Dear Zoe discussion

I was thrilled to see the new angle this book gave to the topic of September 11th. It was particularly powerful when Tess wrote that everyone in the world was crying, but her family were the only ones crying for Zoe.

What do others think?

It certainly forced you to look at the tragedy in a whole new way. You had to come to terms with your own feelings about 9/11 and then put them aside to really see how that would affect Tess and her family. I can only imagine how many people out there are in similar situations and have to face it all over again ever year.

That little detail struck me right away, and I was curious as to why Beard decided to do that. The more I thought about it, however, I decided it was the most exaggerated and efficient way of getting that theme across to his audience. Now matter when or how we lose a loved one, someone is ALWAYS there saying "I know just how you feel." Part of the anger of a loss, especially for a teenage girl like Tess, is that you KNOW you are alone in your pain because no one else ever could have had the exact same relationship you shared with your loved one. I can only imagine how much more it would hurt and anger me if my personal tragedy were trumped by something like 9/11.

It made me think about people who's birthdays or anniversaries or people who lost loved ones unrelated to 9/11... I never thought about those people. Or the babies that were being born while 9/11 happened. I never thought about any of that because it never mattered to me, only the people in those planes and those towers mattered to me that day. But this book did make me think about it in a different light.