The Difference a Snow Day Makes
Growing up in rural North Carolina, I remember fondly waking up early to snow and turning the television on and waiting to hear if it was a snow day. A day when we didn’t have to walk the quarter-mile to the bus stop and wait. It was a day free from structure and our yard a winter wonderland to play and build forts.
Today I woke up and when I opened the curtains discovered fluffy white misery had found its way to our neighborhood, resting on roof tops and frosting the tree branches. It gave me a pause to reflect on those Snow Days.
Billy Coffey has created a novel that depicts the Snow Day from an adult’s perspective.
From the book jacket:
Awakened by radio broadcasts urging the residents of a small Virginia town to take a snow day rather than travel to school and work, Peter Boyd finds himself with both an unexpected day off and an opportunity to find big truths in small moments and surprise encounters.
Peter believes he has a good life, with a decent job and a family he loves. But he’s quietly worried he’ll be cut when downsizing takes effect at the factory, his family will lose the home they love, and his faith will crumble along with his bank account.
Through the course of one day, Peter finds himself revisiting his past through old friends, finding out there is a Santa Claus—though he drives a truck instead of a sleigh—and rediscovering that whatever comes in life, hope is the only choice that makes sense.
In lyrical writing, debut novelist Billy Coffey offers a heartwarming and beautifully crafted book about the faithful way God speaks even when we won’t listen. Like Peter, you’ll reaffirm that faith is worth having and your worst fears are no match for an astounding, loving God.
Snow Day is the story of Peter. He’s an ordinary man, living an ordinary job, in an ordinary town. He is like many folks out there, fearful of losing his job due to downsizing. After a blustery storm, Peter takes a “snow day” and it turns out to be an insightful journey of lessons about life, love, faith and friendship.
This book appealed to my heart. The lessons are written simplistically so they are easy to grasp and there’s no challenge on the path of “right and wrong”.
Snow Day is Coffey’s first novel. It is so different from other books because it’s multiple short stories that hold true to the one story. He centers each “lesson” on a story like how winning a lottery ticket can be both wonderful and detrimental, how a limp and a scar aren’t something to hide behind because they are beautiful and what a parent can learn from a child.
The stories are brilliantly laid out as the worries of Peter’s impending layoff unfolds. They are the stories we all deal with and the lesson of how we can take the broken and make it work for us and give us the strength to live life. We know the characters in the book, they are us, our family, our community.
I have often told my children that it’s not about the tree-house, but the journey in how the tree-house came to be. The purpose is far more meaningful than the result. Snow Day is just that..an ordinary day that becomes extraordinary through heart-searching moments that are your own.
About the Author:
Billy Coffey was raised on stories. The first ones came on the front porches of relatives, tales laced with local charm and deep meaning. Then came the stories from people like Max Lucado and Robert Fulghum, who write with a charm and deep meaning of their own. He lives with his wife and two children in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. If you drive by his house, you’ll probably spot him on the front porch. If you do, give him a wave. He’ll wave back.
I was sent a copy of Snow Day in order to facilitate an honest review. No other compensation was received. The opinions are my own and were in no way influenced by the sponsor. Others experience may vary.
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