The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors

Just this minute finished reading "The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors" by Michele Young-Stone (who has actually been struck by lightning in real life (whatever that is(!)). Great book! I give it 3 1/2 out of 4 thumbs up! The lives of lightning strike survivors weave parallel threads through the book and every chapter contains an excerpt from the actual Handbook, which is supposedly a book written by one of the characters. (I do not know whether I am explaining this correctly...It is like the "Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy," which is a book about a book also called the "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. There - that should clear things up.)

This is one of my favorite types of books...realistic, but with a bit of the fanciful. For example, Becca is a lightning strike survivor and sometimes clocks run backwards around her.

To me, the author did a good job developing the characters and I really cared about them. There is some tragedy in the book, but there is really good closure, as well. Actually, there is such good closure that the end of the book has where-are-they-now paragraphs about the minor characters - kind of like the movie, "Animal House," if you are old enough to remember that!

This is a great book to read or give as a gift.

By the way, I found the cool lightning picture at http://www.guzer.com/pictures/lightning-nails-tree.php.