Dear Zoe

DEAR ZOE by Philip Beard
Category: Contemporary
Age Recommendation: Grades 9+
Release Date: 4/25/06
Publisher: Plume
Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"
Rating: 5 Stars

On September 11th, 2001, nearly 3,000 people lost their lives in numerous acts of terrorism against the United States. Even
now, five years later, people still ask the question, "Where were you on 9/11?" I remember watching, on that fateful day,
news coverage that left me horrified, aghast, and haunted. Where was I on 9/11? At work, on a day that started out like
any other and quickly turned into one that no one will ever forget.

If you asked Tess DeNunzio, the fifteen-year-old girl at the center of DEAR ZOE, where she was on 9/11, she'll be quick to
tell you that she was at home with her younger half-sister, Zoe, waiting for the school bus like any other day. Except for that
one moment, when she let her gaze wander elsewhere, and Zoe ran into the street, into the path of an oncoming car. For
Tess and her family, 9/11 is a day they'll never forget.

DEAR ZOE is Tess's letter to Zoe, her way of healing from her sister's death and coming to terms with the changes that have
taken place in her extended family. This isn't a story about September 11th, 2001, in the ways that most of us have come to
view that day. As Tess puts it, "...just like all the people who go to New York and cry over the rubble. I want to tell
them all to go home. I want to tell them to go home and hold their children or their lovers or their parents. I want
to tell them that they are using that place as an excuse to be sad and afraid when there will be reason enough for
that in their own lives if they just wait."

According to recent facts, nearly 150,000 people die every day. That's about 1.8 people every second. And yet no one
seems to remember the other 147,000 people that died on 9/11. That includes myself. Until reading DEAR ZOE, I had
never stopped to consider that there were other people around the world who were grieving for lost loved ones who had
nothing to do with an act of terror.

Thanks to Mr. Beard, I now have a new way of looking at that day in history. I also have the story of Tess and Zoe, which
will stay with me for much longer than it took for me to read the book. Love, loss, regret, and forgiveness mingle within the
pages of DEAR ZOE to form a story that, quite possibly, you'll remember even five years later.