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Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
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Nineteen Minutes

by Jodi Picoult

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Synopsis: Bullied right from the very second he stood onto the bus on his first day of school, Peter Houghton is an outcast and treated like one every day up. At high school, his face is slammed into lockers and toilets on a regular basis and his pants are pulled down at the cafeteria for everyone to see. Finally, when Peter Houghton decides to fight back, it leaves devastating consequences: Nineteen people seriously wounded and ten people dead at Sterling High School. Jodi Picoult faces the question of whether Peter Houghton's lifelong bullying is justified in his act of revenge.
My Opinion: Yet another of Jodi Picoult's I'd-rather-read-than-waste-my-time-sleeping books that leaves you questioning your own actions and position in life. ( )
  Moniica | Nov 23, 2009 |
Reviewed by Maria (Class of 2012)
Almost every year school shootings happen in America. This shocking book 19 minutes was based on real stories. For example the shooting that happened at Virginia Tech University where 33 people were killed in one day the deadliest rampage in America. 19 minutes can be related to Virginia Tech. The book tells the story of Peter, who shot students at a school… But why did he shoot them? What did they do to him? Why wouldn’t he kill Josie? This book was full of suspense and mystery. I like this book because it takes you from when their moms were pregnant until the day when the shooting happened. It tells you how Peter and Josie grow up and about their lives until the day of the shooting. The only thing I dislike about this book was when you find out who was the actual killer of Matt. Despite this, the book never gets boring and it’s hard to put it down. ( )
  HHS-Students | Nov 19, 2009 |
Me and my friends passed this book around for the 3 weeks we were in England together, all of us getting a chance to read it. This novel tells the story of a teenage boy who shot other students at his school, and the reasons that he did it. This book gave an excellent portrayal of family, love, fear, and friendship, through the shifting viewpoints of a mother, a child, a friend, and a boyfriend. Terribly sad, and at times a bit funny, my only problem with this book came at the end. Definitely a shocking close, it's not what I was expecting, nor what I hoped for, but it made the rest of the book appear in a new light. Worth reading.
  elliehughes | Nov 12, 2009 |
Not one of her better books. There are a few things you can count on in your average Picoult novel: a family or two with teenage children, police and/or lawyers, at least one romance, and a heaping helping of dysfunction. I get the impression that Picoult reads a headline and decides to write a story about it. Which is fine, but this book's Weighty Topic is school shootings, which reads a lot like a cross between We Need to Talk About Kevin and a Law & Order episode, with a generous sprinkling of high school stereotypes. The main characters were the shooter and his mother, the shooter's crush and her mother (a judge) and boyfriend (a bully/jock), and the detective. The whole story was just so tragic that I stopped caring how things turned out. It didn't help that I called the twist ending around halfway through the book. I've read some excellent books by Picoult; this just didn't happen to be one of them. ( )
1 vote melydia | Oct 28, 2009 |
I always find it hard to read books dealing with school shootings, since I am the mother of two school-aged children. NINETEEN MINUTES, however, is an emotional story that should be required reading for teens, along with their watching of the movie REQUIEM FOR A DREAM.

Reading this story of a bullied teen who finally has enough and takes out his anger on his high school is enlightening, and, at times, hard to read. I found it very easy to identify with many of the characters in the book: not just with the shooter, but with the judge's daughter, who wants only to fit in and be popular, and the jocks, who don't know how to be anything but what they are.

NINETEEN MINUTES is a great book. I can honestly say I enjoyed it, even while crying my way through several passages. Read it -- whether a teen or the parent of a teenager, and find out what REALLY happens in high schools around the US -- and what could be happening, quite possibly, in your own hometown. ( )
  GeniusJen | Oct 14, 2009 |
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Epigraph
PART ONE: "If we don't change the direction we are headed, we will end up where we are going".
Chinese Proverb
Dedication
For Emily Bestler, the finest editor and fiercest champion a girl could ask for, who makes sure I put my best foot forward, every time. Thanks for your keen eye, your cheerleading, and most of all, your friendship.
First words
In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, color your hair, watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five. Nineteen minutes is how long it took the Tennessee Titans to sell out of tickets to the play-offs. It's the length of a ssitcom, minus the commercials. It's the driving distance from the Vermont border to the town of Sterling New Hampshire. In nineteen minutes you can order a pizza and get it delivered. You can read a story to a child or have your oil changed. You can walk a mile. You can sew a hem. In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world or just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge.
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Book description

Amazon.com (ISBN 0743496728, Hardcover)

Best known for tackling controversial issues through richly told fictional accounts, Jodi Picoult's 14th novel, Nineteen Minutes, deals with the truth and consequences of a smalltown high-school shooting. Set in Sterling, New Hampshire, Picoult offers reads a glimpse of what would cause a 17-year-old to wake up one day, load his backpack with four guns, and kill nine students and one teacher in the span of nineteen minutes. As with any Picoult novel, the answers are never black and white, and it is her exceptional ability to blur the lines between right and wrong that make this author such a captivating storyteller.

On Peter Houghton's first day of kindergarten, he watched helplessly as an older boy ripped his lunch box out of his hands and threw it out the window. From that day on, his life was a series of humiliations, from having his pants pulled down in the cafeteria, to being called a freak at every turn. But can endless bullying justify murder? As Picoult attempts to answer this question, she shows us all sides of the equation, from the ruthless jock who loses his ability to speak after being shot in the head, to the mother who both blames and pities herself for producing what most would call a monster. Surrounding Peter's story is that of Josie Cormier, a former friend whose acceptance into the popular crowd hangs on a string that makes it impossible for her to reconcile her beliefs with her actions.

At times, Nineteen Minutes can seem tediously stereotypical-- jocks versus nerds, parent versus child, teacher versus student. Part of Picoult's gift is showing us the subtleties of these common dynamics, and the startling effects they often have on the moral landscape. As Peter's mother says at the end of this spellbinding novel, "Everyone would remember Peter for nineteen minutes of his life, but what about the other nine million?" --Gisele Toueg

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:15 -0400)

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