Teeny Little Grief Machines (Gravel Road) - Softcover

Linda Oatman High

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1622508831 ISBN 13: 9781622508839

Publisher: Saddleback Educational Publishing, 2014

Synopsis

Like watching a movie frame by frame, we watch Lexi is come unglued in this novel in verse. She's alienated from school and family. Her father is in the county jail. She cannot connect with her chain-smoking stepmom. Her brother, Blaine, is trapped in his own autistic world. And her infant sister's death has sent her into a spiral of grief and rebellion. Bright, witty, and irreverent, Lexi tries to navigate the rocky transition from adolescent to young woman.

Just like prose, a novel in verse tells a story. But verse is unique because readers access the text through short chapters, or poems. The varying lengths of the chapters are ideal for a struggling reader, giving them breaks to collect their thoughts, to imagine the characters in their mind s eye, and to set the scene like a frame in a movie. The structure of poetry makes the books appear less intimidating, with plenty of airy white space. Moreover, the depth and substance conveyed in verse is every bit as deep and real as in a Gravel Road prose novel.

About this title

From School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up—Issues of teen pregnancy, drug use, self-harm, alcoholism, autism, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrom all shape High's verse novel. Narrator Lexi, 16, lives with her previously incarcerated father, a vacuous and uneducated stepmother, and a brother who is severely autistic. Her mother was a stripper and saddled Lexi with what her a classmates call a "stripper" name. This could be—and sometimes is—a heavy-handed problem book. But the verse form serves the voice of Lexi well, and the poems feel authentic. The initial couplet ("My name is Lexi/(rhymes with sexy") is initially cringe-inducing, but readers begin to understand its aptness as more is revealed about Lexi and her family history. When the teen's life burdens become too much to bear, she goes to a psychiatric hospital, is healed, and eventually emerges strong enough to survive in her relatively unchanged circumstances. A quick read and a useful one, with some interesting examples of concrete verse, especially, "Life Eats Me Alive," which screams Lexi's anguish in varied fonts.—Nina Sachs, Walker Memorial Library, Westbrook, ME

About this edition

• Publisher: Saddleback Educational Publishing
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1622508831
• ISBN 13: 9781622508839
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 243