This Is Not a Drill, like the incident at Sandy Hook, is the story of such a disturbed individual. Brian Stutts, the father of one of the children, is a soldier suffering from post–traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq. Stutts uses deadly force to get to his son when he’s denied access because of a custody battle. The children’s fate is in the hands of the two high school students who have been teaching French to the first-graders. Emery and Jake, who are both recovering from personal losses and who are angry at each other as the result of a betrayal, tell the story from alternating points-of-view. In addition to the question of what will happen the the children, the story examines the often hidden effects of war.
If you are interested in similar fiction books, try these from our library.
- Hate List by Jennifer Brown
- After the First Death by Robert Cormier
- The Healer by Dee Henderson
- After by Francine Prose
- Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
- This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp (#5 on the 2017 Teens' Top Ten List)
The link below is a good article about the people of Newtown and how they are coping with the tragedy.
‘Frozen in time': Sandy Hook’s struggle to move on from shooting