57 Bus By Dashka Slater

Humor is part of everyone’s personality. Anyone can crack a joke or pull a prank to make someone laugh, but what happens when the joke goes too far? Who stands up for you when a prank ends up hurting instead of helping? Dashka Slater's 57 Bus explores what happens when what was supposed to be a funny prank turns into hospital rooms and court hearings. This book follows Richard, a black teen who is called "the funny one" by his friends and lives in east Oakland battling racism and poverty, and Sasha, a non-binary teen, as they struggle with their gender expression. These two people cross paths on the 57 bus, and their lives are set ablaze when Richard decides to set Sasha’s skirt on fire as a joke. Richard's foolish actions in his everyday life

When Richard’s grandma defends him to the press, she tells the reporter, "I don't know. He was with his friends, joking around, that’s all. He’s not a bad person. If you knew him, you’d know he’s always joking around" (165). Richard's grandma talks to the reporter as if they are in a neutral position, but 95% of the press was already on Sasha’s side from the very first news headline. She tries to portray Richard as she sees him: a silly kid who made a foolish, thoughtless mistake with his friends, but all anyone else seems to see is a hateful kid who can’t handle a boy wearing a skirt. She also says if they knew him they would understand, but could they really ever understand unless they had been there with Richard knowing what he was thinking? Since his friends and family only had one excuse for him—that he meant it all in a playful way—that's all anyone knew about Richard's side of the story: "And that's all anyone seemed to hear: he was joking around" (166). This gave those on Sasha's side an advantage in their efforts to prove Richard is a bad person. From people on the internet to Sasha’s friends, he was portrayed by so many people as a careless fool who thinks hurting people is funny. This is just because his family and friends' defense of him was taken out of context. His personality affected their defnse for him, which ended up becoming a way for other people to portray him as a bad