Review: Hopkins Award Poetry

Title: Diamond Willow

Author: Helen Frost

ISBN: 978-0-374-31776-8

Citation: Frost, Helen. Diamond Willow. New York: Francis Foster Books, 2008.

Awards: 2009 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, The Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry: 2009 Honor Book

Review: Set in an isolated Alaskan town where residents are transported by dogsleds and snowmachines, Diamond Willow is the story of a twelve-year-old girl trying to show her parents that she is growing up. Willow, a deep-thinking loner, tries to blend in with her classmates and peers, but desperately wants to make friends. Her deepest connections are with the family dogs used for mushing, especially Roxy. Helen Frost brilliantly tells the tale of Willow's attempts to break out of her childhood shell through this novel written in verse. Most of the story is told in diamond-shaped poems (a nod to the character's name, Diamond Willow), and each poem has a hidden message printed in darker ink. The poems are steadily rhythmic and full of figurative language and underlying meaning. Interspersed between the poems are prose sections devoted to the various animals Willow encounters on her journey, all of whom have had previous lives as humans and are connected to the characters in story in some way. A unique take on the reincarnation beliefs of the Athabascan people with a modern twist, Diamond Willow is a coming of age tale full of heartfelt emotion that will appeal to readers of all ages.

Potential Use: Middle school students will relate to the same-aged protagonist in Diamond Willow. This book would be of excellent use with middle-school aged students to introduce novels in verse in a relevant manner. Along with the coming of age tale at the heart of the story are glimpses into the unique beliefs of reincarnation, as told through the eyes of those who have been reincarnated as animals. See the following excerpt for an example of the poetry in Diamond Willow.

I

want

to mush

the dogs out

to Grandma and

Grandpa's. By myself.

I know the way. I've been

There about a hundred times

with Dad and Mom, and once

with Marty when he lived at home.

Their cabin is close to the main trail.

I know I'm not going to get lost, and I

won't see a baby moose or any bears this

time of year. Even if I did, I'd know enough

to get out of the way, fast. But Mom and

Dad don't seem to see it this way. What

do they think will happen? Dad at least

thinks about it: She's twelve years old;

it's twelve miles. Maybe we could

let her try. Mom doesn't

even pause for half a

second before

she says,

No

!