Friday Memes: Storm by Donna Jo Napoli

Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader and Friday 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice.

Storm by Donna Jo Napoli. 350 p. Paula Wiseman Books/ Simon & Schuster, February, 2014. 9781481403023.

Publisher synopsis: A sixteen-year-old stowaway discovers her destiny on Noah’s ark in this riveting reimagining from award-winning author Donna Jo Napoli, available in time for the March 2014 major motion picture Noah.

The rain starts suddenly, hard and fast. After days of downpour, her family lost, Sebah takes shelter in a tree, eating pine cones and the raw meat of animals that float by. With each passing day, her companion, a boy named Aban, grows weaker. When their tree is struck by lightning, Sebah is tempted just to die in the flames rather than succumb to a slow, watery death. Instead, she and Aban build a raft. What they find on the stormy seas is beyond imagining: a gigantic ark. But Sebah does not know what she’ll find on board, and Aban is too weak to leave their raft.

Themes of family, loss, and ultimately, survival and love make for a timeless story. Donna Jo Napoli has imagined a new protagonist to tell the story of Noah and his ark. As rain batters the earth, Noah, his family, and hordes of animals wait out the storm, ready to carry out their duty of repopulating the earth. Hidden below deck…is Sebah.

First line: Each row has exactly as many pods as my fingers-ten.

Page 56: Queen and The Male don't understand a word I say-I recognized that immediately. I suspect they are smart creatures, but limited. Queen seems interested in everything. But The Male wants only to mate, and to please the Queen.

I enjoy Donna Jo Napoli's storytelling. A while ago, I was on a fairy tale novel tear and discovered her. I really enjoyed Magic Circle, which relates the Hansel and Gretel story from the witch's POV; Breath, which retells the Pied Piper story; Bound, a Cinderella story; Zel, Rapunzel; Beast, Beauty and the Beast set in the Mideast; and Crazy Jack, an interesting riff on Jack and the Beanstalk. There are others to check out as well as two wonderful collections of retold myths - Greek and Egyptian - published by National Geographic. And don't forget the incredible historical fiction.