Bookverdict.com

Gr 7-Up Josie, a girl with cerebral palsy, lives on the shrinking farmland owned by her family for generations and now being sold to developers. Her mother works and attends college and her grandmother tends her diminished patch of land. The story is told in the seventh-grader's voice in a series of free-verse poems. She is a bright and wry narrator, acutely aware of her limitations and her strengths. When Jordan, wealthy but neglected by his widowed father, moves into a mansion behind her farmhouse, they disc...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Garden imagery wends its way through this eloquent free verse novel about a seventh-grade girl with cerebral palsy. Josie compares the sound of her voice to how ugly poppies look—"hairy, grayish, saw-toothed foliage"—before they bloom. The regal blossoms that finally emerge are a "prize for patience," and, similarly, she vows that "if I take all that trouble / to say something, / I promise / to try...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Garden imagery wends its way through this eloquent free-verse novel about a seventh-grade girl with cerebral palsy. No one at Josie's ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More