This image, or images like it used to remind us of raining days when the sun shines, but today, this holds a deeper meaning. Being in class with tweens playing GimKit Live, and someone uses this rainbow on a flag as an icon following his name is asked: are you making a statement? 

As readers, we enter The 57 Bus novel, learning what has happened and what is about to happen: Richard faces prison and sentencing as an adult, and Sasha faces horrific pain and suffering and many surgeries.  When it comes to a simple statement: a flag, a skirt, we at time can read into these things much like Richard did. He decided, in a moment that it might be crazy funny to watch someone wake up, panic, and put out what he envisioned to be a small flame. What he didn't consider? That that one single flicker of a lighter would blow up his life as much as Sasha's.  

When have you faced a decision like this? 

Have you ever faced being around someone who does something you know you is not right?

How did you handle it? How did it make you feel?

In the reading of this narrative reporting style we explore journalistic insights on LGBTQ+ issues that are shared between a back and forth story about both Richard and Sasha. We take note of both their circumstances fully and separately. This is not Sasha's story alone. It is not Richard's story alone. It is a shared narrative that give weight to both the culture of trials by jury and what it means to juvenile offenders as well as what it means to identify as gender neutral and be judged or harmed for it.

How do you feel about gender-neutral bathrooms?

Do you feel Richard feels genuine remorse for what he has done to Shasha?

Do his letter prove this?

What do you think the outcome could have been IF his attorney had shared those letters with Sasha and her family sooner?

This text, The 57 Bus,  raised a lot of excitement amongst New York editors and how it came to be was relevant and real. The reporter who covered this incident, Dashka Slater, could not let this incident go. It clung to her. It was a boy and a gender-neutral who for 8 minutes rode the same bus. It was one flicker of a lighter and Poof! Sasha screamed, "I'm on fire!" and they life was changed forever. 

But there was also something fresh and real and really relevant about how Dashka chose to format this novel. It start with the incident, already over and the announcement that the hammer was coming down on Thomas, who held said lighter, the next day. Stripped of his juvenile status, he would be tried as an adult. One decision. One lighter flick. They life as they know it? Over. 

The other thing that's significant about this text is it's strong advocacy and voice for gender-neutral terms that extend far beyond pronouns. A sexual. A romantic. And more--all from a they who dared to stand up for feelings about our human condition and what it means to sign or select that X in the gender box.

No one was surprised when it won the 2018 Stonewall Children's and Young Adult Literature Awards.  The format stood out among other novels whose format stood up and allowed judges to take notice. This same year, Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds on numerous awards as well.

Both of these titles were creatively crafted. When you hear Jason talk about whitespace and positioning and placement on the page, it's easy to remember that his is a writing world where rhythm and sounds and lines and letters collide. His words break up space instead of fill it like traditional prose. His words, if you ever have read them, slam your heart into what you are reading. He builds a character's internal existence until the reader certainly feels what he is saying. 

Like this, The 57 Bus, shares Sasha, her most private and reflective thoughts. Slater doesn't hold back and readers applaud this. Anyone interested in the LGBTQ+  views, only need turn to the chapter dedicated to sharing these insights, which includes understanding pronouns and terms.