Colorado Parks & Wildlife Research Library

Minutes after the principal of Opportunity High School in Alabama finishes her speech welcoming the student body to a new semester, they discover that the auditorium doors will not open and someone starts shooting as four teens, each with a personal reason to fear the shooter, tells the tale from separate perspectives.

Two years after a tragedy saddles him with viral fame, twelve-year-old Simon O'Keeffe and his family move to Grin And Bear It, Nebraska, where the internet and cell phones are banned so astrophysicists can scan the sky for signs of alien life, and where, with the help of two new friends, a puppy, and a giant radio telescope, Simon plans to restart the narrative of his life.

Sixteen-year-old Valerie, whose boyfriend Nick committed a school shooting at the end of their junior year, struggles to cope with integrating herself back into high school life, unsure herself whether she was a hero or a villain.

"A teen who used to see a vision of a crash must help her boyfriend as he is now seeing a vision of a school shooting"--

Seven interwoven narratives spanning three tense hours on a fateful day share the perspectives of a girl with a rare memory condition, a teacher who fears a student may be planning an act of violence, and a girl about to embark on a cross-country plot. Delaware, the morning of April 19. Senior Skip Day, and April Donovans eighteenth birthday. Four days after the Boston Marathon bombing, the country is still reeling, and Aprils rare memory condition...

Alys, a Plaineville, Wisconsin, junior who dreams of studying violin at Julliard, must deal with the aftermath of a tragic high school shooting in which her older brother, Luke, was the shooter.

"Moss Jeffries is many things--considerate student, devoted son, loyal friend and affectionate boyfriend, enthusiastic nerd. But sometimes Moss still wishes he could be someone else--someone without panic attacks, someone whose father was still alive, someone who hadn't become a rallying point for a community because of one horrible night ... Moss can't even escape at school--he and his friends are subject to the lack of funds and crumbling infrastructure...

Ten-year-old Caitlin, who has Asperger's Syndrome, struggles to understand emotions, show empathy, and make friends at school, while at home she seeks closure by working on a project with her father.