All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr

“Do you know what happens, Etienne,” says Madame Manec from the other side of the kitchen, “when you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water?” “You will tell us, I am sure.” “It jumps out. But do you know what happens when you put the frog in a pot of cool water and then slowly bring it to a boil? You know what happens then?” Marie-Laure waits. The potatoes steam. Madame Manec says, “The frog cooks.”

He made her the glowing hot center of his life; he made her feel as if every step she took was important.

So how, children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light?