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Book
in Hand, Walking through a Winter Wonderland
Guest
post by: Morgan Straughan Comnick
January
2, 2014
The
leaves are gone, the trees bare. You can see your breath…winter is here! Ah!
The chilly air, the excitement for teachers that you may get off of school due
to a fluffy type of perception, wrapping up in hats, coats, and scarves,
wanting to sled once more like a child, but knowing you’re too old to. Hot cocoa is waiting for you and getting out
of your nice warm bed gets a little harder each day. Welcome to the alpha and the omega season for
the year!
I’m
from Missouri; I know what winter is! But, although I like being cool, I do not
like being freezing. I remember what
that was like. In 2006, I was a senior
in high school and a giant ice storm hit my part of the nation. We were out of power for several days and I
truly knew what it was like to be cold. We had to wear all our winter stuff
inside and our animals laid on us for warmth. It was miserable and I never want
anyone to have to go through that, but despite this, I still made myself do one
thing…I read. I luckily had some books
from the library checked out before this happened; I had no idea they would
become my best friends and worst enemies at the same instant. Have you ever
tried to turn the pages of a book with thick gloves on? It’s near impossible,
but if you take them off, your hands go numb.
Ever been shaking so badly that you could barely hold your book up and
yet, you could not put it down because you got to a thrilling part? I recall those few days so vividly, so cold
sitting on my bean bag chair by window, refusing to put my book down. It was my escape from the harshness of the
ice storm.
I
always got lots of books for Christmas after that and I think this fateful
event kindled a flame in my heart to love books again once more like when I was
little. They became worth the world, my
warm blanket, a magic carpet that transported me to another world and made me
see how grand mine was at the same time.
Because of this, every year, I pick a winter story to read, even if I’ve
read it several times before. In this
guest post, I would like to share that with you.
One
of my favorite authors of all time that I was introduced to in high school as a
library worker is Lurlene McDaniel. She is a Young Adult author who writes
about children who have or have to deal with terminal illnesses or
tragedies.
