Although you will find this book in the children's or teen reader's sections of most book stores, don't let that fool you. Z was written by the author of "Mrs. Frizby and the Rats of NIMH" and "The Silver Crown." Recently, a friend reported to me the results of some research she had done on this book. It appears that Mr. O'Brien died before the book was complete and it was finished by his wife and daughter. The really neat thing about this is that it is impossible to find a change in writing style. Needless to say, this is one of my all time favorite books. I have read it multiple times and given away multiple copies. I'm sort of like Mel Gibson's character in the movie "Conspiracy Theory." Whenever he saw a copy of "Catcher In The Rye" he felt compelled to purchace a copy. I am the same way about "Z for Zachariah" with the only difference being that I've actually read the book.

Ann Burden is sixteen and, as far as she knows, the only person left in the world. The nuclear radiation that destroyed the rest of the world has not touched the valley where she lives, and so she has remained, surviving as best she knows how, for the past year. The smoke from a distant campfire shatters Ann's solitude. Someone else is still alive, and making his way toward her valley: John Loomis, a scientist, protected from the radiation by a "safe-suit." He asserts his will almost immediately. And as his behavior becomes more and more extreme — finally culminating in violent confrontation — Ann must choose how she will live, in a world unlike any she has known (from the back cover of the book).

Released on Saturday, August 24, 2002 at The Bookateria, 70 E. Cleveland Ave., Newark, DE in Newark, Delaware USA.

The book is in the back of the store, in the "Religions" section, on the right side of the top shelf by the stereo speaker. It is barely visable when you look at that spot. You will have to reach high on your tippy toes to get it.

Hello there, I-Am-A-Bookworm! Long time no BookCross, eh? Just kidding.

I originally saw this release come up on the Go Hunting pages back in August, but I was a new BookCrosser then and wasn't all that into going into a used bookstore to buy an "in the wild" book. And I thought that surely, I'd have plenty of opportunities to go hunting for books. Unfortunately, it's pretty rare that a book gets released in a place I can access, let alone in Delaware, except by myself.

In the mean time, I've released over a 100 books and had about 10% of the wild releases "caught", but I've started to get more and more of a jones to catch a wild book, myself. And, with so few books released in Delaware by other people, it was looking pretty hopeless. So one day recently I thought "What about that one book that was left in The Bookateria?" So, yesterday being a nice day, I took myself and my boyfriend/main book-hunting chum to The Bookateria, with a slip of paper with the name of the book and directions for finding it.

Sorry this is so long - but this may be the only time I ever catch a wild book, so I want to be thorough. So I went right to the religion section, and only saw two books on the top shelf. I thought "Oh. I guess they cleared the top shelf off. Well maybe it's on the other Religion shelves". So I read every title on those shelves, and no luck. Then I went to the Z section of the fiction shelves, and realized, to my great dismay, that the books are grouped by author's name, not by title. And I hadn't bothered to write down the author of "Z is for Zachariah" on my slip of paper. !!!

I did remember that it was a teen or children's title, so then I tried my luck at the young adult/children's shelves. I was there a good while, and found nothing. Then I moved over to the classics shelves to see if any of *my* releases had turned up there, as I release a lot of classics. Nothing.

I went back to the religion shelf one last time, and took a good, hard look at the two books I had seen on the top shelf, just to make sure they were not what I was looking for. They were not, and I turned around to go and alert my boyfriend that I was ready to leave. On a hopeless whim, I turned around one last time, for one last look at the religion section, and it was then, of course, that I saw a third book on the top shelf that hadn't been visible before. I squinted at it and was sure it said "B is for Bacharat", however that's spelled, but I reached for it anyway, and the rest is history.

You weren't kidding about how hard this would be to see! I should have inspected the top shelf closer the first time I approached it, but...at least I got it. Thanks! I have a ton of books to read at home, so I don't think I'll read this, but I'll be sure to rerelease it.

Released on Saturday, August 24, 2002 at The Bookateria, 70 E. Cleveland Ave., Newark, DE in Newark, Delaware USA.

I finally got around to reading this right after I finished 4 summer grad classes at U. Delaware, one of which required me to read 11 books on western civilization. I liked the class and found most of the books interesting, but boy, was I ready for some light reading by the time that was all done.

I liked it. I found the writing style a little too dry at times - do teenagers write entirely without conjunctions, as in - "I do not know how much longer..." "I can not predict what...". And I often found myself wondering "Why doesn't she just tell him her concerns? Why didn't she lay down the law earlier in the story, before things came to such a head that she had to run away?" It doesn't make sense to me that, she being as independent and strong-minded as she was, she wouldn't have almost immediately said to him "Look, Bub. I'm bringing you out of death's reach, here. You DO NOT come into my house, under my care, and tell me what to do and how to do it. The only way this relationship is going to work is if you treat me with respect and equality". Instead, she says nothing until the situation gets so bad that she has to leave. Of course, this being fiction, the antagonist would have responded insanely no matter what.

I find it easy to believe, though, that a couple of females had a hand in writing this. It carries a strong message about the importance of a woman not allowing herself to be trapped in a misogynist relationship.

Fun read, all in all. It's like a different take on The Stand.

By the way - remember that if you release multiple copies of this (or any other) book, each copy has to have its own, unique BCID#. Otherwise, you could release 100 copies of this book, but all of the journal entries done about them will point to this one, particular copy. I just say this because something odd happened here - BookCrossing thought this book had been rereleased and refound, when it has been sitting in my home for months. But maybe it was just some unrelated snafu.

I think all of the comments made by We-Are-The-Dead regarding "Z for Zachariah" are well taken. My only argument is that Ann is not even sixteen yet when Mr. Loomis enters her valley. That is an age where young adults tend to be idealistic and so her view of the world may not be accurate. Add to this the fact that she has lived in this isolated valley all her life.