From The Desk of Zoe Washington

by: Janae Marks

Recommended for Ages: 8 and above

It all started on her 12th birthday. Her first letter from Marcus, her biological dad who was in prison for a convicted crime for 25 years. She has never gotten a letter from him that she has read. She has never seen him in her 12 years of life. She has never heard his voice before. Zoe doesn't know what to call him, since when she was 5, her mom married Paul.

He was innocent. But the lawyer (he was 18 at the time so he couldn't pay for a lawyer, so he was assigned a lawyer) didn't try to plead innocent for Marcus, because the lawyer was convinced that Marcus was guilty.

On his 3rd letter to her, after her asking, he tells her the name of the alibi witness. But since it was 12 years ago, there could be a lot of people with the same name. And she has been doing this, with Mom and Dad not even knowing about her communication to Marcus. How will she get Marcus out of prison? And finally see him?

What I thought about it:

I felt it was a very good book because it was very cool seeing how Zoe was finally communicating with her biological dad and reading his letters to Little Tomato and her letters to him. Imagine learning about people whom you've never met, through mail, not throught Whatsapp, messages, or even email! I really liked how she (Zoe) believed Marcus was innocent, not even being there when the crime happened and not seeing him ever. And how she was brave enough to find out about the actual truth.