About the Book
The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater is about an agender, quoiromantic teenager named Sasha whose life suddenly changes after their skirt gets lit on fire while they were riding on the 57 Bus. The book is split into 4 main parts: Sasha’s perspective, Richard’s (the criminal’s) perspective, the fire, and the aftermath. Throughout the story, we learn about Sasha’s life and how it differs from Richard’s even though they both live in the same city. We also learn about the flaws in the criminal justice system and how Sasha gets treated after the burn. Both people face challenges such as stereotyping, performing well academically, and encountering the justice system. While reading the book, I took notes on central ideas, themes, and character development.
I enjoyed reading this book as it was fun to read, unique, and allowed me to think about many major issues from multiple perspectives.
Tracking Themes & Central Ideas
Throughout my reading, I added to this notebook page where I listed possible themes, ideas, and issues that the author intended to express through their writing. After finishing the book, I ended up with two main central ideas:
Knowledge of genderqueer identity was not widespread.
Teenagers should be tried as juveniles regardless of the crime they commit.
The Central Ideas
While reading, I noticed that the author went into detail about Sasha’s personality, hobbies, and interests. The information was very intriguing and allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of what type of person Sasha is. I decided to create a notebook page dedicated to all of the information I could find about Sasha.
These interesting details about Sasha could further help me understand and prove the central idea of knowledge on genderqueer identity was not widespread.
I then gathered all the evidence I could find to prove and support this central idea. Here is the notebook page that includes evidence, context, and explanations.
The second main central idea I found was that teenagers should be tried as juveniles regardless of the crime they commit.
I noticed that the text showed Richard’s perspective and experiences, and gave light to how he felt during the entire incident and the aftermath. I also noticed that the author gave lots of context on how the juvenile justice system worked, and that led me to this central idea. According to the text, laws were implemented that charged some juveniles as adults if they committed certain crimes. This law was implemented because of a myth that there were children that were “born to be dangerous to society,” and that if they were not charged as adults, they would take advantage of juvenile protections and cause chaos in the world. This myth turned out to be untrue as the data collected did not suggest that this was true. In fact, crime rates were declining. Anyways, because of the many paragraphs about this issue I read in the book, I thought that it was a big idea that the author wanted to express as it was mentioned all throughout the story.
This page includes quotes from the book and ideas that I jotted down while reading. The overall idea that I wanted to capture in my notes was that although Richard committed a horrible crime, he should not be penalized so severely for it. Being charged as an adult would impact his future. A quote from the text says that the criminal justice system “keeps its victims moving in a circle until swallowed in the vortex of crime.” It’s basically saying that once someone is charged as an adult, they are likely to be criminals for the rest of their lives.
If you are interested in learning more about this topic, I recommend this article from the New York Times, written by the author herself. I’d also suggest reading the book so that you can gain your own understanding and perspective on the ideas expressed through the story.
Thank you for your time! ❤️