CROSSING STONES
By Helen Frost
1. Biblography
Frost, Helen. Crossing Stones. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009. Print. ISBN: 9780374316532
2. Plot Summary:
This novel is about two families who live on opposite sides of a creek during the 1910s and most importantly during WWI. Muriel and her brother Ollie, Emma and her brother Frank are families that are close childhood friends. Things change when Frank and Ollie go off to fight in World War I. Frank does not come back from war and Ollie returns without one arm. Muriel has the chance to see women's suffrage movement when her Aunt Vera needs help in Washington, D.C. Muriel then realizes that maybe her home is not her home any longer and returns to Washington, D.C. to help her aunt and be "a happily unmarried woman."
This novel is about two families who live on opposite sides of a creek during the 1910s and most importantly during WWI. Muriel and her brother Ollie, Emma and her brother Frank are families that are close childhood friends. Things change when Frank and Ollie go off to fight in World War I. Frank does not come back from war and Ollie returns without one arm. Muriel has the chance to see women's suffrage movement when her Aunt Vera needs help in Washington, D.C. Muriel then realizes that maybe her home is not her home any longer and returns to Washington, D.C. to help her aunt and be "a happily unmarried woman."
3. Critical Analysis
CROSSING STONES is a historical novel written in verse. Frost writes the novel in verse which is beautifully done and a quick read. Each main character (Muriel, Emma, and Ollie) has a shape poem to tell their story. From the author's note of the form, we learn that Muriel's poems are like the creek flowing over the stones that separate the two families. Emma and Ollie's poem are like the prefect stones found in the creek. Their poems even contain words that rhyme with each other's poem to represent the feelings they have for each other. Through this book we are reminded that not only are the men who go off to war affected, the families they leave behind are affected as well. This is shown through Muriel and the parents mentioned in the book. This novel helps readers to understand more of the woman's suffrage movement through the character of Muriel. The readers are given a first hand view of the what might have happened in the picket line during the woman's suffrage movement.
CROSSING STONES is a historical novel written in verse. Frost writes the novel in verse which is beautifully done and a quick read. Each main character (Muriel, Emma, and Ollie) has a shape poem to tell their story. From the author's note of the form, we learn that Muriel's poems are like the creek flowing over the stones that separate the two families. Emma and Ollie's poem are like the prefect stones found in the creek. Their poems even contain words that rhyme with each other's poem to represent the feelings they have for each other. Through this book we are reminded that not only are the men who go off to war affected, the families they leave behind are affected as well. This is shown through Muriel and the parents mentioned in the book. This novel helps readers to understand more of the woman's suffrage movement through the character of Muriel. The readers are given a first hand view of the what might have happened in the picket line during the woman's suffrage movement.
4. Review Excerpt
~ 2010 Lee Bennett Hopkins Honor
~ BOOKLIST: "Frost offers a layered, moving verse novel."
~ SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "Frost's warmly sentimental novel covers a lot of political, social, and geographical grounds."
5. Connections
~ The novel could be used to introduce a unit on WWI.
~ This book could be used to introduce shape poems and then have students write their own poems using the shape format.
~ Women's rights could be discussed and researched in greater detail.
6. Other novels in verse by Helen Frost
HIDDEN
THE BRAID
DIAMOND WILLOW
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