Customer Reviews

Dear Jo: The story of losing Leah ... and searching for hope.

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4 star:		(1)
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I'm a middle school guidance counselor and I wish every student had to read this. It's a very realistic story of an internet predator. It's written from a 13 year-old girl's perspective so is really poignant for teenagers. There is not anything really graphic or horrible but parts are a little intense.

This is such an important and timely book. It's written in journal form as one teen deals with the disappearance of her friend after the two struck up an online friendship with the same boy. The boy turns out to be an online predator and things turn out terribly. I plan on reccomending this one to all of my students. The journal style is very engaging and I think that along with the plot line will hold their attention long enough to get this book's important message across. I wish this one was more well-known - my guess is the Canadian publication lead to it's lack of popularity. It should be on all middle school and high school library shelves.

When Maxine received "Jo," her journal, as a present for her birthday, she never imagined that she would use it to chronicle the most terrifying of events...

Since her own parents refused to install the internet in their home, Max spens a lot of time over at her best friend, Leah's. How dangerous could it be, especially if they never used their real names or told anyone where they lived? Together, the two girls create a fake online persona to flirt with folks they met on their favorite music forum.

Caught by her mother, Max's fun on the internet ends, but Leah's spins out of control. Max is aware that Leah's online relationship is getting serious, but she's as powerless as everyone else when Leah disappears.

Max's entries in "Jo" follow her as she learns to deal with Leah's abduction, and the knowledge that she could have just as easily been the one taken. Although this book manages to be rather preachy at times, I still found it to be an interesting look at survivor's guilt and depression, and stayed on the edge of my seat until the book's conclusion.

Two friends are swept into a world that they never knew could hurt them in many ways and make them regret their actions.

Maxine has always been the good girl with the overprotective parents and the annoying siblings. She doesn't know why her parents are so restrictive on things such as the Internet. Then there is Leah, the only child who is beautiful and who usually gets whatever she wants. So when she gets the Internet she decides to share it with Maxine.

The Internet seems pretty safe to them, like the parts where they are able to talk in forums and log onto the hangouts where everyone at school goes to. But when they meet a guy who sweeps them off their feet, they decide that in order for them to keep talking to him they must lie about their age and anything else that would jeopardize the relationship.

Each girl begins to talk to different guys, writing to them every day; Maxine by relaying the messages to Leah through the phone and at school, and Leah, who does it secretly. The relationships begin to deepen as the guys begin to charm the girls. For Maxine, her mistakes are caught in time -- but for Leah, it was too late.

DEAR JO begins six months after Leah goes missing and Maxine, who is not only vulnerable but didn't even know that her best friend's "relationship" with her guy was getting so serious, is trying not to lose hope that one day her friend will return.

Written in diary/journal entries, DEAR JO is compelling and intriguing and focuses on an issue that most of us do not think of as serious. Christina Kilbourne writes a novel that will leave anyone who discovers it speechless.

Reviewed by: Randstostipher "tallnlankyrn" Nguyen