Summary Of The Book 'The 57 Bus'

In the San Francisco Bay Area of California, nearly 500,000 people identify as gay, bisexual, or transgender out of 7,753,000 people. Sasha in the book The 57 Bus identifies as genderqueer and is a part of the LGBTQ community, Sasha is later set on fire by a teenage boy named Richard on their way home from school because Sasha was wearing a skirt. In Dashka Slater’s The 57 Bus, Sasha and Richard are similar in their love and compassion towards friends and family, yet are very different in how they act outside of school.

Sasha and Richard are alike in how they care for their family and friends. Sasha is seen in the book hanging out with a person named Samantha, later known as Andrew and Sasha respects Andrew's beliefs. Andrew says, “Sasha is easily one of the smartest people I’ve ever met and also one of the kindest” (Slater 27). Sasha shows how they care for people that are going through hard times. Andrew first came out to Sasha and they showed that it was ok to be transgender and that Andrew was the only one that knew if he was trans or not. Richard, another character in The 57 Bus, shows

Richard was arrested for getting into a fight with other kids that he didn’t know at a young age, which caused him to go to juvenile detention. The author writes, “The police arrested Richard” (Slater 89). Richard appears to be a trouble maker and gets into altercations with many, causing him to act differently than Sasha outside of their schools. Richard was also skipping school at one point until he met Ms. Kaprice, which set him on a better path by not getting into as many altercations, and being at school. Sasha is known as a rule follower and doesn’t skip school. Sasha's teacher Shyam Sundar thought that Sasha was a scholar and a very impactful student at Maybeck High School. Richard and Sasha both live in the city of Oakland, yet live very different lifestyles outside of