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

Dashka Slater

Oct 2017 · Sold by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

About this ebook

The riveting New York Times bestseller and Stonewall Book Award winner that will make you rethink all you know about race, class, gender, crime, and punishment. Artfully, compassionately, and expertly told, Dashka Slater's The 57 Bus is a must-read nonfiction book for teens that chronicles the true story of an agender teen who was set on fire by another teen while riding a bus in Oakland, California.

Two ends of the same line. Two sides of the same crime.

If it weren’t for the 57 bus, Sasha and Richard never would have met. Both were high school students from Oakland, California, one of the most diverse cities in the country, but they inhabited different worlds. Sasha, a white teen, lived in the middle-class foothills and attended a small private school. Richard, a Black teen, lived in the economically challenged flatlands and attended a large public one.

Each day, their paths overlapped for a mere eight minutes. But one afternoon on the bus ride home from school, a single reckless act left Sasha severely burned, and Richard charged with two hate crimes and facing life imprisonment. The case garnered international attention, thrusting both teenagers into the spotlight. But in The 57 Bus, award-winning journalist Dashka Slater shows that what might at first seem like a simple matter of right and wrong, justice and injustice, victim and criminal, is something more complicated—and far more heartbreaking.

Awards and Accolades for The 57 Bus:
A New York Times Bestseller
Stonewall Book Award Winner
YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist
A Boston Globe-Horn Book Nonfiction Honor Book Winner
A TIME Magazine Best YA Book of All Time
A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist

Don’t miss Dashka Slater’s newest propulsive and thought-provoking nonfiction book, Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed, which National Book Award winner Ibram X. Kendi hails as “powerful, timely, and delicately written.”

Ratings and reviews

(Warning: mild spoilers when giving details about main events) The 57 bus was a very enjoyable read. It addressed the lives of two very unique individuals and how certain events brought them closer to each other. The main characters in the story - Sasha and Richard, live in the city of Oakland, California. I believe the author chose to base the story here because Oakland is known for being a very diverse area. This is one way the author developed a focal point for the story. As you read more of it, you will notice the author really focuses on the social aspect of the story. The main event that drives the story is on bus #57 when Richard lit Sasha’s tutu on fire while asleep. Richard had no intentions of burning their tutu or causing pain, as he thought it would not burn very much or at all. After the fire was out, almost half of Sasha’s body had 3rd degree burns. Richard was tried as an adult and was sentenced to seven years in prison. During his time in jail, Richard wrote an apology letter to Sasha and her family. What he said in his letter, made Sasha and their family realize that Richard was not as bad of a person as what it was made to look like in the court as well as on the #57 bus. When Richard had two years of jail time behind him, Sasha and their folks had pardoned Richard; feeling that he was not so terrible. Richard was not a terrible person in my opinion; despite the fact that what he did was a bit concerning and was most likely a horrible experience for Sasha. he was not doing extraordinary in school, yet he was getting the help and support he needed to stay on the right path. Times were very tough for Richard’s mother. Richard was born when his mother was in high school and has since struggled with multiple jobs as well as caring for Richard and his big event. I thought this book had an amazing story behind it and was surprised when I found out it was actually a true story. I would not have believed anyone who told me it was a true story unless I saw it mentioned in the book or read it online. My reason being that it’s hard to believe that such different types of characters, went through very harsh times (like getting half of your body burned or being tried as an adult and going to jail for seven years,) and still ended up becoming good friends with each other. It’s just a reminder of how our world is changing fast in social aspects.

Read this book for an English class book report. This is an amazing story and I would strongly recommend it. I loved reading this book

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About the author

Award-winning journalist Dashka Slater has written for such publications as The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Salon, and Mother Jones. Her New York Times-bestselling young-adult true crime narrative, The 57 Bus, has received numerous accolades, including the Stonewall Book Award, the California Book Award, and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor. It was a YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist and an LA Times Book Award Finalist, in addition to receiving four starred reviews and being named to more than 20 separate lists of the year’s best books, including ones compiled by The Washington Post, the New York Public Library, and School Library Journal. In 2021, The 57 Bus was named to TIME magazine’s list of the 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time. The author of fifteen books of fiction and nonfiction for children and adults, Dashka teaches in Hamline University’s MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults program. She lives and writes in Oakland, California.