Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher

High School

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier.

On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out how he made the list.

Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah’s pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout this town, what he discovers will change his life forever.

I read this book back in 9^th grade and it’s one of the best books I’ve every read. I even did a report on it for English class. I still have the collage I made for the report in my closet. I wish I had the report to help me with this but I do not. Oh well.

I don’t want to give too much of Hannah’s story away. But I will say that her death could have been prevented if someone had taken the time to hear her side of the story. Instead they decided to believe the rumors. She just wanted it to stop and she couldn’t find any other way out. You might think what she did was cowardly but everyone has a breaking point and she had reached hers.

The thing is Clay never did anything to hurt Hannah but he never did anything to help her either. He just stood on the sidelines and watched it happen. A lot of people could have help her but no one knew what she was really going through until it was too late.

The tapes, by the way, are genius. Some might say it’s cowardly to say what happened to you after you’re dead but I think it was cool in a way. Getting a tape recording from a dead person is creepy enough but being called out for being the reason why they’re dead is mind blowing. I see it as Hannah’s way of sticking it to the people that took advantage of her. You might think the tapes were a sick joke but some of those people should know what they did to her, to scare them into never doing it again. I can honestly say that at least of five of those people deserved to suffer.

Even though actually reading the book is awesome I recommend listening to this book on audio. Being able to hear how eerily calm her voice is while she tells her story makes it so much better.

I don’t think I really absorbed what was going on the first time I read this book. Then again I haven’t read this book in awhile, plus it’s kind of depressing and I’d rather read more uplifting books. I used to read a lot of disturbing books in high school but then I got over that. I don’t really want to write posts about those books because I want to keep this blog on the positive side. The reason why I’m writing about this book at all is that Netflix has made a TV series based on the book. There’s even a soundtrack available on iTunes, 13 songs of course.

The Netflix series goes into more depth about what happened after Hannah’s death and how it affected everyone, not just Clay. The most heart-breaking part was how Hannah’s mother tries to find out what drove her daughter to suicide. Each episode is almost an hour long and features a different side of a cassette tape. I thought I would only be able to watch one episode at a time but as depressing as this story is, it’s also addicting.

As depressing as this story is, I think young adults should read this book because they need to know that something like this could be happening around you and you might not even know it. Or you do know and you acted too late.

Isaac and his Amazing Asperger Superpowers by Melanie Walsh

To spread more awareness for autism here is another inspiring autism book everyone should read.

For anyone who knows someone on the autism spectrum

Meet Isaac!

He’s a superhero!

He might look like everyone else, but his brain works a little bit differently, and he’s got special superpowers to prove it.

Unlike the last autism book, this one is more specifically directed towards little kids in preschool and kindergarten. This book should definitely be read at story time.

The thing about Asperger’s is you can’t see it. When you say you have Asperger’s, people look at you and think ‘I don’t see anything wrong with you.” It’s hard to have a disability that no one can see, like a broken leg. I’ve had some trouble with that in the past.

This book made a point of saying that kids with Asperger’s tend to take things said literally. I know I did as a child. In elementary school when my teachers told me that if I didn’t finish my work I wouldn’t be able to leave. I thought I would have to stay there late into the night and that terrified me to the bone as a kid. So be careful what you say to a kid with Asperger’s or any kid, they might take what you say too seriously.

All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome by Kathy Hoopmann

Happy World Autism Awareness Day!

And to celebrate, here is a book that does a great job explaining Asperger Syndrome.

For anyone who knows someone on the autism spectrum

‘All Cats have Asperger Syndrome’ is told in a way everyone can understand with pictures that will make you smile.

For someone who grew up with autism, this book does a great job explaining what it’s like to have autism.

I hate it when people talk about autism like it’s something to be afraid of. Like on one episode of ‘Girl Meets World’ one of the characters was thought to have Asperger Syndrome and they made it sound like this horrible thing.  Having a kid with autism is not the end of the world. Another show that did a great job explaining Asperger Syndrome was on an episode of ‘Arthur’ (When Carl Met George). The episode did a great job of explaining what it’s like for someone to live with autism in a way people can understand.

The thing about autism is no one with autism is the same, just like everyone on earth, no two are alike. So if you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism. No two are alike. Each individual with autism have their own quirks and own way of dealing with their problems.

With that said, here is a quote about autism.

“What would happen if the autism gene was eliminated from the gene pool? You would have a bunch of people standing around in a cave, chatting and socializing and not getting anything done.” – Temple Grandin, The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism & Asperger’s

This is very true.