This is a brief introduction to Lauren Myracle and her book Shine. The presentation includes a link to the book trailer. While dealing with mature subject matter, I highly recommend this text as thoughful and relevant.

2.  The novel follows the narrator’s journey to
find out who attacked her gay friend Patrick
and left him tied to a gas pump with the gas
nozzle stuffed in his mouth.
 You may be thinking this is not made for a
high school classroom.
 But this is the stuff of rural American, where
most of us teach.
 Poverty, drug addiction, and clannishness are
recurring themes in the text and often in our
towns.

3.  The horrific events that took place shortly after
midnight on October 7, 1998. Two men, Aaron
McKinney and Russell Henderson, lead him to a
remote area east of Laramie where they
demonstrated unimaginable acts of hate. Matthew
was tied to a split-rail fence where he was beaten
and left to die in the cold of the night. Almost 18
hours later, he was found by a cyclist who initially
mistook him for a scarecrow.
 Matthew died on October 12 at 12:53 am at a hospital
in Fort Collins, Colorado.

4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5gGOqO-xDg
 Cat, the female protagonist, is a
reader. To Kill an Mockingbird is her
favorite book.
 There is an underlying story of
forgiveness in the novel.
 The text does a beautiful job
illustrating strong female friendships.
 The sister-brother relationship is also
healed in this novel.

5. Realted links:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lauren-
myracle/lauren-myracle-national-book-
awards_b_1019972.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GOJ
7yGd8UQ&feature=related