For Ages
12 to 99

In the vein of This is Where It Ends, this exploration of grief and tragedy in the aftermath of a bomb explosion at a high school is sadly topical and powerfully heartrending.
 
At 7:45 a.m. a bomb goes off at Edison High.
 
Nine people die instantly. Fifteen are critically wounded. Twenty-two are injured. One is blinded.
 
In the aftermath of the violent tragedy, survive struggle to cope and heal as a result of something they may never understand.
 
Told in alternating points of view, Red Heart Tattoo deals with issues of violence, death, and trauma in the lives of five teens.

An Excerpt fromRed Heart Tattoo

1

Morgan Frierson looked across the football field, at stands filled with Edison students, all stomping and cheering for the start of the pep rally. A frenzied exhibition of school spirit would guarantee that Edison’s principal and staff would authorize another such rally. And who didn’t want to cut out of last period thirty minutes early? Morgan knew some kids were already melting away into the Michigan afternoon, ditching school and the rally, but most were hanging around in the stands.

She stood at the mouth of the short tunnel leading from the locker room, the football team stamping behind her, waiting for Principal Simmons to finish his comments on the makeshift stage in the middle of the field. The marching band had already played and gone through a few formations, and now its members were standing at the foot of the stage, sweating in the hot sun. Morgan fidgeted impatiently, and when she felt the brush of lips on the back of her neck, she jumped a foot.

“Whoa, babe! It’s a kiss, not a knife,” she…