Phoenix Rising

by Karen Hesse

An accident at the nearby nuclear power plant disrupts the peaceful lives of Nyle and her grandmother, as they confront death, anguish, and disaster. By the author of Letters from Rifka. Reprint.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Middle Grade, Childrens, Science Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 1994

About the author

Karen Hesse is an American author known for her children's and young adult literature, often set in historical contexts. She received the Newbery Medal for Out of the Dust (1997), a verse novel about a young girl enduring the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Hesse’s works frequently tackle complex themes, as seen in Witness (2001), which explores the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in a 1920s Vermont town, and The Music of Dolphins (1996), which tells the story of a girl raised by dolphins. Her novel Stowaway (2000) is based on the real-life account of a boy aboard Captain Cook’s Endeavour. Over her career, Hesse has received numerous accolades, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002 and the Phoenix Award for Letters from Rifka (1992).

Reviews

[Amber Ortiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in middle school and still think about it to this day. That’s how much it resonated with me. It was a good story that I hope to reread one day.

[Scottsdale Public Library]

Young Nyle struggles with loss in this sad, touching book, both personal (dealing with the death of family) and community (dealing with aftermath of an accident at a nearby nuclear power plant). She also discovers new feelings stirring in her, as she gets to know Ezra, a young man, and refugee, staying at her grandmother's farm. A great story both for teens and adults.

-- Louisa --

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone should read this book. It made me cry. The characters are very real because of the complicated emotions they have. The plot about the radiation was relatable because although it's not as bad today, people still have horrible cancer. This book is really touching.

[Infosifter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story about learning to cope with grief and fear, told in stark and economical pros.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though I haven't read this book in YEARS, it used to be one of my favorites in school. I cannot tell you how many times I signed this book out of the library, and read it with a box of tissues.

December 2011: I got this book as a Christmas gift because my sister knew how much I loved this book and wanted a copy. I re-read this and loved it just as much now as I did back then. While it's juvenile fiction, nothing about it reads that way. It's a beautiful story of first love and loss under the backdrop of a terrifying tragedy that we all fear. Beautiful book!

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought of "Z is for Zachariah" and "Alas Babylon".
The "Pretties &, Uglies" series are also similar.
Also the story about Hiroshima.

[Kayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by my sister and I'm so glad I listened! First, I love Karen Hesse's style and have read at least one other book by her. I like that her books have relatable and lovable characters and that they read rather quickly. I loved that something Nyle was so afraid of ended up being something she loved very fiercely toward the end of the book. I loved the progression of Nyle and Ezra's relationship and I found myself on pins and needles at the end of the book when Ezra's health is in jeopardy. Although the book ended sadly, it ended peacefully and you really see Nyle's character grow up and understand and come to terms with some of the hardest things in life. I am a huge fan of this book.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably one of my most favorite books ever. It's a hope-inspiring story.

[Carmen Yeung · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spoiler alert

This novel began in a family that only consisted of Nyle and her grandmother, because her father left her and both her mother and grandfather died. Nyle is a teenage girl that lived in a house next to her farm with sheeps. She also have a best friend, short but strong named Munice. Since shes in a farm, the most deadly thing that can wipe out the entire farm is radiation. Thats what resulted in her meeting Ezra, a boy that was sicken by radiation and had to move to her house along with Mrs. Trent his mother. He stayed in the same room where Nyle's mom and grandfather passed away, so she assumed he would pass away too. Strong Ezra stayed and became healthier as days pass by, soon he was allowed to go to school like Nyle. Until he was attacked by Ripley, which triggered the leukemia in him and caused him to die of cancer caused by the radiation. Nyle stayed by his side reading a book, hoping he go away in peace. Eventually not just Nyle's mother or grandfather who had left her, Ezra also left her.
This novel was very depressing knowing that death would end a relationship so strong. Also i enjoyed every bit of this story, especially the times where the brave Nyle would peek through doors to look at Ezra who was sick but seems so encouraging. Nothing stopped Nyle from approaching Ezra and their relationship grew stronger, even Nyle grew stronger. I really like how the author portrays each character not as an individual, but as a group where others make up for who they really are. I also liked the connection with the back bedroom and the death that had occured there. This book taught me to really get hold of what's there and what's not ever lasting. I thought this book was really interesting and i was glad it was on the summer suggestion list.

[Rebecca Fennell · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Phoenix Rising, Karen Hesse brings to life the story of Nyle Sumner, a thirteen year old girl who lives with her grandmother(Gran) on a sheep farm. Throughout this story you meet many characters, such as Munchie. Munchie is a important character in this story, not only because she is Nyle's best friend, but also because of how she reacts to conflicts.
Ripley is another important character; he is considered the town "jerk." Then there is Ezra. Ezra is a boy who is very sick due to radiation exposure. If I'm being honest, the only reason I read this book is because the title interested me. Although I've come to find this book extraordinary!
In this story an accident happened at a nuclear power plant. When something unexpected happened Nyle wasn't quite sure how to react but soon learns that bad situations can create good things. Ripley, however, decided he was going to take matters into his own hands; changing nothing for the better.
Personally, I believe this book was amazing (even though i doubted it at first). Although I do believe many people would have disagreed with the ending, it really teaches the reader a lesson of life. I am very happy to say that, out of all the scenes in this book, out of all the quotes possible, my favorite quote is most definitely, " I'm the Phoenix, rising out of my own ashes."
In my personal opinion, this book was very well writen and composed. Although I have not read any other books like this, i would be very excited to read another book by Karen Hesse.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Phoenix Rising began with an interesting premise, but ended up getting mired in a swamp of YA tropes that I was really hoping to avoid. It takes place on a farm that is on the outskirts of Boston where a nuclear power plant has gone into meltdown. The fallout exists as a nameless fear that the characters are constantly dealing with, and with the mention of Anne Frank, it becomes an interesting metaphor for life in Nazi Germany--especially when the main character and her grandmother agree to take in two survivors who were so close to the meltdown that they are likely radioactive themselves.

I liked Hesse's understated writing--it reminded me of books like The Giver and A Day No Pigs Would Die. Overall, as a metaphor for the invisible fear that permeates a country under totalitarian rule, the book is quite interesting. As a story, the book is pretty generic.

[Jules · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a guilty pleasure of mine for years. The secret part of you who longs for a disaster to happen so you can go help people to make yourself a useful, charitable person will like this book.

It's the story of a girl who lives near a nuclear power plant. There's an accident, and her family must take in a survivor who's essentially dying of leukemia. As fate would have it, this survivor happens to be a young boy who is just what this girl is not looking for, someone to help her realize what actually matters in life and what real friends are.

And of course, it's sappy and teary and filled with bullies, bleeding from the face, and death. Definitely a guilty pleasure of my youth.

[Josiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I might actually give Phoenix Rising four and a half stars. This is a hard review for me to write, as I fear I won't do justice to the masterful story.

Karen Hesse builds multiple storylines in this book, all of which are compelling and heartrending. The emotions ring powerfully true all the way to the breathtaking climax and ending. No praise I give Phoenix Rising or Karen Hesse would be too high.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was pulled into this book! It is a fast read! I read it in one evening. I just love the charaters of the story they got me hooked. I love books that just pull at me emotionaly like this one did.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this gem of a book. Although the book is centered on a nuclear accident, there are similarities to the pandemic world of today. This is a perfect book to give to kids right now.

[ambyr]

Okay, I have no diary notes about this one, but I can nonetheless remember child!ambyr feeling extremely betrayed when it turned out the phoenix was metaphorical.

[Joshua Lawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phoenix Rising is a tragic little tale about the healing power of love. My daughter recommended it to me. The story follows Nyle, a young girl who chooses to open her heart and risk being vulnerable with a new friend even though she fears losing him in the end. Ah yes, my dear. Such is the pain of life.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a love story, a coming of age story, like no other. It's real, gripping, tender, hopeful, and ultimately, absolutely shattering. It calls up deeper thoughts about our illusion of safety, about mortality, and the things that shape us. Though it was written in 1994, in the wake of Chernobyl, it seems so timely today, when radiation still leaks out of Fukushima, and when North Korea threatens the world with its nuclear capability.

Nyle Sumner is thirteen when the nearby Cookshire nuclear plant melts down. A few weeks later, some refugees from the evacuation zone come to stay in her and Gran's back bedroom, the very place where her mother and grandfather both passed away. She believes the room is cursed, and that Ezra Trent and his mother are doomed if they stay there. Fifteen year old Ezra is suffering from radiation sickness. When his mother becomes ill too, a reluctant Nyle is roped into nursing him, resulting in the slow building of a deep and sweet friendship. Life on a sheep farm is just what Ezra needs to recover his strength and his will to live. Particularly haunting are the images of an abandoned Boston, and stretches of farmlands and small towns emptied of all life except for wild dogs. Peppered with well-developed side characters like Nyle's Gran, her friend Muncie, and the odious Ripley Powers, this is a book you will remember long after turning the last page.

If there were more stars, I would give them. Karen Hesse has written a remarkable story.

[Jeni Enjaian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took me completely by surprise.
As I go through my TBR and read the oldest books on the list based on when I added them to the list, I expected to find myself disappointed with a lot of the middle grades and young adult books that I added to the list because my tastes have changed (only a little apparently) and I have been exposed to basically a whole new world of books in the genre.
It turns out that I had a higher standard than I thought.
Hesse made me think with this book, a sort of speculative fiction wherein the narrative is set after a catastrophic accident at a nearby nuclear power plant. How would people react? How would the radiation and the contamination affect people's lives even if the radiation blew in a different direction of their town? Also, it turns out that Hesse has a good judge of character, at least in terms of how people will react to mandated mask wearing.
This book definitely made me think and will find its place on my classroom library shelves.

[Jeannie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't give it 5 stars because I have issues with authors who use children's literature to push their political agendas. The story of love and loss and learning to let go captured my heart, but Hesse spoiled some of the magic with her sometimes not subtle political preaching. I got through those passages by looking through my science fiction lenses. I don't even know whether I completely disagree with her. I just didn't like so much of it in the story. Some was necessary to make the setting realistic, but I think she went too far a few times. Even so, this is a great book.

[Snoko · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about radiation and how it was affecting around people such as the main character Nyle. Nyle ended up taking care a guy named Ezra who was sick in bed for a long time. I liked how the story was going between the two of them, and also how the friendship was also affecting between Muncie and Nyle. I like how it tells that even with friendship there was ups and downs, but towards the end I wish Nyle and Ezra could've fell in love because I felt there was a strong chemistry together.

[Gwen Testa]

“0” stars-fear mongering story of nuclear power, not for kids
“Ezra’s father hadn’t understood and he knew more about the dark side of nuclear power than most of us”. Pg 143
“Heightened levels of radiation registered everywhere. Halfway around the world it had tainted rice crops, poisoned grazing fields, turned the air toxic where babies slept in the open.” Pg. 123

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am currently on one of my reading sprees. One every two days. This was by the same author as A Time of Angels. Another historical fiction novel that was a quick read. Gives you a picture of what living in a nuclear age can do to people. Good book.

[Maris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bad propaganda with little in the way of plot or characterization to recommend it. The book is anti-nuclear with no actual facts but long on panic and ignorance. It's aimed at young adults but I'd be ready to provide some factual information to counteract the paranoia the book tries to engender.

[Lizzette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is really sad, and it's about a girl named Nyle who her Mom, and grandfather died. Her dad disappered, and when she decides to care about someone else they also die.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had this book for nearly 15 years and I've read it dozens of times. And each and every time...I sob. Amazing book.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cautionary tale about the dangers of nuclear power. Trite and preachy at times but with a touching story line.

[Jessie Grund · Rating 5 out of 5]

So. So. Sad. More mature than young adult fiction - any age would enjoy this read. A brief, touching look into the joy of love and the pain of loss.

[Miranda]

Its really good however i'm sad about Ezra dying he had gone through radiation poisoning to survive and go to school to start a better life just to die in the end.

[Izzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We can do some without the outside world," I said. "But we still need it. What's the good of raising sheep if there's no one to raise them for?"

This is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read.

Do you have a book you read as a child that you've thought about for your whole life? Not a popular book that has a secondary function of being a cultural phenomenon. One that you can't even remember the name of, that you've never heard anyone else ever refer to or mention.

That's this book for me.

I read it in elementary school, probably in 2003 or 2004. I'm pretty sure it was just a book my teacher had in their classroom library. Throughout my life since then, I've remembered flickers of it. A short and easy book to read, Hesse doesn't waste words, giving us heavy scenes and images that stick in your brain as a child. Sweetened water, Ezra bleeding from his ears, radiation, the first time I ever read or heard of the word "leukemia."

Having just finished the HBO series on Chernobyl, I was dying for more information; scientific understanding, yes, but mostly examples of humanity in the face of disaster. While I've remembered small details of this book throughout my life--I'm now 29--I felt a stronger urge than I ever had to find this book and read it again. I was able to figure out which book it was by remembering Ezra's name (a new and unusual one for my non-Jewish 8 year old American brain) and with the help of the "whatsthatbook" subreddit. Once I found it, I checked it out from the library and read it cover to cover in two hours while on a flight to visit my parents in Philadelphia.

Reading this book as an adult brought up all the same emotions and more than the first time. I was shocked by the significance of small details, like the dedication to the children of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island--slightly ironic, for this book to be a formative part of my childhood in Pennyslvania, blissfully unaware 30 years after the latter incident, which I was quite literally flying towards in the moment. The skill of even sneaking in small odes to the Radium Girls, creating a heart wrenching piece of art that holds love for many of those who have fallen victim to horrible deaths at the hands of radiation. All while being told that radiation was something that could only be good.

The underlying themes of community and healthy friendships, where we see children helping each other even when they've made mistakes and their friendships aren't perfect, are lessons that are applicable to children and adults alike. Those community and family relationships and the imagery of a sheep farm almost create an idyllic, warm feeling, that directly acts as a foil to a situation that is one of the closest we have experienced in real life, globally, of an apocalypse. And some of the strongest feelings of all, that so many of us have felt at some point in our lives; that of guilt, when a true victim. Feeling as if we somehow deserve catastrophe caused by the mistakes or coverups of those who care more about themselves than the people they hurt, that they've never even met, on a grand scale. From the outside looking in, seeing children feeling guilt who are absolute victims of a tragedy caused by adults who knew it could or did happen but did too little too late, is completely heartbreaking and an obvious misrepresentation of power. A thought process that so many of us are familiar with.

The copy of this book that I read was a library copy, but after reading it, I have not ever felt so strongly that I wanted to own a book. I personally hold this genre so dear, and this was the first book I ever read that fell into it, and I never forgot it. The themes present aren't only for children, and I think are rather things we should all think about, and think about often, at all stages of life. I hope I get the chance to read it again, and again; just as many times as Nyle has read "Slake's Limbo."