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Summary
Summary
The Curious Garden
Author Notes
Author Helen Frost was born in Brookings, South Dakota in 1949. She received a Bachelors degree in Elementary Education with an English concentration from Syracuse University and a Masters degree in English from Indiana University. She has taught writing from pre-school through university and has published poetry, children's books, anthologies, a play, and a book about teaching writing.
Skin of a Fish, Bones of a Bird, a collection of poetry, won the Women Poets Series Competition in 1993. Poems from that collection were awarded the Robert H. Winner Memorial Award and the Mary Carolyn Davies Memorial Award by the Poetry Society of America. She worked with the Fort Wayne YWCA and the Fort Wayne Youtheatre to help high school students write about how they had been affected by violence. This workshop led to a play and an anthology of student writing, both entitled Why Darkness Seems So Light. Keesha's House was awarded a Michael L. Printz Honor from the American Library Association in 2004.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-When a diamond willow's bark is removed, sanded, and polished, it reveals reddish brown diamonds, the dark center of which are the scars of missing branches. Frost has used this image to craft an intricate family story in diamond-shaped verse. In her small Alaskan town, 12-year-old Diamond Willow, named for the tree, prefers to be just "Willow" but muses that if her parents had called her "Diamond," "-would I have been one of those sparkly kinds of girls?" Instead she describes herself as an average, part-Athabascan girl with one good friend, who finds herself more comfortable around her family's sled dogs than with people. Her story takes a heartrending turn on a solo dogsled trip to visit her grandparents, and Willow is soon caught up in an intense adventure that leads to the discovery of a family secret. As she unravels the truth, Willow comes to understand the diamonds and scars that bind her family together. She also gains awareness of her own strength and place in her community. Willow relates her story in one-page poems, each of which contains a hidden message printed in darker type. At key intervals, the narrative is continued in the voices of her ancestors, who take the form of animal spiritsRed Fox, Spruce Hen, Mouse, Chickadee, Lynxand her sled dogs. Frost casts a subtle spell through innovative storytelling. Her poems offer pensive imagery and glimpses of character, and strong emotion. This complex and elegant novel will resonate with readers who savor powerful drama and multifaceted characters.-Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate) Willow has lived all her life in interior Alaska, and at twelve feels she is old enough to mush the family sled dogs twelve miles to her grandparents' house on her own. But an accident on the way home leaves her favorite dog, Roxy, blind, and when Willow comes across a note written by her mother ("Vet -- 3:45. Bring blanket to wrap body. Tell the children? Okay, if old enough to understand"), she enlists a friend's help to transport Roxy back to her grandparents for safe-keeping. Snowy weather causes them to spend the night outdoors; the experience reveals Willow's maturity as well as a family secret. The first-person, present-tense narrative is typeset in diamond shapes echoing the pattern of diamond willow wood. Bold-faced words at the heart of each diamond hold an additional nugget of meaning. As a dog and dogsled story, this has appeal and wears its knowledge gracefully. Considerably less graceful is Frost's inclusion of animal guides who are the spirits of Willow's deceased relatives and who function as fairy-godmother figures to assist her; the blend of realism and magic-cum-religion stretches credulity just a little too far. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Diamond Willow, a young Alaskan of Athabascan and European descent, doesn't have many friends; she's happiest when she's sledding her father's dogs and visiting her grandparents. When her first solo dogsled trip to her grandparents ends with a terrible crash that blinds her father's favorite dog, Roxy, she sets to making sure that Roxy will live out her days with care and not undergo euthanasia--a decision that leads to an amazing revelation about her family. Frost presents her story in a series of poems in Willow's voice, using a form inspired by the marks on a diamond willow stick; roughly diamond-shaped and no two exactly alike, each contains a "hidden message" printed in boldface that spans several lines and encapsulates the poem. It's a novel idea, and largely works quite well. Less effective are interstitial narratives in the voices of the characters' ancestors, who take part in the story as animals. This device, although integrated into the narrative as a whole, serves to distract the reader from the quiet power of Willow's story. Flawed, but not fatally so. (author's note) (Fiction. 10-14) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Set in a remote part of Alaska, this story in easy-to-read verse blends exciting survival adventure with a contemporary girl's discovery of family roots and secrets. Middle-schooler Willow's dad is Anglo, and her mother is Athabascan. The girl longs to spend more time with her traditional Indian grandparents even though she knows she will miss computers and other things that are a part of her life. When her beloved dog, Roxy, is blinded in an accident (partly Willow's fault), and her parents want to put the dog down, Willow tries to take Roxy to Grandma and Grandpa. The two are caught in a raging blizzard, and Willow is saved by the spirits of her ancestors, who live on in the wild animals around her. Frost, who spent years teaching in Alaska, blends the young teen's viewpoint with a strong sense of place and culture. The casual diamond shape of the poems reflects how precious jewels of wisdom can grow around painful scars. Willow's bond with Roxy is the heart of the tale. Give this to fans of dog stories and to readers who liked Gary Paulsen's Hatchet (1987).--Rochman, Hazel Copyright 2008 Booklist