Surviving (The Legacy Series: Legacy, Prodigy, Champion by Marie Lu)

The first book in this series, Legacy, is not shown here because it was my daughter's book. She thought I stole borrowed it from her when I reviewed it last week. (See that review here.) However, I did not take the book home with me; thus, I only have these last two in the series which I checked out from the library. Notice the books are from the Teen section, and know also that the books have nothing to do with London -- that's just my morning coffee cup. The series takes place in the United States (and I realized this morning that I do not have a US coffee cup -- hint to family and friends).

Why did Lu (or her publishers) title this series the Legacy series? Really, the first book mainly involves the prodigy character(s). But, can you imagine a series titled the Prodigy series? It sounds a bit elitist, which the prodigy character, June, is. We can consider Day as the anti-prodigy character who is a prodigy that didn't make the cut but survives anyway (not a plot spoiler).

This series ranks ahead of the average teen series because of what Lu brings to the table of literature. Sure, it's typical teen fare: parents dead, lots of violence and fighting to survive, love interests (will she go with _______ or with ________ when you know all along that she's meant to be with ____).

However, though it irks me to have dead good adults in teen fiction, I do think the legacy that June and Day have involves parents and siblings who strive for good, in fact, gave their lives up fighting evil. Lu also employs symbolism and allusion, trademarks of good literature. Take the names of the main characters: June and Day -- season and time of the most light, at least in the northern hemisphere where this story takes place. Then, the kiss in Prodigy is so strong of an allusion, if you don't see it, you have some missing pieces in your literary background. I would rate Prodigy  as the strongest of the three books with a 4 star rating.

As for Champion, the last in the series, one can not just stop at Prodigy! I surmise my issue with Champion is that it moves beyond my originally agreeing with a Commonsense review stating that Legacy was for readers 12 and up. I will say, though, that when Lu brings in the theme of who we become, what shapes us, then she leads us into a story much more than the average teen fiction.

"How had he slowly twisted into the Elector who created such a dark nation? What path had he chosen to follow?" (Champion 263).

We know the legacy of three characters and the choices they make along the way which lead them into the people they become. We also see the choices of a few other characters and what led to their rise or fall. In this respect, I like the story. I'm still giving it 3 stars, but who doesn't finish a series?! Three stars won't stop someone from finishing to see what the end holds. And, to Lu's credit, she does go for a more complex ending. I do intend to read more of her novels.

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Writing stories. The deeper aspects of the Legacy series are what elevates this series: the choices that characters make, who they are and who they become. Too often, I saw students from first grade to high school think their normal everyday lives were not as exciting as the latest action movie they happened to watch. I made it my goal to encourage them to see that their daily lives had value in story form. A couple of weeks ago I gave my granddaughters a file of their dad's art work and written work. One of their favorite pieces was a story that he wrote about his dad, their grandpa. The story was loved by Grandpa as well. It's unusual for someone not to want to be a hero (or perhaps "heroic" would be a better word), but heroes don't happen overnight. Small daily actions grow heroes. Daily life, daily choices matter. June and Day, the characters in these books, have flaws, make mistakes. Sometimes our mistakes provide comic relief in our stories and sometimes they provide transparency and reality, but our mistakes need not hold us back from becoming people who in the midst of surviving also grow and thrive in goodness.

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I'm into these practices on listening since a friend sent me nine "DO NOTs of an Active Listener" from a 2014 blog of Janice Taylor's. I wish I could figure out how to turn them into DOs except, basically, the DO part of each one is "Just listen." 😌

4. DO NOT interrupt; do not cut the speaker [your child, your student, your friend, your ___?] off mid-sentence. Allow him/her to finish the thought. Just listen.
5. DO NOT plan your responses as the speaker is speaking. Just listen.
6. DO NOT give advice unless specifically asked for it. Just listen. 

Certainly this book series is an opportunity to think about social justice as well. How one goes about social justice is a good topic of discussion or of listening: to God, to others, before judging, jumping to conclusions and finding oneself more of a hindrance than a help.

God Loves Nobodies -- Joy on Day 20 of Advent

I'm nobody! Who are you? 

Are you nobody, too? 

Then there's a pair of us -- don't tell! 

They'd banish us, you know. 

I've always loved this Emily Dickinson poem. Maybe that wouldn't be the case if I was a Somebody. However, as I was reviewing the Christmas story, I realized who God called to the major roles in this story: Women in a time and place when women were nobodies (and even today, a teenage girl and old woman do not hold the highest status) and shepherds (do you know any shepherds making front page news?). 

Granted, Joseph and Zacharias (Elisabeth's husband) are definitely a part of the story, but really most of the speaking parts (pardon my pun) go to Mary and Elisabeth. And, let's talk about Mary and Joseph's relationship with his family. They travel approximately 85 miles to be taxed in his own city because Joseph was "of the house and lineage of David" and the "city of David is called Bethlehem." Now, all of his family could have moved away, but then that means they would all need to return to Bethlehem also to be taxed, wouldn't it? Were all of his family members dead? Why am I asking this? Because Mary winds up giving birth in a stable! If you have family members who would put you up in the equivalent of a stable when you come to town for Christmas Day, then just consider yourself in good company. 

Next point: A heavenly host of angels (this means an army of angels) come to announce the birth of our Saviour, Christ the Lord, first to…shepherds. Think about it. This year we have seen the birth of a future king of England, and I guarantee the announcement of the birth did not go first to shepherds. 

God loves nobodies. He delights in taking the most unlikely people and transforming their lives. When Jesus gives his sermon on the mountain (Matthew 5), he shocks the established religious leaders. He is speaking before a multitude of nobodies, and he essentially says to them: the kingdom of heaven is for you. You don't have to be a rabbi or a Pharisee or a Sadducee or wealthy. You're poor in spirit, but I've come to bring you life. You are grieving, and I have come to comfort you. You are without power, and I've come to strengthen you. 

You are a nobody, but I am not banishing you. I'm here to love you. I'm here to give you the kingdom of God. I'm here to give you a purpose and reason for your life. You are my beloved child. 

I was going to tie this in to Frank Laubach (who was essentially a nobody -- a lonely missionary on the field who met God in an amazingly intimate way, wrote about it, and now years later, his letters bless us as they call us into that incredible relationship with God), but I'm going to just finish with two pictures: one of one of my beloved children, when he was little, just having great joy in building a snowman, and years later, when I was at my dad's in New Hampshire, just a little snow fell, and I rushed out, a nobody dressed in hiking boots, pajamas and robe, covered with a coat, just to feel the joy of being in the snow and building a snowman. 

Joy to you! Joy to the World! Our Lord has come!