The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton

THE LIGHT PIRATE by Lily Brooks-Dalton is one of my favorite books of the year. The story begins by centering on a family in Florida and is told in four parts: power, water, light, and time. Kirby, the Dad, is an electrical lineman with two sons, Flip (8) and Lucas (12), and a pregnant second wife named Frida. They are busy preparing for a hurricane and become separated; Frida goes into premature labor and Wanda, named for the hurricane storm, is born. As she grows up, Wanda becomes closer to a survivalist neighbor and college teacher named Phyllis who “had spent her entire career seeking knowledge in one form or another, but the pursuit itself taught her infinitely more about the absence of knowledge than its presence. What is magic but science that is not yet understood? What is science but magic with an explanation?” And THE LIGHT PIRATE is indeed magical – readers will be enthralled by the plausibility of environmental changes and also totally engrossed in the personal relationships and adjustments of the endearing characters. THE LIGHT PIRATE is a LibraryReads selection for December and received starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus (“… complex and engaging characters make climate disaster a vividly individual experience rather than an abstract subject of debate"). Brook-Dalton's excellent novel had me thinking about the many environmentally related books reviewed here, especially David Pogue's How to Prepare for Climate Change.