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(Excerpt) ... By the end of school, all of us knew … knew about the Burn Book.

The book had been made for gossip’s sake, to write things about students that the others did not like. It had been made by a group of underclassmen, a few students who had been attending St. Thomas before the hurricane.

I don’t know whether or not it was meant as a joke. Some things like this are, and then are later blown wildly out of proportion. I really don’t know, and part of me has to wonder if what they wrote was even meant to be serious at all.

Whatever their intent, their words are serious now. Serious and real and burning like the wildfire. We found out about it today, this burning, burning Burn Book. A group of younger students wrote it, and we found it. In it, they wrote that they wished all of us from St. Bernard had stayed in our homes during the hurricane, stayed there to drown. To read the latest, click on 'Burn Book scorches the soul,' 'Old books and soothing words,' and 'Ready or not, here comes Christmas'

(This printed edition contains journal entries called 'Burn Book scorches the soul,' 'Old books and soothing words,' and 'Ready or not, here comes Christmas.'')

Starting the day after Hurricane Katrina stormed across the Gulf Coast, killing thousands and chasing millions from their homes, 17-year-old Samantha Perez began to tell her heartbreaking story. This is the eleventh printed installment, containing her 22nd, 23rd and 24th diary entries. To read all of Perez's work, including earlier  entries, follow link. 

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