| Description |
136 pages ; 22 cm |
| Note |
"A Karen and Michael Braziller Book." |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 133-134). |
| Contents |
How I arrived -- Family portrait -- Two mothers -- Empty list poem -- What I remember: summer -- Self-portrait -- What I want -- Sense of smell -- Reading my poem "what E want" to Mom -- Broken place -- Irish chowder -- What happened to Cathy (and me) on the playground in third grade -- My new "best friend" -- Word pictures of Kate & Bob -- Slumber party -- What I remember: fall -- Wave -- Phone call stories -- Cathy's story -- Jan tells her story -- Broken place -- Parents night at new hook high school: the uncensored report -- E-love -- Dumb -- What sisters are for -- Friends -- Another one of us -- Adopt a useless blob (signs I've spotted) -- Crossing our hearts in the dark -- History lesson -- Different -- E-love gone bad -- Food fight -- Box -- Love sick -- What I remember: winter -- Searching sestina -- Taboo subject -- Five: home game -- Wishing -- What I remember: Christmas -- Bad news, good news -- Mistakes -- More advice about searching -- Crazy love pantoum -- Secret's out at dinner -- What to wear to the dance? I worry and Kate gives advice -- Dance -- Health lesson -- Matter of loyalty -- Cathy's best advice -- What I remember: spring -- After peter meets my family -- Sharing secrets at James Bard State Park -- Bird -- Meeting the family of Peter Robert Woodward -- Why not -- When I was little -- I'm American -- Debating the secrets -- Girl talk -- Kind of saviors -- Broken place -- Cure for the blues -- Late spring cleaning -- Life lessons -- Key -- Good student -- Summer job blues -- Widening the circle -- Two of me -- Notes for a letter i might write someday -- In my room, I read dad a poem -- Afterword -- Guide to this book's poetics -- Some poems Lizzie loves -- Cows at night by Hayden Carruth -- Homage to my hips by Lucille Clifton -- Victims of the latest dance craze by Cornelius Eady -- Names of horses by Donald Hall -- Cinderella by Anne Sexton -- Song of myself (excerpts) by Walt Whitman -- Recommended books about poetry -- Recommended books about adoption -- Acknowledgments. |
| Summary |
A vivid, heartfelt tale of a teenager's poetic quest to discover her place within her adoptive family and within the wider world. Being adopted is a fact of life in the McLane household: fourteen-year-old Lizzie, as well as her older brother and sister were adopted as infants. But dry facts rarely encompass feelings, and what it feels like to be adopted is something Lizzie never dares openly discuss with her loving parents--let alone with outsiders. More and more Lizzie yearns to confide in others, especially her boyfriend, Peter. But something stops her. Will Peter think she is "less" because her birthmother gave her away? Would telling be disloyal to her adoptive parents? Told entirely through the poems Lizzie writes for herself, this intimate, moving story gives voice to the thoughts Lizzie cannot utter aloud. Lizzie transforms relationships and events in her daily life--family dinners, the school dance, hanging out with friends--into blues poems, list poems, sonnets, sestinas, and free verse that delve into her secret wishes and her fears. Often Lizzie feels like two people: the person everyone knows, and the one known to precious few. But when a tragic accident occurs, Lizzie finds the courage to say who she truly is and to set off on a new path of self-discovery and truth. In an Afterword the author discusses her own experience as an adopted child and how writing can help make sense of one's life. Also included are a Guide to Poetic Forms and an Appendix of Poems (poems referred to in the novel, by Lucille Clifton, Hayden Carruth, Anne Sexton, Donald Hall, and others). |
| Study Program |
Accelerated Reader AR MG+ 5.6 4.0 109382. |
| Subject |
Adoption -- Juvenile poetry.
|
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Teenage girls -- Juvenile poetry.
|
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Adopted children -- Juvenile poetry.
|
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Children's poetry, American.
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Poetry.
|
| ISBN |
0892553227 alkaline paper |
| Standard No. |
9780892553228 |
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