The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives

The 57 Bus is a rare achievement. It takes a horrific, headline-grabbing incident—a teenager setting another teen's skirt on fire on a public bus—and peels back the layers to show the human beings on both sides of the flame. Why this stands out: Objective Reporting: Dashka Slater doesn't tell you what to think; she gives you the facts, the history of Oakland, the nuances of the juvenile justice system, and the backgrounds of both Sasha and Richard. Complex Themes: It explores gender identity, race, class, and the "school-to-prison pipeline" without ever feeling like a lecture. It’s a page-turner that also makes you pause and reflect on every page. Restorative Justice: The exploration of whether "punishment" equals "justice" is handled with incredible care. Don’t Stop Here: If you find yourself moved by Slater’s storytelling, I highly recommend her other book, Accountable. It handles similarly difficult themes regarding social media and teen accountability with the same journalistic rigor and heart.

The 57 Bus is one of those books that stays with you long after you finish it. Dashka Slater tells the true story of two teenagers in Oakland whose lives collide on a city bus—Sasha, a white nonbinary student, and Richard, a Black teen from a very different background. One split-second decision changes everything for both of them. What I appreciated most is that this isn’t just about the crime itself. The author takes time to show the humanity of both kids—their families, their struggles, and their hopes for the future. It made me think deeply about issues like race, gender identity, privilege, forgiveness, and what real justice looks like. The chapters are short and easy to follow, so even with such heavy topics, it never feels overwhelming. It’s emotional, thought-provoking, and at times heartbreaking, but also full of compassion and nuance. If you like true stories that make you reflect and see the world differently, this book is absolutely worth reading.

The book was good quality, no ripped or folded over pages. The dust jacket had a nice feel to it and I enjoyed reading the physical book. As far as the story goes, it's a research type story. It seems that this is based on a true story (I didn't know anything of it when I purchased it). The book reads well if you like non-fiction. If you don't like stories about teens who are questioning their gender and identity, you probably won't like this book. But, if you want to educate yourself or just read a story about how kids feel/handle peer pressure, this is a good little dive into reality. It takes place in the 21st century and tells the story from both teens points of view. It researches their background and gives the reader a dive into the emotions of those directly and indirectly involved. Did all of the interviews and tidbits relate to the story? Yes. Did the book flow as well as a fiction or historical fiction? No. Am I likely to read this again? Probably not. Would I recommend this to a friend? Only if they were interested in this topic. There are some recollections of the violence that took place and could be a trigger for teens or adults. I would not recommend it to a pre-teen, but would recommend it to a teen or adult.

"Never let your obstacles become more important than your goal.” Dashka Slater, The 57 Bus Sasha, a white agender (identifies as neither male nor female) was a high school student riding the 57 Bus, when Richard, a black teen from a different school, set Sasha’s skirt on fire. The 57 Bus was riveting, emotional and full of empathy. In today's world, this book provides an excellent tool in helping us better understand our social, economic and racial disparities. I admired how Slater's writing exhibited compassion, fairness, and kindness to both Richard and Sasha. The story shows how a chance encounter can drastically change and alter our lives. In this case, the lives of Richard, Sasha, their families, and friends were never the same. I appreciated how Slater provided Richard and Sasha's unique and honest perspectives. I also liked the easy-to-read short chapters and the author's non-judgmental narrative. The 57 Bus would make an outstanding choice for middle/high school libraries, book clubs, and classrooms because you simply cannot read this book and remain the same. It definitely reminded me to be more open and accepting of others.

This is a true story that took place in 2013. It explores many issues and how they are handled. Sasha is an agender, autistic teen who likes wearing skirts. Richard is a teen who decides to set Sasha’s skirt on fire while they are sleeping. It was meant to be a prank. Many things played a role in the sentence that Richard was given. The actual event was horrific no matter what gender. However, when you look at all the facts several things come to mind. So let me start by saying that the incident, no matter what race or gender the victim and perpetrator were needed to be punished. When reading the book I noticed a couple of things in particular. The first thing I noticed was that Sasha was white and Richard was African American. The second thing we notice is their gender identification and their financial status. When you read a book and the victim’s family stands up for the person accused of the crime and it is ignored then you have to imagine something is wrong with the system. Richard is questions without a lawyer and makes statements that paint him as homophobic. Due to this and other circumstances he is tried as an adult. Yes I do believe what he did was wrong on so many levels. Do I believe he should have been tried as an adult? No. This crime changed both lives. By the press and everyone involved focusing on race and gender there was a lot of bias found in this case. The author brings a human side to the story. By telling what happened to both teens and telling us both sides of the story we get a better picture of the humans these two are. So often the news takes a story and puts their own slant on it to fit the politics of the time. I can’t have it on my shelves, but I can sure recommend students check it out from their local library.

I read this in a day. . . It's a quick read, it's sad. . . I think if you want to know about this story, there's probably more honest dipictions. I feel like, with this book, they give the perpetrator of this crime a lot of "outs". I acknowledge that both were young, but ignore the fact it was a hate crime. . . Seems more than a bit dishonest. And just the facts of the case, it wasn't a hate crime in the way it's dipicted either so. . .

Ripped from the national news headlines, this could have been a simple, straightforward narrative of a heinous hate crime against a teenager who rejected binary notions of male and female. Sasha identified as agender, went by the pronoun “they,” and was set on fire for having the naivete (or audacity) to look like a boy yet wear a skirt while riding a city bus through the streets of Oakland, California. But instead of falling into tired old true-crime tropes, award-winning journalist Dashka Slater has constructed a deeper narrative that questions binary notions not only of gender, but of other culturally resonant binaries as well – of victim and perpetrator, black and white, good and evil. Slater spent three years researching this story. She pored over records. She got to know dozens of people who opened up and trusted her with their perspectives. Aiding her mission was the raw beauty of her central characters. Sasha’s parents are models of compassion, empathy and open-mindedness. Richard, the teenager who set fire to Sasha’s skirt, is an otherwise sweet and well-meaning boy who grew up under conditions of extreme adversity. His mother, just 14 when Richard was born, is a loving and caring woman who reaches out to Sasha’s family, tearfully hugging them and apologizing in the courtroom hallway. Rather than choosing sides in this urban tragedy, Slater shows a deft ability to explore and give equal weight to disparate realities. Through her own disciplined modeling of empathetic balance, Slater masterfully challenges our notions of moral right and wrong. As we ride along with her on The 57 Bus, we ultimately have no choice but to acknowledge the enormous power of the social environment in shaping perspectives and behaviors that at first glance might appear freely chosen. If there are bad guys in this narrative, they are the larger forces within these social structures: Prosecutors who - locked into a rigid system of winners and losers - blithely try juveniles in adult courts even when the victim’s family and groups like the Transgender Law Center object. Hate crime laws that are enforced in a racially biased manner. Social media trolls who rev up inter-group animosities. Hack defense attorneys who blunder along with little regard for their clients’ human sensibilities. One might not anticipate that a story about a gender-nonconforming teenager being set on fire would be uplifting. But by the time we shut the cover of The 57 Bus, we feel not just sadness but also a cautious optimism borne of witnessing the powerful human connections that literally sprang from the ashes of tragedy.

See more of my reviews on The YA Kitten! I got an ARC from the publisher, but then I bought the ebook AND the audiobook, the latter of which was how I read the book. Despite being a complete and utter news nerd all my life, I didn’t know anything about the incident at the center of The 57 Bus until the book deal was announced. I genuinely thought it was historical fiction! But no, this is a nonfiction book about a black teen who set an agender teen’s skirt on fire in 2013 and chronicles the before and after for both Richard Thomas and Sasha Fleischman. Beginning life as an article in the New York Times before being expanded into a full book, The 57 Bus makes use of short chapters full of anecdotes and interview quotes to establish who Sasha and Richard are as well as who the people around them are in service to Sasha and Richard’s lives. Thanks to those miniscule chapters and how incredibly interesting the whole cast of characters is, the book flies by. Nothing and no one in this story is simple and Slater does an excellent job showing all the shades of gray in things like the criminal justice system. You might not imagine it would be the case, but everyone–including Sasha and Sasha’s family–tried incredibly hard to put the case through a restorative justice process instead of letting Richard go to prison. If you’ve never heard of restorative justice, look it up. It’s worth it. As much as I enjoyed the book–and I really did; it was like listening to a great investigative podcast thanks to the narrator’s solid skills–I don’t feel it dug enough into how Sasha’s white privilege and Richard being a Black teen impacted the amount of attention the story got. Had Sasha been a brown or Black agender teen, it’s unlikely it would have gotten the international coverage it did. The rampant misgendering of Sasha in media coverage at the time is also largely unremarked on, which is disappointing. When we look at things in retrospective, it’s okay to critique the failings of media at the time, but that doesn’t happen here. Sasha also has a point of view in this book that Richard doesn’t have (which is understandable considering he was still imprisoned when this book was written and published), so Richard is an unknowable figure. Even when Slater takes pains to tell both sides of the story with the help of people in Richard’s life, it still feels one-sided because he’s unable to speak for himself. After reading this book and realizing just how much coverage it got in 2013 and 2014, I genuinely don’t know how I missed this story. If you’re a news and podcast nerd like me, you’ll likely enjoy the book. If you’ve also never heard of the incident, even better. The turns the story and the criminal justice system take will surprise you. It might even give you hope for the future of the entire criminal justice system.

Passt

クラスの指定読書で購入しましたがとても内容が濃かった。LGBTQの方々の葛藤や学校で問題児と呼ばれてしまう生徒の背景など様々なことを学べる良い本だとおもいます。

Just like the book I read previously of the same author, content is organised in similar ways, presenting multiple perspectives of people or of an organisation. An easy but not light read. It does make me think! It's like watching/reading a documentary on paper.

i didn't enjoyed this book at all. i bought this book expecting to learn about the crime and and most of everything was about gender association.I don't recommend this book for anybody, especially for teenagers.

The 57 Bus es un libro impactante y profundamente humano. Narra la historia real de dos adolescentes de Oakland cuyos destinos se cruzan en un solo minuto dentro de un autobús, cambiando sus vidas para siempre. Lo que comienza como un incidente violento se convierte en una reflexión sobre identidad, justicia, raza, género y segundas oportunidades. El estilo narrativo es claro y atrapante: combina hechos periodísticos con un tono cercano que hace que la lectura sea ágil pero también muy emotiva. Aporta múltiples perspectivas —desde la víctima, el agresor, las familias y el sistema judicial— lo que permite comprender la complejidad del caso sin caer en juicios simplistas. Además, el libro abre un espacio de reflexión sobre temas actuales como la justicia restaurativa, la empatía y la diversidad de género. Es ideal tanto para jóvenes como para adultos, ya que invita a cuestionar prejuicios y a entender mejor el mundo en que vivimos.