I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

In the story I am the messenger by Markus Zusak, Ed Kennedy is an underage cab driver who doesn’t have a very good future ahead of him. He is in love with his best friend who does not feel the same way, and his other best friend is his dog who drinks coffee and smells terrible. His life is practically a routine that he is very used to by now. That is until one day when it seemed as if Ed was in the right place at the right time. After he accidentally prevented a bank robber from getting away, he receives a playing card with three addresses written on it. He doesn’t know why, but he knows that there is a message he hast to deliver to the people at these locations. The only writing on the card is those places. There are no directions, and no rules that he has to follow. He doesn’t understand why he was chosen to do this, but nonetheless he follows through. After that card the messages keep coming. Some of the messages are harder than others, some of them are painful, some are enjoyable, and some are sad, but Ed delivers all of them. Not only does he affect the lives of the people he’s delivering these messages to, but his life is changed as well. Ed creates a bond with the people he is helping, and is aware that he is changing their lives. What he doesn’t recognize right away is that these characters are helping him just as much. I think that many people can connect to at least one of the characters in the story, and I think that is a great aspect to the book. Ed helps people from all different backgrounds and all different ages. All the characters, and each event in the book are described with great detail and it is easy to imagine it all happening in front of you. It made you eager to find out what would happen. There were many unexpected twists throughout the book, but the biggest one was towards the end. The ending is something that people may have mixed feelings about, but I thought it was very smart. For me personally, it added so much and made me enjoy the book even more, but you’ll have to read it to find out what was so great about it. 

Emma Fandel

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Available through the MVLC Catalog