Zero Tolerance (Claudia Mills)

This is a beautiful book! It is about justice and mercy and the fallibility we all have as part of our personalities. The story is believable and compelling. It would be a great character discussion starter. I love that the lesson in the end is that we all make mistakes and perhaps grace is more important than justice.

There are also great lessons about friendship and judging people. Sierra gets stuck in a suspension room with a bunch of hardened criminals. Well, at least she used to think they were hardened criminals. As the days wear on she starts to see them in a whole new light. Maybe they just haven't been treated fairly. She learns that in a community you don't destroy a member if the community just to uphold a policy that never should have been established in the first place.

So many great quotes in this book: 

P. 34 a murderer gets to make a phone call, but a seventh grader who took the wrong lunch to school by mistake isn't instructed about her legal rights?

Tags:

Inclusion - Sierra has some interesting conversations where kids reveal plain old mean things teachers have done to kids and she sees these students in a whole new light.

Friendship

Justice

Mercy