Thirteen Reasons Why

I am shocked that I read Thirteen Reasons Why when I was in 7th or 8th grade and was able to sleep at night. I had read the book when it first came out because I was (and still am) obsessed with checking Barnes and Noble website and look at new and popular teen books. I was first shocked with the peeping tom seen that I had read that but then it just escalated. I told my mom yesterday "I should not have read that book in middle school. No way no how." So . . . what I realized is that in my middle school class if I have the book on my shelf students will need to have his parents sign a permission slip to read it and I will not be teaching them this book. This doesn't mean it shouldn't be taught though. I will discuss this later.
This book is one of the few that really shows the reason and the effect bullying and teen actions can have on an individual and the possible repercussions. Even though the novel only takes place over one day it has great character development. The readers get to see the development of Clay throughout his listening to the tapes of Hannah and his emotions and tone develops throughout. We see him sad at the beginning but the farther in the more empathy and depressed he gets. It is no longer him mourning a girl he kind of knows--he starts to mourn the girl she was before she started high school at that school. It wasn't a culturally responsive book but I don't think that took away from the book. It didn't set stereotypes for folks of color nor did it specify that the students or any of the 13 reasons why were white. Otherwise it may have taken away from the book--maybe.
I think adolescents are attracted to this book because it is this huge piece of gossip. Every teen, child, adult love gossip. Maybe not all, but they are interested by it--we as human want to know what's going on. This book feeds that need. It feeds that need to investigate and figure out what really happened and why. Students I think are also intrigued by the idea of suicide. Sad and scary yes but also true. In school it is often walked around and not brought up in a way to truly educate a student. In high school suicide does happen and I think it is something that should be brought up and discussed. I think if someone was to teach this they should teach it in 11th or 12th grade. I also think you could pair this book with The Scarlet Letter to show the differences people take for ridicule. You don't even have to have the students read the book you could watch a clip or go over the plot of The Scarlet Letter.
My rate for this book is A.