* 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.
