Tears Of A Tiger :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

good but sad book

2008-12-26
i liked this book but it was really sad i hate how andy goes drinkin and driving and he kills his best friend. i also hate how andy kills hiself at the end of the book because he was depressed. i think that andy should of went to jail in real life he wouldof went to jail thats what i hate about this book. greald got abused by his step dad which i think is messed up. The only machure one is b.j beause he didnt drink with them but he shoul'd of been driving the car instead of andy i think hes a punkk. This book was pertty good but it wasnt the best book ive read. andys parents dont even care about him. they dont even talk to him they only talk to him about his bad grades. the end was sad when the blood was leaking from the seeling from when he shot hislf in the head.

Why must the good die young!

2008-02-25
It is all my fault! I believe Tears of a Tiger is the saddest book I have ever read. This is the first Sharon M. Draper book I have read and I think it is my favorite! This is a modern day story in the town of Hazelwood. The Hazelwood High School basketball team is in a car crash and the star center, Robbie Washington was tragically killed at the age of seventeen (Andy, B.J., and Tyrone survive). Andy Jackson (Robbie's best friend) was driving the car and blames himself for Robbie's untimely death. Andy's friends: B.J., Tyrone, Keisha, (Andy's girlfriend) and Rhonda were able to deal with Robbie's death; Andy could not. Through out the story, Andy tries to deal with Robbie's death, on and off the basketball court. Keisha is an extremely important character because she really helps Andy deal with Robbie's terrible death. I enjoyed this book's different twists and turns and look forward to reading Forged by Fire the second book in this three book series. One of the twists and turns is at the beginning when Robbie dies on the first page. Overall, this sports fiction book has a nice quick speed and easy flow.

Why must the good die young!

2008-02-14
Emotionally packed book about inner city students who win the local basketball championship and find themselves dealing with the horrific loss of a teammate following a car accident. Who is at fault? How will that individual deal with it?

One bad decision, two lives lost!!!

2007-12-17
My name is Jazmin and I am a freshman in high school. I had to pick a book for an English project. A friend of mine read Tears of a Tiger and said it had some good life lessons in it. Even though this book is fictional it is a very good book to read for kids my age because it shows how one bad decision can change lives.
In this book the main setting is Hazelwood High School. The main character is Andy. Andy made a bad decision one night and decided to drink and drive with his buddies in the car. Well they got into a crash and Robbie lost his life. Now while the others moved on, Andy couldn't cope with the death of Robbie and the book detailed Andy's conflict. Some of Andy's internal conflict made him act out in class, his grades started slipping, he lost his girlfriend, he missed school a lot, wasn't socializing with his friends, and continued to have bad dreams about the crash and Robbie.
Throughout the book Andy's friends and family tried to help him deal with his emotions. He even went to a counselor. His girlfriend Keisha always took him places to get his mind off things, but something always triggered his memories and he would become depressed again. It all became too much for Keisha and she broke up with Andy. Andy thought the only way to resolve his conflict was to kill himself. That is exactly what Andy did.
After Andy's death kids at school not only had to deal with one of there fellow classmates dying that year, but yet another. Most of his close friends wrote him letters asking questions like, "Why did you do it?", "Why didn't you ask for help?", and "What affect his death would have on his brother's life?"
After reading this book I have a greater understanding of how important life really is. This book taught me that life is so fragile; it can end in any moment. I also learned no matter how tough life gets for a person that ending your life is never the answer. Even though the troubled person's pain is gone, the people left behind are left wondering and suffering. The book also reminded me of how we are all one bad decision away from our lives being changed forever.

Sharon Draper knows how to turn kids on to reading

2007-12-12
In one horrifying night,

Andy's life changed forever...

Andy Jackson was driving the car that crashed one night after a game, killing Robert Washington, his best friend and the captain of the Hazelwood High Tigers. It was late, and they'd been drinking, and now, months later, Andy can't stop blaming himself. As he turns away from family, friends, and even his girlfriend, he finds he's losing the most precious thing of all -- his ability to face the future.

VERY DEPRESSING BOOK 2007-12-10
This book was recommended by our teachers and was the most depressing book our club had ever read. After reading the story, it made us extremely depressed and that's not what a book should do. The book is geared towards teens that are suicidal and teens that drink.

Tears of a Tiger is the story of five high school basketball friends that decided to drink beer and drive under the influence. The driver, the main character, Andy, crashes the car and the star basketball player, Rob, is killed. All of the other players end up being okay health wise, but Andy had a hard time dealing with his actions. He tried to get help from his parents--they were concerned and caring but so caught up in their careers. He tried to get help from his teammates, but they were all grieving in their own cocoons. He tried to get help from his coach, but only felt pity from him. He tried to get help from his girlfriend, Keisha, but she didn't have enough patience to help him deal with the pain and agony. He tried to get help from his psychologist, but was disappointed when he had an emergency out of town and wasn't there when Andy needed him. The pain was eating him alive and the only person he truly trusted was his girlfriend, Keisha, the one who could've really help in his pain, but she lost her patience and turned against him. Even though Andy had put a lot of pressure on her, she should've understood and been there for him through thick and thin, especially since she said that she "loved" him. But apparently she didn't know what real love was all about.

This is what real love is:
LOVE is NOT an emotion.
LOVE is a fruit of the Spirit.
LOVE is a state of being and it comes from God's presence in you.
LOVE is selflessness.
LOVE is charity (giving). You have no consciousness of yourself and what you get out of it.
LOVE is unconditional.

If Keisha had these traits, then she could've helped to save the life of her boyfriend, Andy, but he commits suicide.

We really did enjoy the poems, but the story was contageously depressing. The way Keisha had broken up with Andy, we thought that she would've blamed herself for Andy's suicide. We also thought Keisha's mother would've blamed herself for Andy's suicide because the night before Andy killed himself, he called Keisha but her mother would not let her talk to him because it was after midnight, even after he told her that it was important.

B.J., one of Andy's best friends, had summed it up the best when he prayed for Andy. He said, "Andy felt so very guilty for Rob's death was because he never learned to pray. He never learned the power and hope that comes from God's forgiveness." (Page 177).

Prayer changes things.

This book would be a good tool for teens struggling with alcoholism and depression, but most teens that struggle with these issues, don't really like reading. We liked the title, especially since the basketball team was called the Hazelwood Tigers and Rob was the captain of the basketball team. The author also uses the analogy from Andy's kid brother when he asked the question, "Andy, do you think a tiger cries tears?"

Parents and teachers will probably like this book, but for us teens, we'll pass on it. Tears of a Tiger is just too bitter and depressing and leaves you feeling empty. What a depressing way for us to end our first year with our last read for 2007. We'll be opening 2008 with the novel, True Friends by Stephanie Perry Moore.

Teens"R"Us Reading Group
2**

Tears of a Tiger 2007-08-01
This book is a must read for teenagers. It is insightful and thought provoking...the story line is something that many can and unfortunately, may relate to as they go through high school.

Drinking Causes Death 2007-06-20
Andy is a high-school student and a good basketball player. His best friend Robbie is the star of the basketball team, and the two of them hang out with two other close friends, Tyrone and B.J. One night after a good game, they get into Andy's car. All except B.J. are drinking. On their way home, they get into a car accident and Robbie is killed, while the other three are barely injured. Andy isn't even charged with much of anything; he goes back to school like things are normal.

Inside, though, things are far from normal. Andy feels distant from everyone, and he is wracked with guilt. He continues to lean on his girlfriend, Keisha, and shares all of his depression with her. His parents have never been very close to him, and they aren't there for him now that he needs their support. None of his classmates or his teachers seem to be able to understand what he is going through. Andy often feels like he is drowning in sorrow and he can't let go of the accident.

I liked the idea of following a student through such a tragedy to see how he was affected by it. I also liked the different points of view in this story; they helped me to get a more well-rounded idea of what everyone in the story was thinking.

I thought that some of the parts of this story were very unrealistic. These were pretty savvy high school kids, yet they had old-fashioned ideas about sex and they never used swear words. I'm sure that was done to prevent the book from being censored out of high school libraries, but it made the characters seem less real. I also found it hard to believe tht teachers would be as prejudiced as the teachers in this school were.

great book 2007-06-14

Tears of a Tiger is a very exiting book that you can't stop reading. This is my all time favorite book. Teas of a Tiger is a book about a teenage kid named Andy who blames himself for the death of his best friend who died in a car accident caused by him. After watching his best friend burn to death he is tormented by reality and constantly has bad reams about his death. The only comfort that he has is with his girlfriend Kiesha and when he is talking to his little brother Monty. But because of the way that he is acting and trying to bring attention to him his girlfriend leaves him. After finding no one to talk to for a while he is overwhelmed with depression and shoots himself in the head. After when his brother gets home from school he notices blood dropping from the ceiling and a puddle of blood leading from the second story. When his mother goes upstairs she finds him with a shot gun in his hand and his head blown to pieces.
This book is written all in dialogue by the author Sharon M. Draper so I think it is better because you can find out more about the charters life and what they feel and think. Reading this book made me think about what I would do if one of my closest friends died and it made me think about the people that kill themselves because of depression and how depressed they have to be to just solve the problem by ending there lives. This author has written many more books about people like this, and has a collection of books called the Hazelwood high. I am planning on reading more books by this author to see how they compare to this best seller.