Nineteen Minutes

Nineteen Minutes

• Genre: Fiction; realistic
• Originally Published: 2007
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 890L; college/adult
• Structure/Length: 16 chapters; approx. 455 pages; approx. 21 hours, 14 minutes on audio
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: At 17 years old, Peter shoots multiple people at his school, killing 10. As he goes to trial, revelations about his childhood surface, which complicate the case against him and force a reckoning in the town. 
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Mass shooting, bullying, sexual conduct, abuse, suicide, miscarriage, graphic images, derogatory language

Jodi Picoult, Author

• Bio: Born in Nesconset, New York in 1966; earned AB from Princeton University and MEd from Harvard University; wrote several issues of the DC Comic Wonder Woman; works in activism, including with the Advisory Board of Vida: Women in Literary Arts, the Advisory Committee for the New Hampshire Coalition Against the Death Penalty, and Positive Tracks; multiple works adapted for film and television
• Other Works: Picture Perfect (1995); My Sister’s Keeper (2004); Sing You Home (2011); A Spark of Light (2018)
• Awards: New England Bookseller Award for Fiction (2003); Vermont Green Mountain Book Award (2007); Sarah Josepha Hale Medalist (2019)                 

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• Bullying
• Fitting In
• Appearance Versus Reality

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Gain an understanding of the traumatic effects of bullying that incite Peter to action.