Summary

Tears of a Tiger is the first book in Sharon Draper's Hazelwood High Trilogy. The story starts off with a newspaper article about a car accident featuring Robert Washington,a teen basketball star at Hazelwood High. The article also tells about Andy Jackson,the driver, and how he was injured in the car accident.The book revolves around Andy,Keisha,B.J,Rhonda,Gerald,and Tyrone because they were Rob's closest friends. The first several chapters reveal what happened the night before the crash and how the characters dealt with the death of their beloved friend. After the crash, the Hazelwood community stuggles to deal with Rob's death. When Andy went back to school certain people blamed him for the accident. Andy blamed himself and he wanted Rob to be alive instead of him. His parents got him counseling and that somewhat helped him. Keisha,Andy's girlfriend, helped Andy get through the hard times until Andy started getting on her nerves. Everytime they went out to spend time with each other, Andy ends up getting sad and depressed because something reminded him of Rob. They eventully broke up. Andy's parents didn't make his situation any better because they barely paid attention to him. They paid more attention to Andy's little brother, Monty. Andy and Monty got along well. One day, Andy had a conversation  with Rob in a dream. Their conversation led Andy to killing himself. Some people thought Andy's death was a selfish act but others were still affected by his death.