Nineteen Minutes

by Jodi Picoult

This gripping and incredibly sad book is the story of one bullied high school boy and how events beyond his control ruin his life and the lives of many of his classmates. The title refers to the time it took Peter Houghton to enter his high school and shoot twenty-nine students, ten of whom died. One student who was not shot was Josie Cormier, Peter's one and only friend in early childhood and the daughter of the woman judge presiding over the case. Picoult, the author of The Pact, My Sister's Keeper, and of a number of other best-selling works, has created a story told from multiple viewpoints, so that by the end of the book, the reader feels sorrier for everyone else involved than for the victims of Peter's shooting spree. Though Nineteen Minutes is not a tale completely bereft of hope, it does brilliantly illustrate what destruction cruelty and revenge can bring about in people's lives. This book is on the 2008-2009 Tayshas reading list.

--reviewed by Dail Sams