Module 14: Crossing Stones by Helen Frost

http://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Stones-Helen-Frost/dp/0374316538/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323031301&sr=8-1-spell

Summary:

Written from three distinctly different personalities and perspectives in a verse form, Crossing Stones tells the story of two Michigan families during the onset and breakout of WWI. The three youth experience the effects of war, the loss of a friend, beaux, and brother, and experience first hand the Spanish Influence outbreak, and the women’s Suffragist movement. The story is told from the perspective of three teenagers who must face war, first loves, death, illness and self discovery. 

Citation:

Frost, H. (2009). Crossing stones. Harrisonburg, VA: RR Donnelly & Sons Company

Impression:

Author Frost has created a book of poetry that doesn’t read like poetry. The verses flow in a way that makes the book seem like a work of masterfully written prose. The author makes the words and phrases take the shape of creek stones and river bends. Each character has his or her own unique poetry style and rhythm that reflects their personality and the overall tone of the story. Frost has truly created a work of art with this novel that will allow readers to both embrace history and poetry. 

Reviews:

In the course of less than a year in 1917, two neighboring farming families in Michigan face a sea of troubles. Two sons enlist as the United States enters the First World War; one is killed, and the other is wounded, losing an arm. A beloved aunt, on a women’s suffrage protest in Washington, is imprisoned and goes on a hunger strike. A seven-year- old daughter nearly dies from the flu. Historically plausible, this cluster of catastrophes could potentially be too much for a single narrative, but Frost contains and reveals her story in a set of tightly constructed poems. Eighteen-year-old Muriel, who is our primary source of information, speaks in an engaging and convincing free-verse stream-of- consciousness style. The other two young adult narrators speak in “cupped-hand sonnets,” a form with a highly stylized rhyme scheme. The discipline of these forms (elaborated upon in an author’s note) mitigates against sentimentality, and the distinct voices of the characters lend immediacy and crispness to a story of young people forced to grow up too fast. s.e.

Citation:

S., E. E. (2009). [Crossing stones] [book review] Horn Book Magazine. 85(6), 671. Retrieved from http://www.hbook.com/

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Two pairs of siblings, Muriel and Ollie Jorgensen and Emma and Frank Norman, have grown up together on adjacent Michigan farms. Hints of romance stir among the group just as World War I breaks out, but independent Muriel refuses Frank’s kiss before he leaves for the front. Ollie follows Frank to war, and in letters blackened with censors’ ink, he details the battlefield horrors and his sorrow at the news that Frank has been killed. At home, Muriel finds inspiration in her suffragist aunt’s protests in Washington, D.C., while the more traditional Emma observes, “Making sure everyone is fed / and clothed and cared for—that also takes a kind of pluck.” Frost, whose titles include the Printz Honor Book Keesha’s House (2003), once again offers a layered, moving verse novel. Each selection, alternately narrated by Muriel, Ollie, and Emma, is shaped to reflect the characters’ personalities and relationships: Muriel’s free-flowing entries indicate her restless curiosity; Emma and Ollie’s sonnets follow complementary rhyming patterns, adding a structural link between the characters as they fall in love. The historical details (further discussed in an author’s note) and feminist messages are purposeful, but Frost skillfully pulls her characters back from stereotype with their poignant, private, individual voices and nuanced questions, which will hit home with contemporary teens, about how to recover from loss and build a joyful, rewarding future in an unsettled world. —Gillian Engberg

Citation:

Engberg, G. (2009). [Crossing stones] [book review] Booklist. 106 (3), 42. Retrieved from http://www.booklistonline.com/

Uses:

• Use the book at a Veteran’s Day program hosted at the library. Ask a local history or English teacher to read from the book and discuss what the home front was like during WWI.
• Have a reading of the story. Ask a local poetry teacher to take readings from the story and read them aloud.