Foot: Hate List and pleasure reading/watching

So last semester in our Teaching Reading and Literature class with Dr. Pytash, I learned about so many books that I wanted to read. Recently, I picked up the book "Hate List" and I have to say it is probably one of my favorite young adult literature books that I have read. In a nutshell, it is about a girl Valerie, whose boyfriend, Nick, shot people at their high school and the people he shot were on Valerie's hate list. She feels like it is all her fault, as well as grieving over the loss of her boyfriend. Nick was the only person, according to Valerie, that understood her.

It also makes me think about the Columbine shootings and the other school shootings that have occurred. When I was in high school, I wouldn't say I was extremely popular. I wouldn't say that I had a ton of really close friends, or just one group of people that I hung out with, but I do know people who were like that. I remember going to school and watching as my fellow classmates would pick on someone, yell at them, and call them bad names, and just tease them. I did nothing. I didn't stop it from happening, and I didn't usually participate in the teasing, but it happened. Now looking back on that, I just can't help but feel like if a shooting happened at my school, how much of it would have been my fault? I wasn't mean to anyone in high school, unless I was angry with them, and I tried to include people, but still it is a scary notion to think about how just one joke from me could push someone to put me on a hate list, or to commit a school shooting. I would definitely use this book in my classroom, because I think that a lot of teenagers don't really understand what their words and actions can make someone feel. Years from now, people will forget about all the mean thing they said to someone in high school, but those people who were bullied or teased will never forget it. I haven't finished reading it yet, but I think this book should be used in the classroom so that we can prevent these kids from ending up dead or in jail for murdering their classmates.