Shooter

Amazon.com
Cameron, Carla, and Len were fascinated (for different reasons) with guns and target shooting at the Patriots' club range until the day Len brought his Kalashnikov rifle, his AR-18, and his Ruger pistol to school, and shot and killed football jock Brad Williams, and then himself. Here is yet another school shooting story that begins with bullying and ends with disaster--a type that is becoming almost a sub-genre of YA fiction. Yet Walter Dean Myers, winner of many awards for his young adult novels, brings freshness and new anguish to this familiar tale (and growing social problem) of unstable victim tormented by bullies to homicidal rage. Following the example of his own masterwork Monster, Myers uses different perspectives in the aftermath of the "incident" to reveal the characters and to tell the story: interviews with Cameron and Carla by The Harrison County School Safety Committee, newspaper reports, a police report, Len's handwritten "die-ary" of his deranged thoughts, and finally, a grim medical examiner's report. The contrasts and contradictions in these various perspectives challenge readers to produce their own versions of why Cameron and Carla became Len's followers and what could have prevented this tragedy and others like it in real life. (ages 12 and up) --Patty Campbell

From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up-Six months after a deadly shooting at a suburban high school, educators and psychological and criminal experts compile their interviews and analyses to assess any ongoing threat in the school environment. Through these documents, Myers skillfully tells the story of the shooting, its precipitating causes, and the aftermath for the shooter's closest friends. As in Robert Cormier's The Rag and Bone Shop (Delacorte, 2001), readers are made aware of the realistic and insidious biases different interrogators bring to their investigations. Seventeen-year-old Cameron Porter, the deceased shooter's closest friend, expresses himself one way when being debriefed by a psychologist and necessarily comes across differently when questioned by an FBI agent. Readers also are shown how such diverse types of inquiry are committed to paper with subtle but telling differences, as one interviewer asks that the transcriber retain Porter's pauses while the other directs the transcriber specifically to omit them. Other characters include the boys' one female friend, and, ultimately, Len, the shooter himself, through the clearly disturbed pages of his diary in the months leading up to the "incident." Myers uses no narrative frame other than the documents themselves and excels in providing clear and distinct voices through these interviews, notes, and reports; only the newspaper items lack a genuine ring. In addition to young adults who will find this story intensely readable as well as intense, adults working with teens should read and discuss the questions and implications that the tale reveals.Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
The powerful story of three teens caught in a web of violence springs to life in an audio format with multiple readers Chad Coleman, Bernie McInerney, and Michelle Santopietro. Compelling audio-taped interviews by the criminal and psychological investigators of The Harrison County School Safety Com-mittee introduce the listener to students Cameron and Carla. Their friend, Len, has turned his illegal weapon against a bullying classmate and then on himself. Cameron, though earnest and relaxed in his responses, is emotionally guarded; Carla's husky tough-girl voice reflects her lower social class and nails her damaged psyche. Even Len, whom we hear from the grave through diary entries, is fully realized as an insolent, angry, rap-talking teen, suffering from deep feelings of hurt and betrayal. This evocative school shooting drama will serve as an indictment of criminal investigations, society, and the media. T.B. 2005 YALSA Selection © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Gr. 7-12. Like Myers' Printz Award book, Monster (1999), this story is told from multiple viewpoints, and questions of guilt and innocence drive the plot and stay with the reader. This time there's a shooting in a high school. Len, a senior, commits suicide after he shoots a star football player and injures several others in the schoolyard. The actual facts of that carnage emerge slowly, as Len's best friend, Cameron, is interviewed at length by a therapist, a sheriff, and a threat-prevention specialist. Adding more perspective are newspaper and police reports, and Len's personal journal, which reveals his fury and hurt about his macho father and school bullies. The multiple narratives move the story far beyond case history, the chatty interview format is highly readable, and Cameron's voice is pitch perfect. One of the few black students in the school, he's an outsider like Len, but he's quiet about it, "an ordinary guy." He doesn't want to stand out; he does nothing about the racism implicit in an image of Martin Luther King on a shooting-range practice target, and he's ashamed. It's this bystander role readers will want to talk about, as well as who is to blame. Why does Cameron just go along with things? What about the parents, the principal, the counselors who knew about the bullying and tell Len to "grow up"? Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description

Cameron: "Deep inside, you know that whoever gets up in your face gets there because he knows you’re nothing, and he knows that you know it too."

Carla: "What I’m trying to do is to get by -- not even get over, just get by."

Leonard: "I have bought a gaw-juss weapon. It lies beneath my bed like a secret lover, quiet, powerful, waiting to work my magic."

Statement of Fact: 17-year-old white male found dead in the aftermath of a shooting incident at Madison High School in Harrison County.

ANNOTATION

Written in the form of interviews, reports, and journal entries, the story of three troubled teenagers ends in a tragic school shooting.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A chilling novel from the author of Monster, Printz Award winner Walter Dean Myers

What is it like to be an outsider at home and at school? Leonard, Cameron, and Carla struggle to find their way, but when Leonard goes on a shooting rampage at school, his friend Cameron finally gets his own wake-up call.

Told through a series of interviews, reports, newspaper articles, and excerpts from Leonard's journal, Shooter unveils a bleak picture of what life can be like for a teen misfit. In his provocative, edgy style, Walter Dean Myers weaves a riveting tale of the world of three loners -- their anguish, anger, and vulnerability.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In this chilling cautionary tale, Myers revisits the themes of his Monster and Scorpions in a slightly more detached structure, but the outcome is every bit as moving. The novel opens with what serves as a cover sheet to a "Threat Analysis Report," which, in its mission statement, makes mention of "the tragic events of last April." Gradually, readers discover that Len Gray killed a fellow high school student before taking his own life. Through transcripts of various adults questioning Len's friends, Cameron Porter and Carla Evans, readers get to form their own opinions about how much these two may or may not have contributed to the events of that day. Myers sculpts every character here in three dimensions, including the interviewers. Dr. Ewings, the psychologist, shows compassion toward Cameron, and therefore the 17-year-old reveals to him the most intimate details of his friendship with Len and also his home life. Cameron's interview with FBI Special Agent Victoria Lash, on the other hand, puts Cameron on the defensive. When she pointedly questions Cameron about what she calls his "money-conscious" parents, he tells the agent, "They make more than most people. They make more than you do. Does that bother you?" to which she replies, "I'm white and you're black, does that bother you?" Here, no one is completely innocent and no one is entirely to blame. A myriad of small occurrences add up to the tragic outcome: blind spots on the part of teachers and coaches, parents who are consumed with their own lives and not considering how their actions have an impact on their children. Myers takes no shortcuts: all three teens are smart (readers get to know Len through his journal entries, handwritten in a somewhat deranged-looking scrawl and included as an appendix); all three consider themselves outsiders. Readers will find themselves racing through the pages, then turning back to pore over the details once more. Ages 12-up. (May) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

VOYA - Diane Tuccillo

Psychologists, an FBI investigator, and a county sheriff interview seventeen-year-old seniors Cameron Porter and Carla Evans for a threat analysis report regarding the high school shooting that resulted in multiple injuries, murder, and the suicide of their friend, Leonardo Gray. Reports and newspaper clips add perspective—or demonstrate the lack of it. Piece by piece, a fa￯﾿ﾽade is torn away and the truth comes to life—a painful, horrifying, chilling truth. The events portrayed on that tragic April day are simply a culmination of the stark, gripping reality that was the life of the shooting catalyst, Leonardo Gray. Through journal entries that comprise the last half of the book (printed in a typeface to resemble Leonardo's "own" scrawled printing), Len discloses his brilliant, confused, sad, and disturbed self, drawn into the spell of guns via the influence of his father, who abuses his mother. He craves revenge against a hotshot jock who bullies him. He wants love and friendship but misses the mark in his relationships. He is drawn to literature, especially the Bible, but twists words and undermines teachings. He cries out in an exceptionally poetic and sensitive voice in contrast to the whisper of scurrying rats in his head that lead him to choose death in an attempt to "create the real me." This novel is a powerful, intriguing, and imaginative fictional expos￯﾿ﾽ of a teen crying out for emotional and mental relief. It draws the reader in with its unique format, reminiscent of Myers's Monster (HarperCollins, 1999/VOYA August 1999), and its unfortunately recognizable setting of high school violence, leaving a wake of unsettling emotions. Fans of Todd Strasser's thought-provokingGive a Boy a Gun (Simon & Schuster, 2000/VOYA October 2000) will clamor for this book. VOYA Codes 5Q 4P J S (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2004, HarperCollins, 240p., and PLB Ages 12 to 18.

KLIATT - Paula Rohrlick

The acclaimed author of Monster and many other books for YAs turns his attention to a school shooting in this disturbing look at how such a terrible event can come to pass. The novel, a collage of sorts, begins with an interview with Cameron, a 17-year-old African American student whose role in the shooting is not immediately clear. What does emerge is a portrait of an outsider, a bright but lonely boy who is befriended by Len, a white boy full of hate and anger. Len teaches Cameron to shoot and involves him in vandalizing a church. Both boys are bullied at school by jocks, but the authorities overlook it. Through more interviews, school, police, and newspaper reports, and finally Len's handwritten journal, we piece together the tragedy and the roles of each player, and understand how it came to pass. As in Todd Strasser's Give a Boy a Gun, Myers' use of multiple viewpoints to tell the story of a school shooting gives it an impact beyond that supplied by just one perspective. Issues of racism, bullying, family dynamics, and the nature of friendship all play a role as Cameron, an articulate teenager, struggles to make sense of his participation. A sobering look at how such tragedies develop, and the kind of personalities involved. KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2004, HarperCollins, 240p., and Ages 12 to 18.

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-Six months after a deadly shooting at a suburban high school, educators and psychological and criminal experts compile their interviews and analyses to assess any ongoing threat in the school environment. Through these documents, Myers skillfully tells the story of the shooting, its precipitating causes, and the aftermath for the shooter's closest friends. As in Robert Cormier's The Rag and Bone Shop (Delacorte, 2001), readers are made aware of the realistic and insidious biases different interrogators bring to their investigations. Seventeen-year-old Cameron Porter, the deceased shooter's closest friend, expresses himself one way when being debriefed by a psychologist and necessarily comes across differently when questioned by an FBI agent. Readers also are shown how such diverse types of inquiry are committed to paper with subtle but telling differences, as one interviewer asks that the transcriber retain Porter's pauses while the other directs the transcriber specifically to omit them. Other characters include the boys' one female friend, and, ultimately, Len, the shooter himself, through the clearly disturbed pages of his diary in the months leading up to the "incident." Myers uses no narrative frame other than the documents themselves and excels in providing clear and distinct voices through these interviews, notes, and reports; only the newspaper items lack a genuine ring. In addition to young adults who will find this story intensely readable as well as intense, adults working with teens should read and discuss the questions and implications that the tale reveals.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

AudioFile