Impactful. Emotional. Real. Books like this are hard to review understanding that the tragic story is true - these
students and teachers lived through the events of the Parkland school shooting on Valentine's Day, 2018.
Students aged 14 to 17 saw their classmates shot and killed. This book is their story in their own words. It is a combination of handwritten poetry, photography and personal accounts of that day, the recovery and the movement afterwards.
Reading these accounts first hand is far more impactful than hearing them in the news. This book is a good reminder of the impact these events have on actual people and communities. The students' works are collected in a scrapbook journal showing the different contributors' styles and their different perspectives of the event.
I would have liked a little prologue or afterward explaining how the idea for the book came into being and the collaboration that it took. But the contributor’s section at the end was great in stating where the authors
and contributors are now and how this event has impacted the rest of their lives.
This book does an incredible job of making the story of the Parkland school shootings seem like less of a far
away news story that could never happen to you and more accessible to all of us. The voices are powerful in their call for change. This book is a strong reminder that while the world moves on and forgets, the impact of that day on the survivors will never be truly gone, and their voices never truly gone.