1.09.2013

The Silent Storm

1.09.2013
This is a little book for your kid who is probably involved in the AR program in their school (it's worth 9 points, that's pretty good though I'm not a school librarian), depending on their grade level. It was one of those books I mentioned in the last post - this particular friend lent it to me because it was one of her favorites growing up and was shocked when I said I'd never read it.
To be clear, my friend and I are children of the 90's and early Aught's. The taste in literature today is pretty different for kids now - as far as I can tell, all kids like to read today are supernatural-esque spins on our ole pal 'Arry. Back before Harry Potter was a thing, this is the sort of book kids read.

The Silent Storm is a good little story about a young, rough-and-tumble girl who has gone mute after a terrible tragedy involving her parents. Yeah, back in the olden days, we still read books about really cool orphans. May I continue? Thanks.
Alyssa is being raised by her grandfather on Galveston beach, but she isn't necessarily blooming where she's been planted. In her own private way she is - she loves her life on the gulf coast, and in that special way some children have, understands nature and the way things work there better than she understands people. But adults have a hard time understanding her and breaking through to her, so they decide to take her away from her home and move her in with her snobby aunt and cousin in Houston.
This is all happening in the forefront of an incoming hurricane. I was raised on the gulf-coast, I grew up knowing full well how... "exciting"? Is that the right word? Exciting an incoming hurricane could be. I'm an old woman, here, so all the time I'm screaming at those kids and shrimpers running around all willy-nilly on the beaches and in the Gulf before a hurricane - "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MINDS?! GIT IN YOUR CARS AND GO!!!" But, of course, that would not have made for an exciting story.

In the, it's all very happy (without spoiling too much) and Alyssa grows up just a little bit. It's a quick book for an adult woman to read, and as an adult woman, was a little lacking in plot and such. But if you have a 5th or 6th grader, you should be able to find this book with ease at most libraries. It has been around for a few years. As far as I can say, it's one of the better YA books, so Mom'll enjoy reading it with her kids, as well.

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