Hey, it's Lavar.

We're getting more new episodes ready for you in January, but in the meantime, while

we get ready for the new year, we're releasing new 3D immersive remixes of some of my favorite

episodes about new beginnings.

I sincerely hope you enjoy.

I'm Lavar Burton and this is Lavar Burton Reads.

In every episode, I handpicked a different piece of short fiction and I read it to you.

The only thing that these stories have in common is that I love them and I hope you will

too.

Today's story is from a beautiful writer, Amal Elmaktar.

Amal is a writer of Lebanese origin and she writes both fiction and poetry.

This particular story won the Locust Award in science fiction and fantasy.

She's also written a book called The Honey Month with different writings inspired by tastings

of 28 different kinds of honey.

Today's story is set in Glasgow, Scotland and follows a young girl named Anisa who has

moved from Lebanon to the UK with her mother.

Her father remains behind in Lebanon for the time being.

Now the story has a couple of different allusions to these very ancient stories in middle

Welsh and if you are a native Welsh speaker, please be gentle and forgiving.

One of the stories featured prominently in today's reading is the story of Bladoweth,

the Welsh goddess of spring.

Bladoweth is a woman who was made of flowers and had a flower face and as the story goes,

...