I read this story is high school and I fell in love with it. It follows the story of this group of teenagers who get into a wreck after a basketball game because they were drunk. All but one live from the accident. The group of friends moves on with life barely able to focus on anything but the death of their friend. One thinks about commiting suicide but one of the friends talks them out of it. This story is great for teaching young kids about the dangers in drinking and driving and how to not be so easily influenced by your peers. Good tear wrenching book!

I loved this story. It is very realistic. I hope teens read this and realize that they don't need to keep things to themselves. Counselors and friends are there to help.

This book tells of the story when four teenagers got in a car accident because they were all drinking. It is a very sad and touching story.
While the four teens are driving, they crash. All but one of these teens survive. This causes many difficulties for the otheres. The one teenager thinks about commiting suicide, but his friends talk him out of it. The other two do their best to just move on.
This book actually made me cry. It was very sad but also very likable. It draws your attention and will sweep you away to the world in which this story takes place. I highly recommend this. ( )

I can only hope, dream, expect, desire, etc. that this book will be read by a teen and it will stick in the back of their minds. Maybe someday they might start to get behind the wheel of a car drunk and this book will come back to them and make them think twice. It's been 13 years since its publication so I hope this may have happened many times. I was unable to read the last letter in the book. ( )

Draper, S.M. (1994). Tears of a Tiger. New York: Simon Pulse.



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This very real drama begins with a newspaper article reporting that a high school senior basketball player, Rob, has died in a fiery car crash. There were three other boys who survived the crash, including Andy, who was driving.



What follows are the conversations, prayers, letters and homework assignments of some of those teens most closely affected by the accident. At the center is Andy’s voice: He struggles with taking Rob’s place on the basketball team, his distant relationship with his parents and his own guilt over the accident. While the conversation format of most of the text may be difficult to follow at first, it becomes easier as the reader continues on to encounter discussions of race, class, suicide, loss, discrimination, familial expectations, etc.



This dark but real work of YA kicked off Draper’s Hazelwood High Trilogy.





Activities to do with the book:



This book would lend itself to having journal entries made in reaction to the text. Students could also write their own dialogues based on events or issues that have occurred in their own high schools and record them or act them out.



This book can serve as a first step for students to discover many of Draper's other young adult novels. Many of which evoke emotional responses.





Favorite Quotes:



“And I’ve just been glad that I had such good friends. Now one of them is gone and I feel responsible” (p. 17).



“Last week I learned that kids my age could die. That was the most frightening experience I ever had. A boy that I knew real well, that sat next to me in study hall, died in a car crash” (p. 18).



“The inside of me is hurtin’. You know what I mean?” (p. 23).



“Well, if you really wanted to know, I wanted to die right after the accident. I wanted it to be me that was dead instead of Rob. He had so much goin’ for himself” (p. 24).

For more of my reviews, visit sjkessel.blogspot.com.