Sixth grader Beatrix (Bea) is thriving. She and her adoptive mom Maxine (Max) have a strong bond, which they cement by repeating the mantra “Xs to Xs,” which means “‘Beatrix to Maxine,’ two Xs who found each other.” They find support in their neighbors Lucius and Aaron, who are both great cooks and built a ramp for Bea, since she has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair to get in and out of the duplex they share. And Bea loves the tight-knit community at Cedar Crest Presbyterian school, especially her firm but kind teacher, Mrs. Canelli, and Josie, her “Little,” the shy and anxious kindergartner she is mentoring for the year.
But all this is shattered in a matter of minutes after a school shooting at Cedar Crest. While Bea survives, not everyone is so lucky. In the aftermath, Bea is devastated by the damage done to her community and traumatized by the things she’s seen. She also blames herself for being unable to follow her teacher’s lockdown directions due to her disability: “I am not a person / who can be trusted / to escape the bad things.” Friends and family around her respond by speaking out against gun violence, but Bea retreats into herself. Perhaps a visit to a nearby horse farm specializing in accommodations for disabled riders could allow her to regain her self-confidence and her love for the world.
Inspired by the death of a friend in the 2023 Nashville, Tennessee, school shooting, Jamie Sumner’s Please Pay Attention is written in free verse in Bea’s first-person voice. The poetic language makes the horror of school violence clear without depicting it in a graphic way. In the end, Bea’s courageous recovery will prompt readers of all ages to examine whether school lockdown policies truly accommodate all students—and consider the possibility of a more peaceful world where such policies can be a relic of the past.
