The book I read for this book club unit is called The 57 Bus, by Dashka Slater. This book is based on a true story that focuses on the topic gender identity. The book begins with telling a story of two high schoolers from different schools, Richard and Sasha meeting for the first time. Richard is an 16 year old African American boy from Oakland High School, and Sasha is a genderqueer from a private school in Berkley but they both ride the 57 bus home from school every day. Sasha is agender (not identified as male or female), and the skirt they were wearing got Richard and his friend’s attention. Richard lights Sasha’s dress on fire with a lighter, and this is what connects their life together, and their story begins. Through the rest of the book, Sasha went through all kinds of surgery and treatments to recover her burns. While Richard spent most of his time in court. At the end of the book, Sasha’s family forgives Richard and eventually ended their time in the court. While reading the book, 2 main central ideas I noticed was discrimination and forgiveness. Most of the problems and conflicts that happened in this book happened because of different thoughts people had against different types of people (gay, agender), or what they personally didn’t enjoy seeing. Forgiveness was also a very important part of this book because Sasha’s family forgiven Richard at the end of the book even though he cause a huge impact to Sasha and her family.

Below are notes I took on the development of the central ideas and the things that happened over the course of the book: