First Light by Rebecca Stead

When I was a kid, the weekly trip to the library was a staple. Reading always just was for me. I vaguely remember Richard Scarry, Mercer Mayer, Charlie Brown and various other picture books...but I think those memories are mainly remnants or were purely sparked by the physical presence of those books in our house.

My first actual memories of reading (that I fully own) start somewhere in the range of 3rd to 5th grade. Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume, Barthe DeClements, Jerry Spinelli....those authors I remember vividly. I felt what those stories told me, they resonated with my experiences while still taking me away from them. The urgent want to escape reality while simultaneously feeling compelled to relate within humanity was allowed when reading. A true love was born.

So imagine my bliss that I now get to talk to kids about what they are reading, to walk through this phase of discovery with them....I am truly blessed. Even more ridiculously satisfying-they come back to me the next year to tell me what they've found over the summer, they ask me if I've read a new series or heard of a book. In short, I still read a lot of young adult fiction.

Enter First Light.

Rebecca Stead's second novel, When You Reach Me, won the 2010 Newberry Medal. I was looking for it, it wasn't on the shelf, and I picked up her first novel instead. (Don't worry, the other is on it's way via the post as I type.)

Here we find Peter, a boy living in New York city, about to embark upon a 6-month journey of living in Greenland. Peter's father studies the science of global warming, and often does fieldwork. The story quickly introduces the fact that Peter is having headaches, a fact which he tallies in a notebook and hides from his parents. Peter's mother experiences these same types of headaches and frequently asks if the onset has struck Peter.

Tandem to Peter's story is Thea's. Thea is a girl living in Greenland. In a city under the ice. Shrouded in mystery, Gracehope is an exclusive society (that somehow filters air through the ice) where heritage is stressed, and communal living is essential to survival. Thea is of the "first line" and is rebelling against her Machiavellian grandmother, seeking permission to explore the surface.

The book is heavy and long on the foreshadowing, only to get to the point where Peter and Thea eventually meet and discover all kinds of things about their respective worlds. Given that I am not a giant fan of science fiction, I was much more interested in the more factually scientific Peter chapters. The constructed world of Gracehope, while creative, was thin on explanation and assumed the reader could swallow much speculation.

However, any reader can accept and appreciate the story of family and reconciliation. I also value the message that kids can handle more than we expect them to, especially when it comes to the truth. Overall, I enjoyed this book. I occasionally read it aloud to the 7-year old that I nanny, and he was intrigued. I had fun updating him on what I was reading, and can easily see why this is a book that kids will relish.