Crossing Stones

This book should win an award. It is outstanding. Beautiful poetic swathes of text reverberate with emotion as four young people from two close- knit families describe how they feel about World War I, both on the home front and on the front lines. The lyrical and moving text is presented as concrete verse and the few words are powerful. Poignant voices ask the hard questions including: "Who does God belong to, whose mighty fortress is he, if people sing that hymn in two languages, and in those same languages defend this war?" at the funeral of one of the young people. Muriel is eighteen, and in her last year of high school. Her close friend Frank enlists and is sent overseas: she is not sure how she feels about him or what she wants to do when she graduates. Her brother Ollie is underage, but he runs away from home to enlist. Her best friend Emma is Frank's younger sister, and she knows what she wants to do: she wants to marry Ollie. This is wonderful historical fiction that also feels very contemporary. Review from personal copy.

"I am on a lonely road and I am traveling, looking for the key to set me free" -- Joni Mitchell From what I've gotten to know of Muriel Jorgensen, I somehow get the feeling that she would really be into Joni Mitchell. Muriel's a contemplative young woman who clearly has taken her studies seriously. She has been connecting dots, experiencing some a-ha moments, and paying attention to her radical Aunt Vera, who is a working woman over in Chicago. Muriel is perceiving some serious inconsistencies between the good line that the President who has taken us into war talks, in regard to the undemocratic behavior of those countries that we consider enemies, and what is actually going on here at home, in so-called democratic America. Is it really unpatriotic to speak out in dissent during wartime, to accuse the President of being no better than our enemies? Is it a slap in the face to Americans in uniform? CROSSING STONES is the story of four teenagers and two interconnected families -- the Jorgensens and the Normans -- living on adjoining farms that are separated by a creek and joined by crossing stones. But the borders of Muriel's idyllic Midwest farm life are breached when the news that young men are getting sent to war hits home for both families. Before you know it, Muriel's underage brother, Ollie, and next door neighbor Frank Norman have both gone overseas. Meanwhile, there are protests and arrests in the nation's capital and, to top it all off, there are signs of an impending flu pandemic. But there is no Joni Mitchell for Muriel, because CROSSING STONES is set ninety years ago during the Great War when "W" stood for Wilson, and the protests outside the White House gates, in which Muriel's Aunt Vera is participating and for which she is getting arrested, focus on women demanding the right of self-determination -- the right to vote. (Thank goodness things are so much better now in 2009, as we wait to see whether there will actually be a second woman seated on the U.S. Supreme Court before the only one there now is forced to retire for health reasons.) CROSSING STONES is a great piece of historical fiction and a great coming of age story with some big surprises, some hints of budding romance, some tragedy, a hunger strike, and The Flu. But this is Helen Frost writing, so that is all just the beginning of the story. One of my oldest, dearest friends in the world is a craftsperson who knits sweaters that are works of art and, now and again, works in various other artistic media. I have witnessed the time and focus and planning and more time that goes into the execution of her finished projects. It is a process of which I am in awe. It is that process that I think of when I look at how Helen Frost crafts one of her verse novels to be both a great story and a perfectly-worded poetic work of art. CROSSING STONES is a verse novel featuring three narrators: Muriel, her brother Ollie, and her best friend, Frank's sister Emma. As explained in her

Muriel had a strong opinion about many issues and did not hesitate to speak her mind, even though social norms at the time still discouraged women from publically expressing their views. She despaired at the thought of her dear friend Frank and thousands of other young American men going off to fight in the Great War. She also admired her Aunt Vera's brave fight in the women's suffrage movement for women to gain the right to vote. And although she was nearing the end of her teenage years, Muriel bristled at expectations that she soon get married and settle down to a life of raising children and doing household work. So much changed when Frank left for Europe, and when her own brother Ollie lied about his age in order to enlist and fight in the war. Women across the country, including Muriel's own mother, took on new jobs that had hitherto been considered the domain of men. Muriel was left doing an extraordinary amount of work at home "for the duration," all the while praying for Frank and Ollie's safety and continuing to question the necessity and wisdom of the war. It would take more life-altering events, including a surprise visit to the suffragists' picket lines in Washington DC and the spread of influenza to her own family, for Muriel to make some important decisions about her own place in this tumultuous world. Told in carefully-structured verse, this novel tells a mesmerizing story about a strong-minded young woman struggling to speak out at a time when women could not vote for the politicians who made decisions about war and about the loved ones who fought in that war. Through her poems, Helen Frost provides a unique way of seeing the main characters' thoughts as well as the economic and political forces shaping their lives.