The 57 Bus began as an article for the New York Times Magazine, published in 2015. But the whole time Slater crafted the article and researched the case, she fantasized "writing the story in a different way, for a different audience." Slater knew the issues of binaries, identity, race, class, and juvenile justice were topics that young adults and high-school-aged kids would benefit from reading about, and she also knew that this particular case lends itself to a young adult audience better because of the ages of the victim and the offender. When it comes to issues of pronouns and identity politics, young people may be more receptive and understanding than their adult contemporaries because these are issues they've grown up around.
As chance would have it, before Slater could even suggest a book-length project based on the article, Joy Peskin, an editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, read the article and contacted Slater's agent to inquire about the possibility of turning it into a YA nonfiction book. The 57 Bus went on to receive overwhelming positive reviews and was a YALSA finalist in nonfiction.
