As Good as She Imagined: The Redeeming Story of the Angel of Tucson, Christina-Taylor Green

Nine year-old Christina-Taylor Green was born on 9/11 and was killed during the fatal shooting at a political rally held by Gabrielle Giffords, killing 6 people. However, As Good As She Imagined is not about that event. Not entirely. If you want a detailed account on the shooting itself, this is not the story. In fact the book is really about the extraordinary Green family. It starts at the beginning telling of how Roxanna and John Green met and started their family. We learn all about their kids Christina-Taylor and Dallas. Then the tragedy strikes and changes their lives forever. Told from the perspective of Roxanna Green, we learn the inside story of what her life was like during this. Although she is the main voice, there are snippets from friends, family, speeches, statements, and letters compiled in the book. We also learn a little bit about the other victims through the President's speech. The killer is rarely spoken about, because the family didn't want to see him, hear about him, or give him any more attention. Though at the beginning of each chapter we get a tiny look into what the killer did to prepare for this unfortunate event and what happened minutes afterwards. Although I enjoyed this book, I had one problem with it. Roxanna's daughter had been dead only months before writing this book. Thus there seemed to be unnecessary details at a few spots, including what people were wearing. Sometimes it seemed like she was just pouring out her grief into this book. While this can make it more real, I can only imagine how much deeper and better this book would have been if she only waited the right amount of time before writing. What really got me was, at the end, she would say things about her still having a hard time. I'm thinking, "Roxanna your little girl just died in January! Of course it is still difficult." I wish she would have waited a few years, so we could have found out what it is like overcoming the loss of a loved one. This is a touching and heartwarming tribute to a little girl and her family. From the words of the President, the name of this book is birthed, he hoped that the word would be as good as she imagined. As Good As She Imagined is available in stores January 3rd 2012. *This content was based upon a free review copy the Contributor received.*