Final Votes

Westminster sends 5 votes to The 57 Bus.  We haven't always agreed (or even all read) for each of the rounds, but this one was unanimous.  Some of us also really liked the other two for their own reasons (Far From the Tree will be an easy sell for readers of feel-good realistic YA fiction, and The Poet X has well developed characters and a way to invite more people into poetry while providing representation to a Latinx voice).  But The 57 Bus stuck with us all.  Wendy felt it was the only one that didn't fall into a predictable YA pattern and offered something unique.  Personally, I prefer to take my non-fiction in a prose-like package, so I enjoyed it for that.  We learned a lot and appreciated the exploration of complex issues that were not one-sided.  There is lots for teens to explore about race, class, gender, crime and punishment in this book.  We think it wins. 

-Wendy, Kerri, Carla, Chelsey, Charlotte and Laura