Red Heart Tattoo

Red Heart Tattoo by Lurlene McDaniel tells the story of several students that are involved in a school bombing.  The book focuses mostly on Roth a boy with a troubled past who rushes in to save victims of the bombing and Morgan the class president whom he saves and whom is blinded in the bombing.  The students must figure out how to heal and move on after the horrible tragedy.

While I enjoyed this book and was very interested in how everything would work out I also found myself frustrated by the format.  The story follows several different characters, bouncing from one to another without headings to tell the reader who they are following.  However, aside from this it was a very good story with realistic and diverse characters dealing with everyday problems and pressures in addition to tragedy.

Appropriateness:  This is a tough book that puts teens in tough situations.  The teens are in their last year of high school and act their age.  The book follows one of the teens that orchestrates the bombing and other teens deal with the pressure to have sex, teen pregnancy and minor law breaking.  There is some heavy petting but no actual sex.  I would recommend this book to teens 14+

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