This verse novel provides us with a brief snippet of one of the
darkest times in Phoebe Rose’s life. Phoebe and her parents
appear to have spent their entire lives on the move and semi-
homeless. The year Phoebe is eleven her father leaves and she
and her mother are left completely homeless. As they shuffle
from shelter to shelter, Phoebe grows increasingly silent and
hopeless. Finally, one day she looses their only suitcase (or
burden as her mother calls it). Her mother puts her on a bus
to her grandmother whom she’s never met. She isn’t sure if
the woman will prove to be a witch or an angel, but she gives
it time. Meanwhile, for the first time ever she seems to be able
to lead a normal and more certain life. Still she longs for her
mother. There are new friends and experiences and some
frank truth about the how and why of Phoebe’s mother leaving.
It’s a story of reconciliation, but not an easy kind. And you
never really know if it’s going to be okay in the end. It flows
well as a verse novel and the author uses many metaphors to
describe the simplest things: “So I look at this scrap of deep
green carpet, and pretty soon I see a tiny velvet forest.”
There’s warmth in her language: “The moon spills down a
silver path across the water….stars and moon in a pearly broth.”
This book reminds me of Monkey Island; especially given the
solutions aren’t simple for either character. This could be read
by middle school children both independently or in a group.
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