The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater is a really sad and really heartbreaking story. I will be talking about my opinion of this book,  both  good and bad things about the  book all together. 

The 57 Bus is about Sasha, an 18 year old that identifies as non-binary and goes to Oakland High School. They were involved in an incident on a local bus that made them have 3rd degree burns after they were set on fire. Richard is a 16 year old hotrosexual male who goes to Oakland Highschool and was on the 57 bus and caused Sasha to get their third degree burns because he lit them on fire. Sasha and Richard cross paths because of the incident on the 57 bus and both of them were involved. Sasha being the victim and Richard being the cause of Sasha’s severe burns. What happened to Sasha really broke my heart and I know that people go through harassment and bullying everyday. So if I know someone is going through bullying because of what they identify as I will stand up for them. 

I think the author’s message throughout the whole book would be teaching us about the real works of life. A lot of people may think the world is a happy place but it isn’t how it seems. With all the diversity, gender, race, crime and justice. Throughout the book it tries to talk about the crimes that go on through the world, and that bad things can happen to people if they do drugs,or rob banks, or shoot up schools, the person who did it will always be held accountable.   Since Richard is our guy that committed the crime the author really wants you to dig deep and see why Richard did this crime what was the motive and that makes you want to read further, and makes the book more interesting. 

One of the lessons that I learned from The 57 bus is that people can change no matter what crime they committed as long as they commit to bettering themselves they can become a great person.  Another important lesson a reader could learn from The 57 bus is learning about the LGBTQ+ community. Since Sasha is non-binary people people could  learn how people can be different in many ways and should  learn to accept them on how people want them to be seen as their correct pro-nouns. Lastly one thing I learned from The 57 bus would be about non-binary people and their correct pronouns. 

All in all The 57 bus book by Dashka Slater is a great book and you should definitely read it if you get the chance. There is great character development throughout the story. Which I really enjoyed reading and others may too.