THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
THE TRUE STORY OF TWO TEENAGERS AND THE CRIME THAT CHANGED THEIR LIVES.
By four-thirty in the afternoon, the first mad rush of after-school passengers has come and gone. What’s left are stragglers and stay-laters, swiping their bus passes as they climb onto the 57 bus and take seats among the coming-home workers, the shoppers and errand-doers, the other students from high schools and middle schools around the city. The bus is loud but not as loud as sometimes. A few clusters of kids are shouting and laughing and an older woman at the front keeps talking to the driver.
Dark is coming on. Daylight savings ended yesterday, and now evening rushes into the place where afternoon used to be. Everything is duskier, sleepier, wintrier now. Passengers look at their phones or stare through the scratched and grimy windows at the waning light.
Sasha sits near the back. For much of the journey, the teenager has been reading a paperback copy of Anna Karenina for a class in Russian literature. Today, like most days, Sasha wears a T-shirt, a black fleece jacket, a gray flat cap, and a gauzy white skirt. A senior at a small private high school, the teenager identifies as agender—neither male nor female. As the bus lumbers through town, Sasha puts down the book and drifts into sleep, skirt draped over the edge of the seat.
A few feet away, three teenage boys are laughing and joking. One of them, Richard, wears a black hoodie and an orange-billed New York Knicks hat. A sixteen-year-old junior at Oakland High School, he’s got hazel eyes and a slow, sweet grin. He stands with his back to Sasha, gripping a pole for balance.
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Winner of the American Library Association’s Stonewall Book Award
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YALSA-ALA Excellence for Nonfiction Award Finalist
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Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Book Award for Nonfiction
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Winner of the California Library Association’s Beatty Award
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Winner of the California Book Award Gold Medal
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Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award
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Northern California Independent Booksellers Best Young Adult Book
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A Junior Library Guild Selection
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A TAYSAs Top Ten Book
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A Washington Post Best Children’s Book of the Year
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A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
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A Kirkus Best Teen Nonfiction Book
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A Shelf Awareness Best Children’s & Teen Book
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A 2018 American Library Association Rainbow Reads Top Ten Book
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A 2018 YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers
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A Children’s Book Review Best Young Adult Book
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A New York Public Library Notable Book for Teens
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A Denver Public Library Best & Brightest Teen Book
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A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Teen Book
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A Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year
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A Bustle Best True Crime Book
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A Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List Book
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An International Literacy Association Notable Book for a Global Society
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A Capitol Choices Noteworthy Book for Children & Teens
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Nerdy Book Club Award for Long Form Nonfiction
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On the CCBC Choices list from the Cooperative Children’s Book Center
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A NCSS-CBC Notable Social Science Trade Book for Young People
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Oklahoma Library Association Sequoyah Book Award Nominee
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Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Awards Program Master List
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Winner Green Mountain Book Award
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Rhode Island Teen Book Award Nominee
- North Carolina Young Adult Book Award Nominee
- A Florida Teen Read
- A Grand Canyon Reader Award Nominee
- A Project Lit Book Club Selection
Sasha sleeps as Richard and his companions goof around, play fighting. Sleeps as Richard’s cousin Lloyd bounds up and down the aisle flirting with a girl up front. Sleeps as Richard surreptitiously flicks a lighter and touches it to the hem of that gauzy white skirt.
Wait.
In a moment, Sasha will wake inside a ball of flame and begin to scream.
In a moment, everything will be set in motion.
Taken by ambulance to a San Francisco burn unit, Sasha will spend the next three and a half weeks undergoing multiple surgeries to treat second- and third-degree burns running from calf to thigh.
Arrested at school the following day, Richard will be charged with two felonies, each with a hate-crime clause that will add time to his sentence if he is convicted. Citing the severity of the crime, the district attorney will charge him as an adult, stripping him of the protections normally given to juveniles. Before the week is out, he will be facing the possibility of life imprisonment.
But none of that has happened yet. For now, both teenagers are just taking the bus home from school.
Surely it’s not too late to stop things from going wrong. There must be some way to wake Sasha. Divert Richard. Get the driver to stop the bus.
There must be something you can do.
LISTEN TO INTERVIEWS WITH DASHKA SLATER ABOUT THE 57 BUS
GLOWING PRAISE FOR THE 57 BUS
“Slater artfully unfolds a complex and layered tale about two teens whose lives intersect with painful consequences. This work will spark discussions about identity, community, and what it means to achieve justice.”
–School Library Journal, starred review
“An outstanding book that links the diversity of creed and the impact of impulsive actions to themes of tolerance and forgiveness.”
–Kirkus, starred review
“This painful story illuminates, cautions, and inspires.”
–Publishers Weekly, starred review
“A multi-layered lesson on the healing power of humanity.”
–Shelf Awareness, starred review
“The 57 Bus does what all great books do—reveals our world to us anew.”
—BookPage
“Slater provides a nuanced portrait of both teenagers and delves into the hot-button issues of gender nonconformity, bias crimes and juvenile justice.”
—The Washington Post
“A powerful story of class and race, gender and identity, justice and mercy, love and hate . . . Slater has crafted a
compelling true-crime story with ramifications for our most vulnerable youth.”
—The Horn Book
“A sensitive study of an incident wrapped up in so many modern conundrums.”
—The Financial Times
“Dashka Slater wrote The 57 Bus for teenagers, but her audience should also include parents. The two youngsters from
Oakland, Calif., whose paths cross so disastrously are both extremely likable . . . Slater doesn’t apologize for Richard;
she just asks us to consider where he came from and to question the ingrained prejudice of a legal system that
eventually locked him up for five years.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Journalist Dashka Slater’s nuanced nonfiction account of an Oakland crime involving two teens—Sasha, the victim,
and Richard, the perpetrator—encourages readers to think beyond rigid, traditional social norms and the prejudices
that often accompany them . . . This is a book about individuals caught within—and pushing against—the framework
of culture.”
—Chicago Tribune
“A thought-provoking tale of class, race, gender, morality and forgiveness . . . The 57 Bus will leave you with a hole in
your heart and tears running down your cheeks. For a book about a horrible crime, the amount of love is remarkable.”
—The Daily Californian
“It is likely that this account will spark conversations, debates, and contemplation, perhaps leading readers to define
for themselves what justice means.”
—VOYA
“A truly impressive book. Never biased, never sentimental, consistently heart-breaking, it challenges everyday
assumptions that affect even the most liberal readers. You can’t afford not to read it.”
—Deerfield Valley News