Phoenix Rising

In Karen Hesse's "Phoenix Rising," thirteen-year-old Nyle Sumner's quiet life on her grandmother's Vermont sheep farm is shattered by a nuclear accident. When radiation victims, including fifteen-year-old Ezra Trent, come to stay, Nyle is forced to confront her profound fears of abandonment and loss, stemming from the deaths of her mother and grandfather. The novel tenderly explores the complexities of grief, the blossoming of unexpected friendship and love, and the quiet strength found in community and resilience. It's a deeply emotional story, suitable for mature middle-grade readers, that handles themes of illness, death, and human connection with sensitivity and grace.

Thirteen-year-old Nyle learns about relationships and death when fifteen-year-old Ezra, who was exposed to radiation leaked from a nearby nuclear plant, comes to stay at her grandmother's Vermont farmhouse.