Genre 3: Poetry

The Braid

by Helen Frost

Bibliography

Frost, Helen. 2006. The Braid. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN-13: 9780374309626 ISBN-10: 0374309620

Plot Summary

During the Highland Clearances in 1850, sisters Jeannie and Sarah share their interwoven tale. While Jeannie crosses the Atlantic for Canada and Sarah remains in Scotland, the two sisters remain tightly connected by each carrying a braided length of her sister's hair.

Critical Analysis

Based on her “admiration of Celtic knots,” Frost invents complex poetic forms to create a novel-in-verse masterpiece. In Celtic knot fashion, The Braid is composed of interwoven, as well as alternating, narrative and praise poems.

Frost allows each sister’s voice to be heard in their respective narrative poems. Jeannie’s determination rings out when all seems lost. “Yet I have my life…No one will take that away. Somehow, somewhere, I will make of it what I can.” Likewise, readers understand Sarah’s strength when she becomes a mother. “I’ll keep you safe…If my heart breaks once again, I will try to protect yours.”

Between each narrative poem Frost gives the reader an eight-line praise poem praising something—seals, feathers, food, letters, etc.—found within the previous narrative poem. Through these poems, Frost honors even the humblest of objects and ideas giving the reader an insight to the lives of the characters and how they lived their lives.

Much like a Celtic maze, The Braid draws the reader in, takes them round several turns, and then leads them out. Readers will find this novel set in the 1850’s relevant to today. Teen and adult issues abound in its pages. Romance, adventure, death, poverty, Frost gives it all.

Review Excerpt(s)

• YALSA Best Books for Young Adults 2007
• TAYSHAS Reading List
• LEE BENNETT HOPKINS POETRY AWARD HONOR 2007
• VOYA: "Poetry, adventure, romance, historical fiction--this book has something for every reader." 
• BOOKLIST starred review: “…the book will inspire both students and teachers to go back and study how the taut poetic lines manage to contain the powerful feelings.”
• SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL starred review: “While the inventive form is accomplished and impressive, it's the easy flow of the verse and its emotional impact that will carry even reluctant readers into the windswept landscape and the hardships and dreams of these two girls.”

Connections

• Write and share personal family stories
• Research the Highland Clearances and other similar historical events
• Write personal and/or family related narrative and praise poems
• Other novels-in-verse by Frost:  Keesha’s House ISBN-13: 978-0374400125; Diamond Willow ISBN-13: 978-0312603830; Crossing Stones ISBN-13: 978-0374316532 

Bookspeak!: Poems About Books

by Laura Purdie Salas

Illustrated by Josée Bisaillon

Bibliography

Salas, Laura Purdie. 2011. Bookspeak!: Poems About Books. Ill. by Josée Bisaillon. New York, NY: Clarion Books. ISBN 9780547223001

Plot Summary

Salas’ beautiful book honors all aspects of books. Silly and sweet poems reveal the thoughts of characters, book shelves, book covers, cliff hangers, and bookstores, just to name a few.

Critical Analysis

Salas’ clever poems provide readers with lines that make what all book lovers feel; books are really alive! Book shelves speak aloud. “Down here dust bunnies snuggle with me under the bed.” And indexes try to be bossy. “I always say, if you really want to know what’s in a book, go to the back.” Salas keeps each poem fresh by not following a set pattern, but allowing each poem its unique voice and rhythm.

Complementing the poems are Bisaillon’s beautifully colored mixed media illustrations. Just as each poem declares its individuality, Bisaillon’s illustrations morph and change dependent on the voice heard in the lines of the poem. Brightly colored butterflies stream out of a diary in “Top Secret,” a life-sized image of a sleeping girl’s head lies next to “The Sky is Falling,” and inky black and splotchy birds line up along suggested power lines in “Skywriting.”

Together, poem and illustration remind readers of all ages of the glories of reading while offering new perspectives and dreamy visuals.

Review Excerpt(s)

• PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: “Bisaillon's mixed media illustrations are dizzyingly inventive, their bright colors, sampling of typography, and whimsical details underscoring the idea of the potential that awaits between the covers.”
• BOOKLIST: “…a natural choice for sharing in classrooms and young writers’ workshops.”

Connections

• Write original poems about a favorite book and use book illustrations as inspiration to create a companion collage/mixed media illustration
• Other books by Salas: A Leaf Can Be ISBN-13: 978-0761362036; Lettuce Introduce You: Poems About Food ISBN-13: 978-1429617031