Helen Frost (1)Recensioni

I have been obsessed with this book since elementary school and it has been a random thought in my head for so long I finally had to purchase my own copy I was rereading it so much! Such a simple yet amazing story line.

Cute photographs accompany brief rhyming text about the life of young sandhill cranes.

Great pictures but the sentences are choppy.

This book shows kids what wild birds look like. They explain what type of bird and where you would most likely find them.

CW: racism, starvation

Well that was an interesting verse novel about a friendship at odds with the shifting views prior to the 1812 war.

Twelve year olds Anikwa and James struggle to understand the growing tension between their people as preparations for a seige at Fort Wayne are underway. James' trading community are starting to turn against Anikwa's Native American Miami tribe with devastating consequences. I didn't know anything about this period in US history and spent quite some time after on the intermaweb with Mrs Google learning about the seige at Fort Wayne and the 1812 war. An interesting middle school novel that would be a good introduction to this period of conflict.

I have loved all of Helen Frost's books. This one was a little more special to me. I grew up in Indiana. I lived on a farm until we moved to Florida when I was fourteen. One of my favorite past-times along with my sisters was looking for arrowheads on our property. Helen's book about a friendship between a Native American Family and a white family was hopeful and hard at the same time. What do you do when you hear rumblings of war? For James and his family who have a trading post outside the fort, they continue on the way they have always gone. They trade with the Indians, who are their friend. James best friend is Anikwa, a young boy of the Kekionga, a part of the Miami tribe. He too has heard rumblings of war. Many of his people have decided they will side with the British if it comes to war.
I felt so terrible for James and his family. James had to witness his friend Isaac's hatred for the Native Americans. He really has no basis to his hatred, which makes it all the more tragic. As I read and saw what each side did I wondered if Anikwa and James could remain friends. You will need to read the book to find out what happened.

I like how this book presents a nuanced story about the institutionalization of a young deaf boy -- his family weren't allowed to keep him at home, testing for 'teachability' was extremely poor, treatment at the school was horrific, some people got out. The verse is well done -- accessible and flowing. It's also very cool to learn about the effect that conscientious objectors in WWII had on bringing the many shortcomings of institutions to light, and changing them for the better.

I really appreciate that Frost treats Henry and his friends as real human beings, as intelligent and able individuals who are stuck in a nightmare of misery. I hate that I should have to commend her for that, as it seems like a baseline, but she does an excellent job. I like that this particular book has a happy ending for some of the children, even though it is based on a more tragic reality. I love that she shares the story and poetry she based this story on -- poems by a young woman whos brother was removed and was never restored. I also like how poverty is highlighted in how it affects what happens to Henry. There's a lot going on, it's a good story about a specific time and place, and it adds to the fiction available about deaf history. That said, it's not written by a person with personal experience with deafness or cerebral palsy or down syndrome and I am not qualified to judge how well she presents characters with those conditions.

Another Caudill Nominee. The book is written in poetic form going back and forth between the two characters. Might be a little hard for a younger student to get the hang of the form but in all a great story. Would be perfect for a middle school reading group. Discussion ideas abound in this one.

Step Gently Out, reminds the reader to tread lightly and look out for our littlest creatures. Rick Lieder provides amazing photographs of the insects to illustrate each line of Frost’s poem. The exquisite pictures provide a wonderfully detailed view of each insect. The story ends with more information about the characters of the poem.

Like Helen's book "Hidden", this book has hidden gems inside each of the diamond shaped poems. It gives us a more indepth look at the story. This is a story of a young girl named Willow who feels like she doesn't fit in anywhere except with their dogs. She loves them. When she is finally given the opportunity to take them out on her own, something terrible happens. Willow finds out she is never alone. Part of the story is told through the voice of ancenstors. There is so much to love about this book that as I have said with the last few books, this is a must read and a must have four school book shelves.
There are always interesting things within Helen's books. I had never heard of the diamond willow. I had to look it up and realized I knew an old man years ago when I was a child who had a diamond willow cane. I thought that he had burned the diamond shape into it. It is always wonderful to learn something new as an adult.

This tale, recounted in verse, is set during the War of 1812 in Ohio and Indiana and follows two young boys as their friendship is put to the test across conflict and cultural ties.

The author uses mostly diamond shaped poems on every page to tell the story of 13 year old Athabascan/Anglo Willow, living in the Arctic with her parents and their team of sled dogs. When Willow feels responsible for the injury of favored lead dog, Roxy, she sets out on the tumultuous task of saving her beloved dog from euthanasia. Along the way, the spirit animals of her ancestors lead her to safety and reveal a most unusual secret about the deep connection between Roxy(Diamond) and Willow. A touching tale perfect for young Alaskana readers.

Children's historical fiction/friendship. The two voices are each produced in their own style of poetry (namely, the spacing of the words creates either a diamondy native american pattern or horizontal stripes a la the American flag), which doesn't hurt the narrative too much--it's not done BADLY, but it is so sparse that the sense of place and time is a bit lacking. Maybe I should have read this one while camping (or, after reading up on the time period, etc.). Again, it's not BAD, but I wasn't significantly impressed by the time I'd gotten 50-100 pages in. This is one of our potential mocknewbery titles, but I didn't think it was all that stellar so I'm moving on to the next.

teen fiction (in verse); unintentional kidnapping trauma new girl at summer camp hoping that no one finds out her dad is in prison for said kidnapping. Told in the voices of the kidnapped girl (Wren) and the girl whose dad kidnapped her (Darra). Each voice has its own form of poetic verse; it's not terrible poetry but Darra's voice just looks like randomly broken
up sentences
which turns out to be for no reason
other than that the author wanted to hide
sentences
in the words at the end of the longest lines--
and,
when this tactic is revealed
in the author's note at the end, the reader goes back through
the whole book only to learn
nothing
much new--at all.
Which is maybe just as well since they were likely to miss it in the first place, but still--a little reward for the trouble would've been nice. So, that was kinda pointless, though easier to read than some other books in verse I can think of. The other (big) beef I had with this book was that it felt incredibly manipulated and forced. If you can suspend your disbelief long enough to buy into the whole circumstances of these two girls (one's mom left her 8-year-old and her keys in her car unattended while she ran into the minimart to buy something at the same moment when the minimart was being robbed; several years later the girls happen to meet at the same summer camp? and oh, the kidnapped girl's mom's cousin also spent time in prison, as did (other kid at camp) Jeremy's dad?), there's still the whole race thing. Looking at the cover the reader immediately knows it will come into play somewhere; the author is careful not to describe either girl's appearance until the middle of the book--Darra (child of a convicted robber/kidnapper) turns out to be the white girl and the black girl is Wren (whose parents, it's possible, could've been African American hippies to name their child so). Obviously stereotypes exist and it's good that readers are made to challenge how they think--but does it have to feel so deliberate? This might have been an amazing story otherwise.

This book is geared towards younger elementary students.

This book follows a new born baby bird. The book uses poetry to talk about all of the new things that this baby bird was experiencing since breaking out of his shell. This would be a great book to use when learning about birds or baby animals.½

In the 1930s, a boy gets sick and loses his hearing. The State School for the Deaf won't take him based on some absurd test and label him as "unteachable." Henry is sent to a home for the feebleminded because two busybodies from some agency convince his family it's best.

The beautiful cover of this book is both right and deceiving. The story is told beautifully by Helen Frost as a novel in verse, but the horrors that await young Henry are ugly. Still, his older sister never gives up hope of bringing him home.

This is one of those books that's hard to put down. I loved Henry's sweetness throughout. And not only is the book based on similar institutions during WWII, Frost was inspired by a real-life "Henry" and the seven poems his older sister wrote about him.

All He Knew is my new favorite Helen Frost book and a special addition to our school's grade 4/5 library.

Inspired by the true story of the author's late brother-in-law. Henry is 4 years old and deaf because of a fever. His impoverished family is convinced by authorities to send Henry to live at Riverview, an institution for the "feebleminded" after he fails a so-called test to qualify for the deaf school. Riverview is not a place for thriving. Staff can be cruel, bad smells are everywhere, and misbehaving residents are strapped into chairs for lengthy periods. Henry makes two friends there, Ted and Billy. Henry's family knows he is smart, but no staffer at Riverview recognizes this until Victor, a conscientious objector, comes to work there during WW2. Like Henry's personality, the poems are observant and deliberate. When the poems are in others' voices, like sister Molly's, the tone takes on a sense of urgency, that Riverview is surely not a place for Henry. A compelling and empathetic story that sheds a light on the terrible historical treatment of those with disabilities.

A heart wrenching story told in free verse and based on real life events of a boy mistakenly deemed unteachable and therefore shuttered away in an institution with other boys facing challenges of their own. This is so touching and the character of Henry so compelling that I know this book will remain with me for a long long long time. Highly recommended but NOT for students who are already overly sensitive to the plight of others because this is a sad one to be sure.

Told in alternating poetry and prose, this is a story of kindness and perception, all around the story of a little lost dog.

Neighbors and friends Sam and Katie are intrigued when they see a stray dog, skinny, dirty, and scared in their neighborhood. While reluctant to get too close, they follow it and are indignant when they see the Wilson sisters yell and chase it when it digs in their garden and then the mean twins, Michael and Miranda, throw rocks at it.

Sam and Katie wish they could help the dog, but when it does show up at Sam's house, they end up... painting it with blue paint, from the table, creating a blue daisy on its back. The dog runs away and the kids are immediately guilty. Why did they do something so unkind? They don't really know why.

As Sam and Katie try to apologize to the dog, now called Blue Daisy, they learn more about their neighbors and themselves. With their parents' guidance and example, and a new perspective on what it means to be "good" and "bad" will Blue Daisy find the perfect home in their neighborhood?

There's a rather frustrating hint that the problems between Michael and Miranda and Sam and Katie may be due to faults on both sides during the previous school year, but this is never followed up on. Black and white pencil drawings and full page pictures show a predominantly white, typical suburban neighborhood. The book ends with a brief discussion of prose vs. poetry and the forms used and a recipe for dog biscuits and snickerdoodles.

Verdict: If you have readers who enjoy quiet, simple stories and are willing to read poetry and need more short books for younger middle grade readers, this is a good choice. It would be a good choice for classrooms to read to talk about perceptions of who is "good" or "nice" person and how to make amends when you make a mistake or do something unkind.

ISBN: 9780823444144; Published March 2020 by Margaret G. Ferguson; Borrowed from another library in my consortium

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