Violent Ends: A Novel in Seventeen Points of View by various authors

In this stellar cooperative collection of interconnected short stories, we glimpse the before, during, and after of a group of students. Eventually, one of them opens fire at a high school pep rally, but there's really much more than just that one moment.

Each of the 17 stories was written by a different YA author - lending different styles, unique viewpoints, and a breadth of perspective on the scene. Some of the stories are short, others much longer, and some are further divided into chapters.

We see the anorexic cheerleader's perspective on her insatiable hungers: for perfection, for love, and for popularity. The sad story of a little girl's birthday present, ruined almost immediately. There's a slightly strange new girl at school with a big secret, the band geek whose only hope is to follow the treble clef doodled on a pair of Converse All-Stars, and the soccer player who isn't going to prom anymore. There's even one chapter (a bit strangely) told from the perspective of the gun.

I've really come to love interconnected short stories - I think the multi-faceted approach is always enlightening, and especially in the case of a teenage tragedy, there's always way more to the story than the headlines allow.

October Mourning

by Leslea Newman

You likely remember a tragic story that made headlines in the autumn of 1998.  A young, trusting college student named Matthew Shepard left a bar with two men he believed to be friendly, and like him, gay.  Eighteen hours later, a bicyclist found him tied to a fence rail and beaten so badly that he never woke in the last five days of his life.

Newman crafted a series of poems surrounding the incident.  She chose to feature a vast array of viewpoints including: each of the men involved, the first officer on the scene, the fence post, and a young deer passing by.  Whether you followed the headlines raptly, or tried to ignore the hate that brought about the crime, this story will make you cry.  The author's hope is that it can be used to teach about tolerance and compassion.

This book is heart-wrenching and filled with beautifully sculpted poems.