Eddie Adler, his brother, Jordan, their parents, Bruce and Jane, board a flight in New York to Los Angeles. They are moving there for his mother’s work as a scriptwriter. Eddie is 12 and Jordan, 15. The flight crashes. Eddie is the only survivor. This amazing novel is the story of Eddie’s life after the crash, and the stories of passengers on the plane. Eddie’s aunt and uncle, Lacey and John, fly to Colorado to take custody of their nephew. After more hospitalization, Eddie moves into his aunt and uncle’s home in New Jersey. It is there that he meets Shay, a neighbor girl his age. There are emotional truths, and facts, that fiction can teach. Ann Napolitano accomplishes this feat in Dear Edward. Although published for the adult market, this book would be highly appreciated by teenage readers. Like Eddie, teens are learning how to live with tragedies that they never saw coming.
Maureen Millea Smith is a librarian at the Edina Library and a Minnesota Book Award-winning novelist.
