by Christina Kilbourne
2003 Winner
November 10
Dear Diary;
Everything is black, so black I can’t see through it. When it first started closing in around me, I thought I’d be okay, that I’d let it creep in a little way and then fight it back when I had the energy. The thing is, I didn’t realize it was stronger than me and now I’m afraid I won’t ever win.
November 11
Dear Diary;
Happy Remembrance Day. It was exactly what I needed to cheer me up, a day to remember a bunch of dead guys.
November 12
Dear Diary;
I’m so royally screwed up right now and it’s not a good place to be. Do you know what I’ve been thinking about lately? Tally Hanen’s cousin, Chloe. Tally was abducted from her own yard, where she was playing with Chloe. They were both five at the time. When the man grabbed Tally and started to drag her away, she yelled to Chloe to get her mom, who’d stepped inside for Popsicles. But the man shoved Tally in his car and drove away before her mother got back outside. The police were on the case in minutes. They even issued an Amber Alert. A stranger found Tally’s body later that same day.
I know all this because I saw it on a TV documentary the other night. Mom would have freaked if she caught me watching it, but I couldn’t turn it off once I’d started, and I couldn’t sleep anyway. Now I’m having nightmares again, but not about Tally.
I can’t stop thinking about Chloe. I mean, it’s over for Tally, she’s not in the nightmare anymore. But poor little Chloe is going to spend the rest of her life thinking that if only she’d been closer to the picket fence, she’d be the one who was abducted. That’s what it’s like for me right now.
About this Story
Published by Lobster Press, 2007
• Winner, Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Awards (2009)
• Winner, 2009 Snow Willow Award (Saskatchewan Young Readers’ Choice Award)
• Winner, 2009/2010 Red Cedar Award (British Columbia Young Readers’ Choice Award)
• Nominated for the 2010 New York State Reading Association Charlotte Award
• Selected, Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s “Best Books for Kids & Teens” (Starred selection, 2008)
• Selected, Ontario Library Association’s “Best Bets for 2007”
• Slovenian and Portuguese language rights sold
• Winner of the 2003 Muskoka Novel Marathon .. as a winner was published in a limited-edition, first-rights two-novel compilation by Fox Meadow Press in Spring 2004.