Some of her greatest works were “Tears of a tiger”, “Forged by Fire. Tears of a Tiger is a compelling story about a group of teenagers at Hazelwood High School. They are popular, smart kids whose lives change with just one night. While driving around after a basketball game, star player and captain Robbie Washington and his best friend and co-captain Andy Jackson and two of their friends, BJ and Tyrone experience tragedy when Robbie is killed in a car accident. The boys were drinking and driving. All the boys were able to get out of the car alive, but Robbie was pinned in the car when it exploded, burning him to death. Andy was driving the car at the time of the accident. Despite therapy and support from his friends, he never could shake the guilt. His thoughts were filled with memories of Robbie, his heart broke for Robbie’s family and he couldn’t stand to face them. Andy insisted that no one could ever forgive him for what he had done because he couldn’t seem to forgive himself. He was ashamed at school sometimes and at night he had nightmares. Often Andy would dream that Robbie would talk to him and say that he was cold and lonely in the cemetery…in his mind, Robbie would ask Andy to join him in heaven because he was bored and didn’t have anyone to play basketball with. Andy lost his grasp on reality and couldn’t clear his conscious. Andy committed suicide and ended his pain but left the people who cared about him to mourn the loss of the tiger who cried.
This book addresses some really heavy issues. Family support and the lack thereof, suicide, and underage drinking, teen relationships, the importance of communication and school life are some of the problems these kids deal with in the book.
Tears, opens with a news article from the Hazelwood newspaper describing what happened on that dreadful night. From then on, Sharon uses some really creative literary techniques to convey this story. She uses poetry written as homework assignments by the teens,...