Monday, August 22, 2011

Glimpse

Glimpse  by Carol Lynch Williams

Yes, we are all tired of novels in poem form.  Yes, it is easier to read about abuse if it is in poem form.  And yes, you do need to read this one.

Glimpse begins with 12 year old Hope talking her sister out of the gun that she is about to use to kill herself.  Liz, who is 14, is taken to a mental hospital.  This begins a series of back flashes through Hope's eyes of a severely dysfunctional family where mom has become a prostitute because it pays so much better than working anywhere else; where Hope has all the dreams and simple reality of a 12 year old.  And where the sisters are told to take care of each other, even if it means that 14 year old Liz will perform as a prostitute and cry all night but keep that from her sister to protect her,  After the psychiatrist and her mother both want the diary Liz kept, Hope finally realizes where it is and reads it, finding out why Liz cried every night, and why she won't talk about what happened to her. 

The verse format does not spare the harsh reality from the reader, although the reader will have figured it out long before Hope does.  Recommended for 8th grade and up.  Sexual parts mentioned; sexual acts alluded to.

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