Tears of a Tiger (edition 1996)

Very emotional and well written. Very interesting to read from different individual perspectives. Simple to follow. A great lesson for teens. This book had me crying because two of my friends died and this was during a very emotional time in my life. I would defiantly read this book to my students to make them feel like they are not alone if they go through a death in the family or someone that is very close to them. ( )

I have yet to finish this book but so far its great. If you like a book where someone is trying hard to fix themself, to become a better person. This is the book for you. In the movie the main character was drinkning and driving and he crashed his car and as a result his best friend was killed. He is trying to cope with it. ( )

Great amazing book! Explains the life of a teenager with vivid detail through the life of a boy going through hard times if you like teen struggle books with many twist and turns this is the one for you ( )

At times the writing seemed fake as Draper explained too much of a stereotypical black person's culture...working at Burger King, slavery, being followed in shops, etc. Sometimes what she wrote didn't seem necessary to the point of the novel and didn't seem to fit with the flow. Overall though, I liked the message this book was trying to convey. I think that Draper should have kept the whole book in Andy's point of view. I feel like there was too much dialogue and other genres going on that we couldn't really see Andy's degeneration; we were just simply told it. My favorite part of this book was the ending letters...they had a lot of passion and I got chills. Draper makes some really great points.

Note: My rating is not about literary quality, but my own personal enjoyment. Thanks. ( )

Andy Jackson and his friends were all on the high school basketball team. After a big win, they decided to drink some beer and get behind the wheel of a car. Andy was driving and he watched his best friend die when they crashed and the car exploded. Andy tries to cope with the traumatic experience, but in the end everything does not turn out well for him either.

As a teacher, I would definitely want the students to discuss suicide. I would want them to express the negative outcomes and how it only makes things worse for those around them. I would also ask them to do research on not only drunk driving, but underage drinking. I think that some of the statistics could have a huge impact on some of the students.

I really liked this book. It made the dangers of drunk driving seem so real. Different people try to get the word out about people that die in drunk driving accidents, but it is not very common to hear about what the person driving is going through. I would never want to be in Andy’s shoes; feeling responsible for my best friend’s death. Throughout the book, it is obvious that he is struggling to cope with everything, but I never imagined it would go as far as it did. ( )