Pen Pal Letter

Dear Naomi,



My name is Katie H., and I read about you falling and ending up with amnesia in the novel Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin. I am a freshman at The John Carroll School. I did a lot over the summer, such as going to Ocean City and hanging out at the pool with friends. My huge family normally goes to North Carolina every summer, but my parents had to go to Toronto, Canada, my brother ended up going to North Carolina with the rest of my family while I went to Ocean City with my friend Emma.


I know you were in high school when you fell down the steps of your school, but thankfully my school doesn’t have steps in front of the school. It must have been hard dealing with all that you went through, but you definitely stood strong. I’ve never had to deal with something as dangerous and scary as you, but just imagining it makes me realize what I would have to go through too. I look up to you on how you just started over completely and began a new life. I know you didn’t remember anyone, but you could of easily of found out who you were friends with and stayed being friends with them. Yet you didn’t, you found completely different people and you really seemed happy. Since this is my first year at high school there are a lot of people I don’t know, and because of it I’m also hanging out with different people then I did in middle school. I wonder what I would do if I, out of nowhere, got my memory back. If I would tell people, or keep it to myself like you did.


I thought that Gabrielle Zevin did a terrific job making everything seem like real life. There weren’t any moments where it seemed like she was making it up. You had the same thoughts any teenager would have and the accident that you had could’ve happened to anyone. I thought it really related to a real life situation.


While I was reading the book, I was trying to think of how you made the decision to not tell anyone that you got your memory back. If that happened to me I think I would at least have told my parents. Was there any real reason that you decided to slowly go back to some of the things that you used to do such as the yearbook and tennis with your ex-boyfriend?


I thought that the social issue in this book was how after you had your accident and decided to start over, you made completely different friends than you used to have. You also didn’t recognize anyone when you first came back to school, and that seemed like it would’ve been confusing to deal with. I was left thinking about what if this happened to me or one of my close friends, what would I do? I hope this never does happen, but it’s not something that you can plan or really even prevent.


If I were you I’d want to try and combine the life that you had and the life that you’re now living, because you liked both. It might not work, but it’s just a thought. I was glad to see that you and Will became friends again, and maybe in the future you’ll become more than friends. I think you two would make a cute couple. I hope you get to read this cause I have a few questions I hope you get to answer.


Your Friend,

Katie H.