Amity Middle School Orange Book Blog

Read reviews by an avid young adult book enthusiast.

Friday, May 23, 2014

Stronger by Jeff Bauman with Bret Witter Non-fiction-Memoir

I remember seeing smoky photos posted on Facebook within minutes of the bombing at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon.  When I saw them, I thought maybe someone had set off a smoke bomb.  Never did I think it was another terrorist attack!

Unfortunately for Jeff Bauman, he was at the finish line waiting for his girlfriend Erin to cross when Tamerlan Tsarnaev placed the black backpack with the bomb at Jeff’s feet. Imagine Jeff’s fear when he turned to see that Tamerlan was no longer there but his unattended black backpack was! Within seconds the bomb contained inside the bag went off-- blowing off Jeff’s feet and legs. It is a miracle he survived this heinous attack on innocent people.

There is a famous photo of Jeff being wheeled by a man in a cowboy hat from the bombed area to an ambulance.  That iconic photo has become a symbol for this entire tragic event.

There were many reflections of Jeff’s that were stunning to me.  He survived the loss of his legs and was still conscious!! He tried to tell the ambulance attendants, “I know what happened. It was a bomb. I saw the guy who did it.” But Jeff was slipping in and out of consciousness.  He finally asked to be put under. Because the EMT’s misspelled his name as Bowman, police were not able to find him. They simply weren’t looking at the hospital records for Bauman.

Read this highly informative book to grasp the courage it takes to come back from an event as devastating as the bombing at the Boston Marathon.
 

No comments:

Post a Comment