I have really enjoyed
reading this year. I don't speed through dozens of books like some people do,
but I have read more books this year than any of the past few years, and I've
found some gems!
My most recent read was
Phoenix Rising, a fictional YA book by Karen Hesse about a nuclear accident in
Vermont. The morning after the shooting in Colorado I opened up to these
paragraphs:
Science class kept echoing in my mind. Today was our first full day back at school since the accident. Instead of his regular lesson plan, Mr. Sobel had talked about nuclear stuff.
I liked it better when science didn't come so close to home. When it fit neatly inside a textbook, with five questions at the end of each chapter, questions easily answered if you read the assigned pages.
I thought she did a
great job at expressing what it feels like to face something you weren't
expecting and don't want to face. Further down on the same page, she states very simply this major theme through the words of the main character's
Grandma:
Sometimes you have to do things you'd rather not.
Events like the
awful mass shooting are unwelcome reminders that this life is full of things
we'd rather not do or deal with. In difficult times, I am so thankful for the
reassurance I find through words like these:
All your losses will be made up to you in the resurrection, provided you continue faithful. By the vision of the Almighty I have seen it. -Joseph Smith
And these:
Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend. -Mosiah 4:9
And these:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. -1 Peter 1:3
2 comments:
I read that book waaaay back...in middle school, I think. I remember thinking it was great, and that's where I learned what a phoenix was, but that's all I remember from it! I should read it again. Thanks for the reminder!
I was just thinking it would have been an interesting book for middle school classes to read after the nuclear stuff in Japan!
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