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The Teardrop
1995, trade paperback edition, Eggman, Nashville, TN. 41 pages. Young adult title, dealing with violent crime which kills thousands of children each year. The writer is an award-winning newspaper reporter.
41 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 5, 2019
Reviewed by Robert A. Groves for Readers' Favorite
The Teardrop by Susan Thomas is the story of T-Man, a Nashville middle school student, accidentally shot by a classmate who brought his parents’ gun to school one day. The classmate brought the gun with him because he was a victim of bullying. Using myriad inanimate objects such as the gun, bullets, hospital, funeral, hearse, casket, the burial plot, and teardrop, Ms. Thomas takes us on a journey of what it is like to be a victim of school violence told from the perspective of T-Man. She also invokes the response of heaven’s angels in telling this story. Her writings describe the angels’ preparation prior to the shooting and how they received him, and how T-Man arrives, at heaven’s gate through a cylindrical light. It was quite a touching story that other school age children should easily relate to.
Susan Thomas’ The Teardrop gives a detailed perspective on what a shooting victim experiences. While many stories are constructed around the experiences of the survivors, Thomas’ unique writing from the victim’s point of view was enlightening. It will give the reader a pause and force him/her to really think about school violence from an entirely different angle. I was especially captivated by following the sequence of the roles the different objects played in the overall story before, during and after the shooting occurred. The pacing reads well, and it is an easy book to finish in one afternoon. Read the book, do some soul searching and leave after the last word is read with a new thought process on what you can do in preventing future school violence. Without hesitation, I recommend this book.
The Teardrop by Susan Thomas is the story of T-Man, a Nashville middle school student, accidentally shot by a classmate who brought his parents’ gun to school one day. The classmate brought the gun with him because he was a victim of bullying. Using myriad inanimate objects such as the gun, bullets, hospital, funeral, hearse, casket, the burial plot, and teardrop, Ms. Thomas takes us on a journey of what it is like to be a victim of school violence told from the perspective of T-Man. She also invokes the response of heaven’s angels in telling this story. Her writings describe the angels’ preparation prior to the shooting and how they received him, and how T-Man arrives, at heaven’s gate through a cylindrical light. It was quite a touching story that other school age children should easily relate to.
Susan Thomas’ The Teardrop gives a detailed perspective on what a shooting victim experiences. While many stories are constructed around the experiences of the survivors, Thomas’ unique writing from the victim’s point of view was enlightening. It will give the reader a pause and force him/her to really think about school violence from an entirely different angle. I was especially captivated by following the sequence of the roles the different objects played in the overall story before, during and after the shooting occurred. The pacing reads well, and it is an easy book to finish in one afternoon. Read the book, do some soul searching and leave after the last word is read with a new thought process on what you can do in preventing future school violence. Without hesitation, I recommend this book.
April 26, 2023
This book nearly made me cry. It’s really tragic and scary to hear about these things while I’m in school.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews