Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson

Numbness; that is what 13 year old Laurel Daneau craves. When the memories come rushing back with a force as strong as the water that took her beloved mother and grandmother away, she finds solace in the moon. The high makes the rest of the world fade away, if only for a few moments, but when the numbness begins to spread, to take her completely, Laurel is faced with a difficult choice; who will she live for, the moon, or her family?
Exhibiting classic signs of risky adolescent behavior, Laurel could be focusing on intuitive reasoning rather than analytic reasoning. Instead of focusing on the risks meth posed to her well being, Laurel instead focused on the benefits it would provide, even before she felt the high. Her first exposure to meth occurred in an interaction with her basketball team boyfriend, T-Boom, outside of a local gas station. Laurel made the risky decision to try meth not because she knew it would numb her pain, but because she wanted to impress T-Boom. Her intuition and use of heuristics prevented her from making a logical decision.
Drugs, young love, depression, grief, death... seems pretty risky for a YA novel, right? But why should we, as educators, exclude a book from our reading lists based on our own interpretation of what's risky? The implications for the classroom are simple, if a student has experienced even one aspect of this novel, it becomes a mirror, and if a student hasn't been exposed to an account of a very real drug epidemic that is sweeping across America, then it becomes a window for them to learn more about the environment they are living in. According to author Alexie Sherman, books allow adolescents to, "battle the real monsters" in their lives. As I continue to read Beneath a Meth Moon, I am able to draw more and more connections to Sherman's article. Student's should not be sheltered from real situations. YA novels offer countless opportunities for teaching moments, and may be the link between a student's personal experience and the classroom environment.

References:
https://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/06/09/why-the-best-kids-books-are-written-in-blood/