through several of the young adult fiction that Mark O. has suggested on his blog this past year.
Recently I began reading Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. It’s basically a book told from the point-of-view of Clay. In it, he receives 7 cassette tapes from a past-love, Hannah, who just committed suicide. She claims in the first lines that these cassettes, all 13 sides, describe the 13 people who had a hand in her suicide and why.
A few nights ago at Barnes and Noble a mother of a 7th grader asked me if I would recommend this book for her daughter. I told her, though I a only a few pages in to the story, I thought the thematic elements might be a bit much for a middle-schooler (much like I think the thematic elements of the Harry Potternovels are too old for elementary age children once you reach book 5). Thankfully she (the daughter) also wanted to get the Twilight series (I wonder if Mark O.’s done a review on them… hmmm), which I would whole-heartedly recommend, so she didn’t have to walk away empty-handed.
However, as I continued reading, I began to wonder if I was just being too naive. Again. This book discusses the suicide of a freshman, someone not much older than a 12 or 13-year-old middle-schooler. I remember that when I was in 8th grade there was a freshman (in my small town where the ENTIRE high-school only had 100 kids) who committed suicide over Christmas break. I had gone to school with her for the last four years, and in a school that small, everyone knows everyone. It wasn’t because of her home life or some traumatic life event (rape, drugs, etc.) but simply because of the hardships people face socially in high-school (she left a note). And this was a girl who was in the “popular” clique!!! Imagine how nervous that made an 8th grade girl who was only on the fringe of the popular crowd in middle-school (and would fade quickly into the actual fringe society of our school in high school). If life was too hard for a popular girl how could ANYONE survive?
Maybe we should be exposing our students to the impact our actions have on others, even when we’re in a life stage where we only see ourselves.
So, I’m going to try to keep and open mind as I read and record my thoughts.
