Hate List

Hate List by Jennifer Brown is an amazing book. I cried while I was reading it eight days ago and I cried again tonight when I reread most of it. Valerie Leftman tells her story by alternating between the present, the past, and newspaper articles. The newspaper articles are about the school shootings that Valerie’s boyfriend, Nick, committed and for which Valerie may or may not have been responsible.

Valerie is wounded during the shootings, but the story is about her emotional healing. Valerie struggles with coming to grips with what happened and her part in it. Her family, her friends, and her school all have to deal with some of the same issues that Valerie is working through. The story is emotionally gripping in several places and once the story grabs you, you can’t put the book down.

I wholeheartedly recommend the book to all young adult librarians and I would like to thank Lisa Von Drasek from EarlyWord Kids and Victoria Stapleton from Little, Brown Young Readers for the wonderful opportunity to read this story. Hate List will be available in September 2009 from Little, Brown Young Readers. Please add it to your collections.