Quick Take
- Narration: John Behrens handles the weight of the material with quiet solemnity, he does not dramatize the tragedy, which is the right choice for testimony drawn from a real family’s grief.
- Themes: Martyrdom and faith under pressure, grief and meaning-making, youth violence and prevention
- Mood: Grave and emotionally demanding, with moments of genuine spiritual clarity
- Verdict: A serious and deeply personal account of the Columbine tragedy through the lens of Rachel Scott’s Christian faith, not for young children, and more powerful than the devotional label might suggest.
There is a particular kind of book that exists at the intersection of personal grief and public tragedy. Rachel Scott’s parents, Beth Nimmo and Darrell Scott, did not set out to write a mass-market publication. They set out to make meaning from something that offers almost none: their daughter was shot and killed at Columbine High School in April 1999, targeted specifically because of her Christian faith. Rachel’s Tears is their attempt to hold that experience, to find the threads of purpose that Rachel herself articulated in her journals, and to offer something back to the country that was already making her story into a symbol.
This 10th Anniversary Edition builds on the original with updates, and the audiobook includes a companion PDF with photos and journal entries. That PDF matters more here than in most audiobook companion supplements. Rachel’s own words, drawn from her journals, including the now-famous drawing of hands with the inscription that her hands would someday touch millions of people’s hearts, are the emotional core of the book. Hearing her parents and narrator John Behrens work through those passages while the original handwritten text is available as a visual companion creates a different kind of encounter with the material.
How This Book Differs From Columbine Journalism
There is no shortage of reporting on Columbine. Dave Cullen’s definitive journalistic account covers the event with extraordinary rigor. This book does not compete with that kind of journalism and does not try to. Rachel’s Tears is not investigative. It is spiritual testimony, written by parents whose daughter made a specific choice in the moments before her death. The narrators of the original attack, whose chilling homemade videotapes apparently showed them specifically targeting Rachel for her faith, provide the context; what the book is actually about is what Rachel’s faith looked like in her journals, in the way she talked about God, in the way she wrote about wanting her life to matter.
John Behrens navigates this with appropriate care. He is not performing grief. He is reading testimony, which is a different task. The parents’ voices and Rachel’s journal entries create a layered narrative that Behrens holds together without imposing his own emotional register on material that is already intensely charged. One reviewer, who initially encountered the story from a distance and was drawn into the full account over years of reflection, speaks to how this particular telling of Columbine reaches people who are already looking for something beyond narrative event reconstruction.
The Faith Framework and Its Centrality
This is not a book that mentions faith as background. Rachel Scott’s Christian commitment is the entire point of the book’s existence. She was targeted because of it. Her journals are full of it. Her parents’ meaning-making in the aftermath of her death is grounded in it. For readers who are not Christian, or who are skeptical of faith-based framings of tragedy, the book may feel like it is doing work they cannot fully receive. That is worth naming honestly.
For readers inside the evangelical tradition, or for young Christians navigating questions about what faith costs in a hostile world, this book operates as a specific kind of testimony. Rachel’s articulation of her willingness to sacrifice everything for her beliefs, found in her journals before the shooting, has the quality of a statement made in advance of something she did not consciously know was coming. Her parents spend much of the book sitting with that quality, trying to understand what it means, how it shapes their grief.
Age Guidance and Content Considerations
The genre tag lists this under children’s audiobooks, which requires a direct note: this is not content for young children. It deals explicitly with a school shooting, the deaths of teenagers, the targeting of a student for her religious beliefs, and the full trauma of a national tragedy. Reviewers consistently recommend this for parents and older teens, and the content matches that recommendation. The book is appropriate for high school age listeners and adults.
The companion PDF includes photos of Rachel and excerpts from her journals in her own handwriting. These are meaningful and add significant emotional dimension to the audio experience. The audiobook explicitly notes that it meets national education standards, which positions it accurately as a resource for older classroom contexts.
Who Should Listen and Who Should Skip
Recommended for Christian high school students and adults interested in Rachel Scott’s story from her parents’ perspective. Works well in youth group contexts or for older teens thinking about faith under pressure. The companion PDF materially enhances the experience and should be downloaded before listening.
Not appropriate for younger children despite the children’s audiobooks category listing. The subject matter, a school shooting, death, martyrdom, requires emotional maturity. Readers looking for a factual account of Columbine events should look to journalism; this is spiritual testimony and should be approached as such.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this book primarily about the Columbine shooting or about Rachel Scott’s personal faith?
It is primarily about Rachel’s faith as understood through her journals and her parents’ reflections. The shooting provides the context, but the book’s purpose is to present Rachel’s spiritual life and the meaning her parents found in her martyrdom.
What is in the companion PDF that comes with the audiobook?
The PDF includes photos of Rachel and excerpts from her personal journals in her own handwriting. These are central to the book’s emotional core and significantly enhance the audio experience, downloading it before listening is strongly recommended.
Is this appropriate for middle school students?
This is better suited for high school students and adults. The content includes explicit discussion of a school shooting, the deaths of teenagers, and the targeting of a student for her religious beliefs, emotionally demanding material that requires some maturity to process.
How does this compare to other accounts of the Columbine tragedy?
This is not journalism or investigative reporting, it is spiritual testimony written by Rachel’s parents. Dave Cullen’s Columbine is the definitive factual account. Rachel’s Tears occupies a different register: it is about Rachel’s faith specifically and her family’s grief, not about the full event or its causes.
