* This is a good book for strong eighth-grade readers who enjoy – or have been assigned to read – non-fiction. It’s not really for students younger than that. Also, if you’ve never heard of the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School, I would at least learn the basics before taking this book on.
I absolutely could not put this book down. It’s a fantastic piece of “true crime” writing with all the elements to keep the pages turning: character development (both victims and shooters), a description of events leading up to the massacre, a time line of the massacre itself, and a rigorous analysis of the fallout.
Over the past ten years, I’ve heard a lot about the Columbine shootings, so I wasn’t sure at first that this book would hold my interest; however, Cullen provides a great deal of little-known information. For instance, I didn’t know that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (the killers) had actually planted four large bombs in and around the school that day and had hoped for a body count of several hundred, at least. The boys were neither loners nor victims of bullies, nor did they target specific people to die that day, as so many have asserted. Basically, everything I’ve heard about Columbine has been incorrect. Immediately after the shootings, the media began telling stories — stories that stuck, although many of them were inaccurate or false. (Ever heard of Cassie Bernall, the girl who “said yes,” for instance?)
Cullen is especially adept at two things: discussing from where and why these popular Columbine myths have developed, and analyzing the motives of Harris and Klebold. If these kids weren’t bullied and looking for revenge, then why did they do it? Cullen’s conclusions are less simple than we’d like, and therefore more disturbing, but they feel much closer to the truth.
I know what you’re thinking. Hoot? Are you serious? That book is lik
e seven years old! Ms. Ryan is just getting around to reading it? And my answer, sadly, is yes; after receiving dozens of recommendations, I finally listened to Hoot this weekend, on CD, in my car. Last spring, I read Scat, which was brand new at the time. That’s right, I didn’t let the dust settle on that one.
Mystery fans, rejoice! Gilda and Enola, two of the most brilliant young sleuths in literature, are at it again. Happily for us, Jennifer Allison and Nancy Springer have been hard at work, penning new installments of the Gilda Joyce and Enola Homles series, respectively. For those of you who aren’t yet familiar with these charaters, Gilda is a contemporary high-school girl who just happens to be interested in solving paranormal mysteries. Using her psychic abilities (ahem) and her typewriter, she bravely runs into ghostly situations, while most other people are running away. As for Enloa, she’s Sherlock Holmes’s intrepid little sister who refuses to behave as a proper Victorian English girl should; instead, she wanders the streets of London alone, usually in disguise, and always on the run from her older brothers, who are determined to make a lady out of her. As if! Enola loves ciphers and codes, but her penchant for solving puzzles often leads her into dangerous — and even murderous — territory. (The second book in the series, The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets, is downright scary.) So, it’s going to be a good weekend for me. I plan to read both books by Monday. Anyone else up for the pleasure? If so, here are the latest titles:
