The Braid
Starred Review.Grade 8 Up–Teenage sisters Jeannie and Sarah are separated when the Highland Clearances of the 1850s tear their family away from the only home they've known. Jeannie sails to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, with their parents and younger siblings to start a new life, while Sarah decides to remain in Scotland with their grandmother. In an age when distance and illiteracy prohibit communication, the girls remain connected solely by pieces of a braid intertwined with one another's hair. Though seemingly a distant reality from that of today's teens, this gem of a book ultimately tackles age-old issues of teen pregnancy, death, poverty, and first love in a timeless manner. Frost tells the compelling story using a formal structure consisting of narrative poems in alternating voices, praise poems, and line lengths based on syllabic count. While the inventive form is accomplished and impressive, it's the easy flow of the verse and its emotional impact that will carry even reluctant readers into the windswept landscape and the hardships and dreams of these two girls.–Jill Heritage Maza, Greenwich High School, CTCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.