Crossing Stones By Helen Frost

1.  Bibliography
Frost, Helen.  2009.  CROSSING STONES  New York:  France Foster Books.  ISBN 978374316532


2.  Plot Summary
Muriel Jorgensen is an eighteen year old girl growing up in 1917.  Her family owns property on one side of Crabapple Creek and the Normans own the other side.  The four children Frank, Emma, Ollie, and Muriel have been friends and grown up together.  The crossing stones in the creek that link the two families bring together the lives of the children.  Muriel starts to realize that she cares about Frank has more than just her best friend, but he joins the army.  She is a young woman who believes in equality for all.  Woman should have the same rights has man.  But many people don't share her opinion and advise her to not share her point of view.  "You'd better straighten out your mind young lady."   Muriel has to struggle with growing up becoming the person she is destined to be and helping her family survive the problems of war.


3.  Critical Analysis
The author has written each verse of the poem from either Muriel, Ollie, and Emma's point of view.  The words of each page are shaped in a stone or running stream depending what character is voicing their opinion.  Muriel's poems are set up in fourteen-lines, the first line rhymes with the last line, the second line rhymes with the second to last line, keeping up this pattern, with the seventh and eighth lines rhyming with each other at the middle of the poem.  The lines of Emma's poems rhyme at the end of each word and Ollie's words rhyme at the start of every line.  The reader understands the emotions and turmoil of each character has the story progresses.  To create the sense of going from a stone to another stone, she wrote a middle rhyme for one sonnet linking the outside rhyme to each other.  Linking Emma and Ollie's poems connect the characters emotionally to each other.  The poems are brought to life with the format created by the author.  The reader can feel the emotions that the characters are going through in their lives.  This is a great book to share the decisions and heartache of becoming an adult.

4.  Review Excerpt
HORN BOOK starred review:  “The distinct voices of the characters lend immediacy and crispness to a story of young people forced to grow up too fast.”
BOOKLIST starred review:  “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.”
Honor Book For Lee Bennett Hopkins Award For Children's Poetry.

5.  Connections
Have young adults write poems in a shape that goes with their poem.  Has the author did in this novel.
Other poems about growing up:
Shandler, Sara.  OPHELIA SPEAKS:  ADOLESCENT GIRLS WRITE ABOUT THEIR SEARCH FOR SELF.  ISBN 0060952970
Sonss, Sonny.  WHAT MY MOTHER DOESN'T KNOW.  ISBN 0689855532.