Told you it was coming soon.
When I was deciding on #24 A book you loved...read it again I was originally going to read the first Harry Potter book, but I have read that book about 8 times so I decided maybe I should go another direction. I ended up staying in "children's literature" but decided to move back another decade plus to find the book I wanted to reread.
One of the wonders of my childhood was the Scholastic Book Fair and the catalog of books that would arrive monthly at my grade school. Each year and most months my mom would give me some money so I could get/order a book. Most months it was Hardy Boys and Choose Your Own Adventures but this one time at the Book Fair I picked up a book that showcased a couple of children on sleds on the cover. The book, I learned from the back cover was a fictionalized true story of children whom had helped smuggle gold bullion out of Norway under the noses of the invading German army during World War II. I picked up the book for a couple dollars and took it home and read it over the course of a day.
A day used to be the usual amount of time that I would take to read most books. Obviously when I was younger most of the books were shorter than most of the books I read now. Obviously when I was younger the subject matter of most books was a lot less dense than the normal subject matter of the books I read now. Obviously when I was younger I got lost in the characters and plot lines a lot better than I do now, free of the interruptions that take place nowadays. Obviously I am getting older. The last book that I was able to read over the course of a 24 hour period was Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. That is until I once again picked up Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan.
In the course of the story a boy and his friends daily hide gold on their sleds as they pass Nazi sentries on the way to a snow covered bank next to a fjord. Snow Treasure is a story of adventure and courage in the face of overwhelming odds, it is a showcase that courage does not always mean fighting the enemy but is often about being smarter than the enemy.
I bought Snow Treasure as a child but as happened to almost all my childhood books it was lost to time, a yard sale during childhood, or Half Price Books in seminary, I don't really remember when it passed on from my ownership. But I always remembered it fondly and then I happened upon it several years ago at Epcot of all places. One of the nations in Epcot's World Showcase is Norway and in their gift shop that you came to following the Maelstrom ride I found Snow Treasure sitting among other books about Norwegian history. I pointed it out to Mary and said that at some point I wanted to by the book again, she told me I might as well get it now or else I might regret it, I listened to my wife and purchased my second copy of Snow Treasure.
[Incidentally Maelstrom is currently being replaced by a Frozen ride, which should have better effects and music but will certainly be missing the history and gods of Norse mythology]
It sat on a book shelf for the past several years, for a time in my office, then in Henry's room and finally back to my office until I picked it up yesterday and read it from cover to cover. The story still struck a cord these 27 years later and I would recommend it to all children and adults who want a quick fun true adventure of good triumphing over the evil that is prevalent in this world. Edmund Burke once said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing," Snow Treasure is proof that the opposite is true as well, the only thing necessary for the destruction of evil is for good men, women, children to do something.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
No comments:
Post a Comment