Books to accompany you through spring

Photo by Anita Martinz, via WikiMedia Commons 

Laura Caldera/Contributing Writer 

After a non-existent winter in Miami we finally have spring around the corner. Most of us have finished midterms, projects and attended events. We’ve all been crazy busy this semester thus far, but now it’s our time to relax and enjoy the change that comes with spring. Sit under Flori- da’s merciless sun and pour yourself a glass of iced tea with a good book.

Here my top four suggestions for books I think embody the traditional and modern forms of change – how spring is to us. I promise not to write spoilers.

1) “Wings” by Aprilynne Pike

In this story Aprilynne Pike takes the meaning of fairy, scrambles it a little bit and serves you the most delicious fairy-salad ever. Laurel is an estranged girl when she moves into her new home in Crescent City where her parents enroll her into high school. In times of stress she befriends a boy named David, but Laurel is still attached to the old cabin where she used to live. She decides to go back and discover what is going on in the property and ends up finding a strange boy who tells her things that make her rethink her own existence.

2) “Mandy” by Julie Andrews

Written by the famous actress, this book does not disappoint. The story is about an orphan girl named Mandy who is an adventurous little person who loves to explore the house and even create a bit of mischief. One day Mandy gets the courage to cross over the wall into the wilderness on the other side. As she walks in the forest, she finds a little treasure of her own: an abandoned cottage. Mandy takes up the responsibility of caring for it during her free time and makes it her own little paradise from the orphanage she has always known.

3) “The Secret Garden” by Frances Burnette

I’m sure many of you have seen the movie starring young Kate Maberly, but as some of us have experienced, the movie is never the same as the book. Little Mary has been orphaned after her parents died of cholera in India. She is sent to America, to her late aunt’s home in Misselthwaite Manor, with her overly depressed uncle. Mary soon discovers her sickly cousin who has been left stranded by her uncle with no one to love him. One day while she explores her Uncle’s vast lands, Mary finds a hidden gate that leads to a secret garden.

4) “It’s Kind of a Funny” Story by Ned Vizzini

Continuing with theme of troubled teens, I present to you Ned Vizzini and a fresh perspective on everything teen. Craige, a teen stressed about his future, nearly kills himself and decides that it’s time to seek medical help. He checks himself into the mental hospital. While at the hospital, Craige narrates his story, recounting his time there, how he becomes adjusted to it, how he faces the base of all his anxieties and how he finds an unexpected road to happiness.

I hope these suggestions help you have a great time this spring. Happy reading.

life@fiusm.com