The Braid

Helen Frost

Frances Foster Books

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Two sisters, Jeannie and Sarah, tell their separate yet tightly interwoven stories in alternating narrative poems. Each sister – Jeannie, who leaves Scotland during the Highland Clearances with her father, mother, and the younger children, and Sarah, who hides so she can stay behind with her grandmother – carries a length of the other’s hair braided with her own. The braid binds them together when they are worlds apart and reminds them of who they used to be before they were evicted from the Western Isles, where their family had lived for many generations.
 
The award-winning poet Helen Frost eloquently twists strand over strand of language, braiding the words at the edges of the poems to bring new poetic forms to life while intertwining the destinies of two young girls and the people who cross their paths in this unforgettable novel. An author’s note describes the inventive poetic form in detail.
 
The Braid is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

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From The Braid
. . . The bay was still. Moonlight on the water made a path from our Scottish sea to –where? Where, I wonder, will we all be eating supper in two months’ time? One year? I linked arms with Sarah, the way we’ve done since we were small, sitting and watching on that rock. Then we dipped our hands into the sea and touched our tongues to the seawater, each of us swallowing a bit. Canada seemed far away, the salty sea so close, our journey not yet started. We walked back home.

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Reviews

Praise for The Braid

"This gem of a book ultimately tackles age-old issues of teen pregnancy, death, poverty, and first love in a timeless manner.  Accomplished and impressive."  —Starred, School Library Journal
 
"The braid is both powerful fact and stirring metaphor . . . the book will inspire students and teachers to go back and study how the taut poetic lines manage to contain the powerful feelings."  —Starred, Booklist
 
Frost's ingeniously structured novel in verse . . . may be set in 1850, but its themes will resonate with today's teens.  Memorable."  —Starred, Publishers Weekly
 
"Poetry, adventure, romance, historical fiction--this book has something for every reader."  —VOYA
 
"Incredibly imagery, rich vocabulary, and powerful storytelling."  —Kirkus Reviews
 
“Compellingly poignant as well as authentic.”  —Horn Book
 
"A compelling story that will see poetry-shy readers through."  —The Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books
 
"Makes for good discussion in the social studies classroom.  Poetic and lyrical."—Signal
 
"This inventive, emotionally compelling story full of adventure, drama and romace will enthrall readers." —Language Arts
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About the Author

Helen Frost

Helen Frost is the author of several books for young people, including Hidden, Diamond Willow, Crossing Stones, and Keesha’s House, selected an Honor Book for the Michael L. Printz Award. Helen Frost was born in 1949 in South Dakota, the fifth of ten children. She recalls the summer her family moved from South Dakota to Oregon, traveling in a big trailer and camping in places like the Badlands and Yellowstone. Her father told the family stories before they went to sleep, and Helen would dream about their travels, her family, and their old house. “That’s how I became a writer,” she says. “I didn’t know it at the time, but all those things were accumulating somewhere inside me.”  As a child, she loved to travel, think, swim, sing, learn, canoe, write, argue, sew, play the piano, play softball, play with dolls, daydream, read, go fishing, and climb trees. Now, when she sits down to write, her own experiences become the details of her stories. Helen has lived in South Dakota, Oregon, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, Scotland, Colorado, Alaska, California, and Indiana. She currently lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with her family.

Helen Frost

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The Braid
Helen Frost
Award

American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults, Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry Honor Book, NCTE Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts, Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year, CCBC Choice (Univ. of WI), Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor Book, NCSS-CBC Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, Kirkus Reviews Editor's Choice, School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award Master List, Texas TAYSHAS High School Reading List

Hardcover

Hardcover
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Frances Foster Books
October 2006
Hardcover
ISBN: 9780374309626
ISBN10: 0374309620
Young Adult Fiction
6 x 9 inches, 112 pages, Author's note
Age Range: 12 and up
Grade Range: 7 and up Information for Librarians

Information for Librarians

$16.00
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Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

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