When the Storm Passes

It’s May 22, 2011, in Joplin, Missouri, and thirteen-year-old Avalie Milner has just finished dinner. Within minutes, a mile-wide tornado will change her life.

After being rescued from the rubble of her home, Avalie sets out on a mission: to find her loved ones, to restore her home, and to survive on her own in a world that will never be the same.

Reading this book I learned about how many of the tornado survivors went on-line to Facebook in order to reconnect with each other after the storm. I’ve been intrigued for a long time by the affinity that many people seem to have toward Facebook. This story gave me a new insight, an epiphany, into the personal nature of an impersonal medium.

When the storm passes, there may be rain and wind and destruction, and even death.
When the storm passes, there may be fear and pain and longing and silence.
When the storm passes, it is time to mourn those lost, to rebuild, and start again.
When the storm passes, a new life begins.

I have relatives from Joplin, Missouri, who survived the catastrophic EF5 multiple-vortex tornado that struck Joplin in the late afternoon of Sunday, May 22, 2011. I usually don’t read Young Adult novels, but my familial connection with the setting for this story piqued my interest. While I would have undoubtedly enjoyed this book even more were I still a teenybopper, the realism of events and emotions throughout the book were riveting for me, even at my age. I enjoyed this novel, had a good cry, and would recommend it to all others of any age.