Cori’s Pick: Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

This was one of those books where the author magically captured my heart and made me truly care for the characters.  Eddie is twelve when his family, along with 179 other passengers, boards an airplane headed for L.A.  But halfway there, tragedy strikes and the plane crashes, and Eddie becomes the sole survivor.    In alternating chapters, Napolitano masterfully weaves the story of the passengers and events leading up to the crash with Edwards’s life after the crash. This is a coming-of-age story, navigating how Edward is left to deal with the loss of his family, being transplanted to a new school and finding his new ‘normal’.  It didn’t take long for me to be completed committed to this book and it left me taking note of the author – I’m in for anything else she has to offer me.