Nineteen Minutes

Over the summer of 2009, one of the books that I read was Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Piccoult. This was a very deep book, and really made me wake up and be exposed to some of the things going on in high schools around the country. The main character in this story was physically and verbally abused so badly that he was driven to bring a gun to school and open fire on students for nineteen minutes. This book shows fictional examples of atrocities that actually do occur. The main character, Peter, is the but of all the jokes from the school jocks. Even in kindergarten he is bullied by the fifth graders. This book made me think about what goes on at Ardsley High School. Although we do not have as big of a bullying problem as the high school in this book did, we still have bullies. It could happen at any high school where someone is abused so badly that they just snap. It makes you think, even when you're just messing around with your friends.