Published by Lobster PressMeet Maxine, a twelve year old girl who spends much of her time with her circle of five friends: Leah, Lexi, Emma, Kelsey and Amanda. Maxine is closer to Leah though and they have a lot of fun chatting with boys online while pretending to be older than they are. It's all harmless. It's only a website.. right?
When Leah vanishes, everything changes. The police start to look for all the clues they can find and when they question Max about Leah's computer, she tells them about the chats and e-mails. How could she not? When she looked at the e-mails on Leah's computer she found that even though the boy's name was different, it was obviously the same boy she had been speaking with.
Now she is left to struggle with the knowledge that it could have been her who was missing, and the guilt of being safe and of not realising something was wrong before now. Maxine starts to avoid friends and family. She spends a lot of time in her room writing in her diary which she renames to Jo, short for journal.
The police ask Maxine to help them. They want her to e-mail the boy again and try and bring him out into the open. What follows is a gripping and emotionally charged chain of events.
Via way of this journal, we follow along this painful story of loss and tragedy. A story that is all too real as these things can, and do happen all the time. It's a great book in that it really brings home the message about the perils of the internet and why parents should be more "hands on" in supervising when their kids use it.
In the back of the book, it also includes Internet Safety Tips for youngsters and a section for Parents which were compiled with help from "Online Safety" at Oprah.com and "Safety Tips" from NetSmartz for which I will include the links below.
This book is a must read for all children who use the internet, and their parents. The recommended age is 9+. This is one of the most important books I have read this year and has been included on my "books which belong on any bookcase" list.
If your tween or teen only reads one book this year, Dear Jo should be the one
Author's website: http://www.christinakilbourne.com/
Oprah's Safety: http://www2.oprah.com/presents/2005/predator/safety/safety_online.jhtml
Netsmartz: http://www.netsmartz.org/safety/safetytips.htm
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23 comments:
Thanks for reading and reviewing - and also for 'getting'my book. I appreciate your help in spreading the word about this important issue. Also, by the way, thanks for the review on The Roads of Go Home Lake. I love your site. Christina Kilbourne
An amazing book!
I couldn't put it down.
Thanks for promoting this important book!
Ahh that book is so sad it took me 2 days to read it i couldnt put it down man internat people are freaks i dont get it :(:(...
I just grabbed a random book during libary and i could not put this book down. it took me a day to read.
Im a 7 th grader who likes to read. During a studyhall i saw the book and read the back of it and thought it would be a good book to read. the next quarter(a couple days later) i had library and i took the book and started to read i am only on page 35 but this is one of the best books i ever read!i only read or like 10 min and i couldnt put it down(i would only put it down so i wouldnt get in trouble!) :D
I love seeing the positive feedback on books I review. It's great to see that others truly enjoy the title too. I am also happy to see some younger readers leaving feedback too! I hope it's the start of a trend.
Hey im i posted a comment yesturday(the 7th grader on page 35) well i finished and i just LOVED it SOOO much!!!i told my friends about it and they wanted to read it(one of them IS reading!the other is still looking for a copy!)Well i think ALL teens!(and tweens) should read the book! its a good lesson even if you dont want to learn a lesson!(haha) stay safe happy vetern's day!(well almost!)
Hey im i posted a comment yesturday(the 7th grader on page 35) well i finished and i just LOVED it SOOO much!!!i told my friends about it and they wanted to read it(one of them IS reading!the other is still looking for a copy!)Well i think ALL teens!(and tweens) should read the book! its a good lesson even if you dont want to learn a lesson!(haha) stay safe happy vetern's day!(well almost!)
hopefully she makes another book like this!(im the 7th from the two other posts!) tell others about this site (for the ppl who have read it!!!or want to)
Hi Shelby and it's great to meet you! Don't worry if the comments don't immediately show. I have it set so that I approve comments (good and bad..lol) so that I can stop any spambots from adding annoying or inappropriate content.
I have loved everything I have read by Christina Kilbourne so far and I am definitely hoping that we see more from her. As for teens/tweens books, I have started getting more of those to review. I will have to get some of those reviews up in the near future!
I'm a friend of shelby And I LOVED THE BOOK!
this is a great site to go to AFTER reading Dear Jo!I go to this site everyday in Library!(haha)now my friend is posting comments AND reading the book! This site is good you should make more like this about other books you have read!
This book was great it made me upset I deffintly felt what the author was trying to tell me. I'm Shelby's friend again.
Hey i entered a few comments last week and i dont see them so i will say it again. i think this book is like the best i ever read! i also have the twilight sega and i still think it just might beat it(in a way)i guess... well tell ur friends about the book!!!(it is amazing!)
My school is making us read this book. And at first everyone is like “Ugg! I don’t want to go to TA and read that dumb old dear Jo” But now they are saying ” YES! TA’s next! We get to read Dear Jo! Woohoo!” It’s cool to see the change, Well i absolutely love this book.
Isn't a great when a book can make a change like that. I often think that books we read in school can stick with us longer than many others. With me, I had to read Z for Zachariah, and Animal Farm and both of those are still firm favourites of mine!
I'm a like friend of Shelby's too! Like She told me about it and like i said ' Like OMG! Like this is like the best book in like the whole like world!!" Like wow! I mean like wow, it's so like so good! like like wow!So like yeah.
really good book was really sad though it tough me alot.
Nice brief and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Thanks you for your information.
My 9 year old boy is a nervous wreck and terrified of the book's content. (They are in the beginnings of it at school). I'm trying to talk him through the hard stuff--you have to go through the problems along with the characters before it comes to a conclusion, it teaches empathy/human experiences (he's got Asperger's), remember such-and-such when you were afraid, and you overcame that, etc...He insists he's way too young to handle it. Please advise.
Sorry for the delay in answering. It seems to me that you are handling it just fine by discussing it with your son and helping him through the rough parts. As a 9 year old, he is definitely within the age range for the book but at the very lowest range. Considering it's listed as for ages 9-12/12-15, it is appropriate for your sons age but I do understand how his condition may bring cause for concern. Perhaps a word with his teacher?
Do you have any suggestions of books like this one? I loved it so much, i wanna find a book like this. Please help :)
What an amazing book! My class just finished reading "Dear Jo" (Gr.7/8 Split) and each time the teacher would put it down everyone would jump and pleaded to continue! This book is great and you wont wanna put it down!
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