Asher, Jay.
THIRTEEN REASONS WHY
New York : Razorbill, 2007
IL YA
ISBN 1595141715

(4 booktalks)

Clay Jenson receives a mysterious package. Inside are seven cassette tapes that Hannah Baker, Clay’s secret crush, recorded before she committed suicide two weeks earlier. Clay is one of 13 people who listen to the tapes and discover what part Hannah thought each of them played in her death. (Florida Teen Read, 2009)

Booktalk #2

Clay has no idea why he got the tapes.  What does this have to do with him? Hannah Baker has committed suicide but Clay had nothing to do with it.  But he knows he must listen to the tapes and then pass them along.  He listens to the secrets that surround Hannah.  The secrets that led to her final, horrible decision to take her own life.

Booktalk #3

His first love records her last words. What if the girl that you loved committed suicide? What if you found out that you were one of the reasons why?  In this realistic fiction novel Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher, Clay Jensen, a high school senior, arrives home from school to find a strange box sitting on his porch. He thinks that it is only a package, but soon finds out that inside are tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, a girl he loved who committed suicide only two weeks earlier. When he puts the first tape in the old stereo and hits play, he hears Hannah's voice, "I hope you're ready, because I'm about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically, why my life ended. And if you're listening to these tapes, you're one of the reasons why".  As Clay listens to all thirteen sides of seven tapes, he feels like he is getting to know her more than he ever did when she was alive. After the first four tapes, he starts to wonder when his name is going to pop up in the tapes. His thoughts are running through his mind about why he was one of the reasons Hannah is dead. When you read Thirteen Reasons Why  you will find out that love is not always what it seems.  (Rachel S., student)

Booktalk #4

Clay Jensen comes home from school and finds a package by his front door. He's excited. An unexpected package with no return addresss, for him? What Clay finds inside is a shoebox full of cassette tapes. He rushes to the old radio/cassette player in his dad's garage to check out these mysterious tapes. What he hears when he inserts the first tape is the voice of Hannah Baker. Hannah, the girl he'd had a crush on, went to school with, and worked with at the movie theater. The girl who had changed, drastically, in the past few months. Hannah Baker, the girl who committed suicide. Clay soon realizes that these tapes aren't just a suicide note, instead, these are thirteen reasons -- thirteen people, to be exact -- who created a snowball-effect of events that led Hannah to believe that suicide was her only option. But why is Clay on that list? How could he possibly be one of the reasons that she killed herself? This is an emotional book that will make readers examine their own actions, and consider the effect they may have on others. (Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award nominee, 2011)