Parkland Speaks: Survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas Share Their Stories

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.)