The Legend of Zoey by Candie Moonshower
Delacorte Press
ISBN-10: 0385732805
ISBN-13: 9780385732802
Ages 8-12
224 pages

The Legend of Zoey is a fascinating and engaging book. Zoey is a normal thirteen year old girl with a few problems. Her parents are separated and fighting, she can't handle her mother's new profession of a midwife and she isn't comfortable being Native American. For her thirteenth birthday her grandmother gives her a journal which she immediately begins to fill.

There's a strange comet in the sky and her family has a bad feeling about it. Zoey refuses to have them accompany her on a class trip to Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee where her Grandma Cope grew up because she is worried that Grandma Cope will tell everyone about being Native American.

During the trip something happens and Zoey is transported back to 1811 just as the New Madrid earthquakes are about to hit. Zoey meets a girl named Prudence and the book is written in the narrative of the two girls journals.

I found the whole story completely absorbing. The New Madrid earthquakes actually happened and created Reelfoot Lake as well as drowning a Chickasaw village. The book really gets into the details of the earthquakes and time period. There's plenty of sensory detail too which really makes it feel real. I loved the two girls voices and they felt very true to their time period. I was so interested, I started doing a little research to find out more about those earthquakes.
Zoey and Prudence are brave, loyal and strong characters that I think readers will love.

I loved the way their stories blended together with the legend of the Chickasaw Chief Kalopin and his curse. The Legend of Zoey is a multi-layered and well woven tale with elements that will make it a oft read favorite.

The Legend of Zoey was inspired by the legends told by the author's great-grandmother, a Creek Indian born and bred in Tennessee about Reelfoot Lake.

This is Candie Moonshower's first novel and it won the Sue Alexander Most Promising New Work Award which is given by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. I expect the book may win a few more awards along the way. I, for one highly recommend it.

This review is dedicated to my newest granddaughter Zoey Aaliyah, who I hope will grow to be as brave and resourceful as the Zoey in this book. Grammy will be reading this to you mi Chiquitina Princesa preciosa!

Nothing, Nobody: The Voices of the Mexico City Earthquake

To me there is no greater woman journalist than Mexico’s beloved Elena Poniatowska. Every book I read of hers touches me in so many ways. This book in particular haunts my days and nights. Nothing, Nobody is the chronicle of the earthquake in September of 1985 that devastated Mexico City.

It is the story of the search for bodies amongst the rubble and the Mexican government’s failure to respond. There is such poignancy in the writing, the post-earthquake testimonies from survivors, from aid workers and most of all, from the people who never did find their loved ones. It is a story of the heroism that exists in even the most insignificant of us. There is courage in the face of disaster, hope and hopelessness.

As if the testimonies and the stories in this book weren’t enough to touch the heart, to outrage the mind, there are photos of the devastation, of the faces of the people, of the tears.

Ms. Poniatowska weaves together each story with her usual mastery. She is able to put a face on the side of Mexico that gets shoved under the carpet – the poor Mexican. This book was written pre-Zapatista uprising and I feel that by reading Elena Poniatowska’s fascinating chronicles of important events in the years leading up to it, we can all better understand why the Zapatista movement had to happen. There are many books about it and many opinions on why – but I think that all we need to do is read books like this to see the face of the forgotten, to feel their pain and frustration, to know them intimately. Once we do that, there is no need to suppose or wonder about the worthiness of the fight against oblivion – we just know.