Give this to a child you love

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	• Phoenix Rising Karen Hesse Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 1994 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 67 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Give this to a child you love

This one was recommended to me by a school librarian. Though I am not particularly familiar with current Young Adult fiction, I am greatly impressed, and if I knew a young reader (11-16), PHOENIX RISING would be my current gift of choice. The story, set in Vermont in the near future, is that of Nyle, a young teenage girl living with her grandmother on a sheep farm. Nyle is dealing with all of the usual issues and feelings of her age (boys, friends, family, homework and chores on the farm) as well as the deeper questions about love, death and desertion. Thrown into the mix is the recent meltdown of a nuclear reactor which has taken out a good chunk of New England, with the refugees, the food shortages, the fear and the courage which emerge in the aftermath. Hesse tells the tale well. Her protagonist is likable and compelling, the details of disaster believable and scary, the ending quite satisfying -- both hopeful and heartbreakingly sad. This book will certainly touch young readers feeling their way into adulthood, and may also help them prepare for the worst. In this era of aging nuclear power plants and the diminished safeguards attendant to deregulation of the power industry, many analysts see increased odds of a Chernobyl-like incident here. PHOENIX RISING is a far more human look at such a disaster than any news report I read from Kiev.

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A GREAT BOOK!!!

I READ THIS BOOK A FEW MONTHS AGO...I SIMPLY COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN. I LOVED IT SO MUCH I WANTED A CLASS SET FOR MY 5TH GRADERS. UNFORTUNATELY, THIS BOOK IS OUT OF PRINT SO I WAS UNABLE TO PURCHASE A NEW SET. HOWEVER, I WAS BOUND AND DETERMINED TO HAVE MY KIDS READ IT. SO, BETWEEN AMAZON AND EBAY I PURCHASED 25 USED COPIES. MY STUDENTS LOVED IT SO MUCH, MOST OF THEM READ AHEAD AND FINISHED IT EARLY. THIS IS MUST FOR ALL STUDENTS TO READ. IT IS AN EASY READ SO I WOULD EVEN VENTURE TO SAY THAT CHILDREN AS YOUNG AS FOURTH GRADE COULD READ THIS.

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GREAT book

my daughter was assigned this book in school.....we read it together and i was genuinely hooked on it!

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Erin's Book Review

In school we read a brilliant book as a group, Phoenix Rising (by Karen Hesse). If you are looking for something interesting to read, Phoenix Rising is a good book for pretty much anyone. It is a book on the subject of problems, regarding loss.

The history of the family is very unfortunate. Just before the book started there was a radioactive explosion at a nuclear power plant. The main character, Nyle and her grandma live on a farm near Cookshire, Vermont. Nyle's dad left when she was very young. Her father left Nyle with her grandparents when her mother was very sick because he did not want to see Nyle's mother die. Her mother died years before the explosion as well as her grandfather; they both died in the back bedroom. Nyle saw it as the dying room. Then Ezra and his mother, two evacuees, came to stay in the back bedroom.

The events of the story are very dramatic. There was a radioactive explosion. Suddenly there were protective masks, contaminated food and evacuations. I think it would make it very hard to try to live a peaceful life again after something like that.

The main troubles the family had were: One, Nyle was afraid to care or love anyone again. Two, sometime Nyle will have to face telling her best friend, Muncie about Ezra. Muncie and her family live on Nyle's grandmother's property. She was afraid if she told Muncie about Ezra staying with her, Muncie would freak out and move off their property, and then Nyle would not have a friend. Three, it is hard to deal with everything, and it is hard to face the truth that anything could happen to Ezra.

The thoughts and opinions I had for this book were focused on the author and the book as it unraveled. When I first read the book it seemed stupid. I wanted to tell my teacher it was a lousy book and the worst book that was ever written, but I read it anyway. I kept reading and it was the one of the greatest books I ever read. That was because I could relate - I have lost people in my life. But, the only question I had for Karen Hesse was, "What was her point? What was the moral of the book? What was she trying to tell us?" I don't have an answer, but I know there was a point and everyone sees it from a different point of view. And this book made me feel that I am not the only one that has lost important people.

Even though it was a story, people can still relate to it. I thought the beginning was slow to start, but once I got into it I wanted to read more. I saw Nyle as the main character and as the Phoenix. Ezra could have been the Phoenix because he helped Nyle change how she felt about people. I think people should recognize that if you don't like a book you could abandon it or keep reading because you should never read a book you dislike.

Nyle reminded me of myself because it is difficult for me to change like her. I can't seem to come to a conclusion. But my loss helped me understand feelings that the characters had. I would definitely recommend this book. I would recommend this book to children around 10 and 12, as well as people just looking for an interesting book.

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Beautifully written!

Phoenix Rising is a beautifully written book that kids from grades 4-9 would enjoy. I loved the descriptions of the changing of the seasons in New England, where the story takes place. I also liked to see how the main character, Nyle, changed from the fall to the spring. This book is sad at times, and really makes you think about the consequences of nuclear power.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Nyle's life with her grandmother on their Vermont sheep farm advances rhythmically through the seasons until the night of the accident at the Cookshire nuclear power plant. Without warning, Nyle's modest world fills with protective masks, evacuations, contaminated food, disruptions, and mistrust.Nyle adjusts to the changes. As long as the fallout continues blowing to the East, Nyle, Gran, and the farm can go on. But into this uncertain haven stumble Ezra Trent and his mother, "refugees" from the heart of the accident, who take temporary shelter in the back bedroom of Nyle's house.The back bedroom is the dying room: It took her mother when Nyle was six; it stole away her grandfather just two years ago. Now Ezra is back there and Nyle doesn't want to open her heart to him. Too many times she's let people in, only to have them desert her.Karen Hesse's voice and vision are grounded in truth; she takes on a nearly unharnessable subject, contains it, and makes it resonate with honesty. Part love story, part coming of age, this is a tour de force by a gifted writer.

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