Ode to Books Elizabeth Desrosier

This is an ode to books. The sound of the pages as they turn rapidly in anticipation of what’s next. The most influential span, from War and Peace to 1984, from J.K. Rowling to Louisa May Alcott. The feeling of reading a brand-new book. The genres are all over: fiction and nonfiction, sports to magic, Harry Potter and The Mysterious Benedict Society, Wonder and Walk Two Moons, sci-fi and all. Books help my life. The history in some, the creativity in others, makes me stay up late to know what happens next. A Wrinkle in Time will also do, with fantasy spilling out of it. Normally I would choose to avoid it, but some fantasy books are too good not to read. I love how some books come in series, such as Chasing Helicity and The Hunger Games. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Number the Stars; one is the true story of endurance and bravery; the other, a historical fiction on what it was like to help Jewish people hiding through the eyes of a child. Both are Jewish or helped the Jewish during World War II. Books help us learn more about history and what the world was like then, or what people thought life would be like in the future. Books teach us from our mistakes from the past.

Books help us learn what life was like during the Civil War era for women and girls at home, like Little Women. Books help us learn things we didn’t think we knew. This has been an ode to books.

Elizabeth Desrosier, Grade 7 Roseau High School, Roseau Teaching Artist: Desdamona