A Sudden Silence

by Eve Bunting

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Jesse Harmon searches for the hit and run driver who killed his brother Bry.

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Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

"What If" Bry and Jesse had taken the proper way home after the party? "What If" they'd only have stayed on the correct side of the road until they reached the underpass? Instead, Bry sees a clearing in the traffic near their development and runs across the road. Shortly after that, a speeding car comes from behind, catching them unawares. Jesse yells out to Bry to get out the way. But Bry is deaf and never heard the warning, nor probably ever knew the car hit him. Until it was too late.

Jesse is full of regrets from the moment he darted out of the way without grabbing his brother and pulling him to safety. But no one has blamed Jesse that it was his fault. Instead, Jesse is determined to do show more everything he can to find the driver who so carelessly hit Bry and then drove off into the night without helping.

A SUDDEN SILENCE has been reissued after twenty years. The story is still as relevant today as it was in 1988 when it was first published. Ms. Bunting writes a sad story of one brother's quest to find justice for his younger brother who was killed too soon. Jesse is a normal teenager who has to deal with survivor's guilt, as well as the not-knowing of who killed his brother. With the help of Bry's friend, Chloe, Jesse puts the pieces together to help the police solve the crime. In the end, though, Ms. Bunting makes the reader realize that the conclusions we come to may not make it any easier for everyone involved.

This story is a must-read for teens thinking about drinking and driving. Many fail to realize that the dangers may not always be to the drunk driver, but instead to the innocent people who had nothing to do with the alcohol.
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Jesse Harmon knows he will never forget the night his brother, Bry, was killed by a hit-and-run driver. Striving to ease his grief, Jesse and Bry's girlfriend, Chloe, begin a search for the driver--and uncover other truths just as difficult and disturbing
Jesse's brother, Bry, is killed in a hit-and-run accident. Jesse, who was with him, tries to remember the car in order to find the driver. Jesse feels guilty because he didn't save Bry by pushing him out of the way, he had yelled at Bry but Bry was deaf. Even when Jesse discovers the identity of the driver he doesn't feel any better, the pain is still there.

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276+ Works 51,772 Members
Eve Bunting was born in 1928 in Maghera, Ireland, as Anne Evelyn Bunting. She graduated from Northern Ireland's Methodist College in Belfast in 1945 and then studied at Belfast's Queen's College. She emigrated with her family in 1958 to California, and became a naturalized citizen in 1969. That same year, she began her writing career, and in 1972, show more her first book, "The Two Giants" was published. In 1976, "One More Flight" won the Golden Kite Medal, and in 1978, "Ghost of Summer" won the Southern California's Council on Literature for Children and Young People's Award for fiction. "Smokey Night" won the American Library Association's Randolph Caldecott Medal in 1995 and "Winter's Coming" was voted one of the 10 Best Books of 1977 by the New York Times. Bunting is involved in many writer's organizations such as P.E.N., The Authors Guild, the California Writer's Guild and the Society of Children's Book Writers. She has published stories in both Cricket, and Jack and Jill Magazines, and has written over 150 books in various genres such as children's books, contemporary, historic and realistic fiction, poetry, nonfiction and humor. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

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Genres
Fiction and Literature, Teen, Young Adult
DDC/MDS
813.54Literature & rhetoricAmerican literature in EnglishAmerican fiction in English1900-19991945-1999
LCC
PZ7 .B91527 .SLanguage and LiteratureFiction and juvenile belles lettresFiction and juvenile belles lettresJuvenile belles lettres
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Reviews
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Rating
½ (4.38)
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Dutch, English
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Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
13
ASINs
1