Parkland Speaks: Survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas Share Their Stories

by Sarah Lerner (Editor)

Overview

Featuring art and writing from the students of the Parkland tragedy, this is a raw look at the events of February 14, and a poignant representation of grief, healing, and hope.

The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School share their emotional journeys that began on February 14, 2018, and continue today. This revealing and unfiltered look at teens living in the wake of tragedy is a poignant representation of grief, anger, determination, healing, and hope.

The intimate collection includes poetry, eyewitness accounts, letters, speeches, journal entries, drawings, and photographs from the events of February 14 and its aftermath. Full of heartbreaking loss, a rally cry for change, and hope for a safe future, these artistic pieces will inspire readers to reflect on their own lives and the importance of valuing and protecting the ones you love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781984850010
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	01/22/2019
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	146 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

SARAH LERNER is an English teacher, Journalism teacher, and yearbook adviser at MSD in Parkland, Florida. She began teaching in 2002 and was named the Sun-Sentinel High School Journalism Teacher of the Year in 2014. Sarah lives in Florida with her husband and two children.

Editorial Reviews

11/12/2018
This poignant and hard-hitting collection of poems, essays, and journal entries by students, accompanied by their artwork and photographs, reinforces the piercing and lingering effects of the Feb. 2018 shootings. Edited by Lerner, an English and journalism teacher and yearbook advisor at the school, this anthology has a spontaneous design, with some entries handwritten and reproduced to replicate scraps of paper taped to the pages, driving home the missives’ deeply personal and heartfelt nature. Recurring themes include feeling betrayed by the fact that this hateful act that claimed the lives of 17 occurred on Valentine’s Day; incredulity stemming from the false security that “nothing bad ever happens in Parkland”; and survivors’ consuming guilt, crystallized in a poem by student Alyson Sheehy: “You’re gone/ Yet I’m still here/ And that just feels wrong/ There’s so much left/ So much to do/ But you don’t get the chance/ To even try.” Ages 14–up. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"A valuable primary source document that will be of interest to students and activists today and historians tomorrow." —Kirkus

"Poignant and hard-hitting." —PW

"This is an intense, hard, and very direct window into the experience of surviving a mass shooting." —SLJ

"This collection of experiences, memories, and flashbacks . . . offers teens a place to process the national tragedy, and the world a window into how the school itself is coping and healing." —Booklist

From the Publisher

12/01/2018
Gr 7 Up—This collection of poems, essays, photographs, and other works of art reflect the anger, sadness, confusion, and hope that poured out of the students and teachers who survived the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2017. The earnestness of the writing and the raw emotion on display paints a vivid picture of their experiences. Page after page is full of loving tributes to friends and teachers who did not survive. Frantic telephone calls and text messages to family and friends and the unimaginable terror of hiding in a closet or classroom are also discussed. Much of the writing was done in the first few months after the shooting, giving students a way to process their grief and anxiety. The photographs often depict scenes from the protests and marches that happened in the wake of the shooting, which were inspired and led by the students who channeled their emotions into becoming outspoken advocates for gun reform. This is an intense, hard, and very direct window into the experience of surviving a mass shooting. VERDICT A solid choice for high schools seeking to inspire activism in their student body.—Jody Kopple, Shady Hill School, Cambridge, MA

School Library Journal

2018-10-15

A compilation of firsthand witness and survivor accounts of the Feb. 14, 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that took 17 lives and ignited the March for Our Lives.

Remembering the victims, processing the trauma, sharing their anger, and advocating for lasting change, 43 survivors of the shooting submitted creative work to editor Lerner, an English and journalism teacher and yearbook adviser at MSD. The result is another kind of yearbook, capturing in words and full-color images the terror of the day and the aftermath of grief, loss, hope, and political action. Lerner selected the pieces, which include poems, essays, a letter, a journal entry, speeches, photographs, and original art. While some of the works are not especially polished and overall the contributions vary in artfulness, all are heartfelt. As a whole, the collection makes clear what it was like to hear the gunshots and the victims' screams, to hide in closets and classrooms, to text frantically to reach friends and family, and later to cope with the return to school, nightmares, and survivor guilt—becoming galvanized into political action.

A valuable primary source document that will be of interest to students and activists today and historians tomorrow. (resources, contributor biographies) (Nonfiction. 12-adult)

Kirkus Reviews