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16th out of 38 books
—
11 voters
42 Miles
JoEllen’s parents divorced when she was very young, so she was used to splitting her time between them, shuttling four blocks from one Cincinnati apartment to another. But when her dad moved to the old family farm last year, her life was suddenly divided. Now on weekdays she’s a city girl, called Ellen, who hangs out with her friends, plays the sax, and loves old movies. A...more
Hardcover, 80 pages
Published
March 18th 2008
by Clarion Books
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There isn't much to say about this book because it was so short. It does packs a significant story in all the 64 pages it contains. Since it is also in verse the story can be read in less than an hour. I like stories to be more developed.
What I did get from the book was that JoEllen is a smart girl. She knows what other people expect and she know what she has to do but she wants to stop being two different people and just decide for herself who she wants to be.
There was one other book of Zimme...more
What I did get from the book was that JoEllen is a smart girl. She knows what other people expect and she know what she has to do but she wants to stop being two different people and just decide for herself who she wants to be.
There was one other book of Zimme...more
What the jacket says: "Linked free verse poems combine with scrapbook-style illustrations to create the vivid portrait of a girl who is trying to find herself amid the pieces of her life."
Loved this one. Just loved it. JoEllen (Ellen to her city friends; Joey to her country friends) divides her time between her two parents. Since her parents' divorce, she spends part of her week in the city with her mom, and the rest of the week (or should I say the weekends) with her dad in the country. Living...more
Loved this one. Just loved it. JoEllen (Ellen to her city friends; Joey to her country friends) divides her time between her two parents. Since her parents' divorce, she spends part of her week in the city with her mom, and the rest of the week (or should I say the weekends) with her dad in the country. Living...more
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I really liked this collection of free verse poems. The poems are interconnected and tell an entire story while the multimedia illustrations provide visual interest. Yes, it's a quick read, but I like having a variety of things to read and this is a great way to add a short, meaningful read to your list.
JoEllen lives with her mom in the city during the week and with her dad in the country on the weekends. She assumes two identities: Joey to her dad and cousin, Ellen to her mom and school friend...more
JoEllen lives with her mom in the city during the week and with her dad in the country on the weekends. She assumes two identities: Joey to her dad and cousin, Ellen to her mom and school friend...more
I LOVED IT! It depicts adolescence and the wonderful time of blooming it can be, despite personal hurts. A girl book – but most of the poems, if read aloud apply to all adolescents, especially those of either gender who split their time between parents. Some truly timeless poetry here.
1.JoEllen goes by two different names in her two very different lives. Do people call you by more than one name? Describe the circumstances between being called by different names by different people.
2.Opening day...more
1.JoEllen goes by two different names in her two very different lives. Do people call you by more than one name? Describe the circumstances between being called by different names by different people.
2.Opening day...more
42 Miles by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer and illustrated by Elaine Clayton, is a story told in free verse about a girl living between two families, her mothers and her fathers. JoEllen travels 42 miles from her downtown apartment with her mother to her county farmhouse with her father every weekend. Joey, while she is with her dad on the weekends, goes fishing, rides horses with her cousin Hayden, listens to bluegrass and invents new recipes with her dad. Ellen, while she is with her mom during the week...more
This book was very good,although it was a very easy read. 42 miles by Tracie Vaighn Zimmer is about a girl named JoEllen who has to separate lives, and she doesnt know how to combined the two.
Her parents are divorced and when shes with one or the other her lives are very different. With her mom, Ellen, she is always on the go because they live in the city. But when she is with her dad, Joe, her life is very easy going and layed back because they he lives in the contry.
I feel that this book is...more
Her parents are divorced and when shes with one or the other her lives are very different. With her mom, Ellen, she is always on the go because they live in the city. But when she is with her dad, Joe, her life is very easy going and layed back because they he lives in the contry.
I feel that this book is...more
One thing you can say about novels in verse is that it doesn't take that long to read them. They don't weigh you down with superfluous dialog or too much detail. 42 Miles is the story of JoEllen's life caught in the middle of her parents' divorce. Although each separate existence (one in the city and one in the country) sound idyllic on their own, JoEllen has to be two people, one Joey and one Ellen, depending on where she is. This dichotomy of herself is wearing her down and she would like to b...more
JF Zim grades 4-up
JoEllen’s parents divorced when she was very young, so she was used to splitting her time between them, shuttling four blocks from one Cincinnati apartment to another. But when her dad moved to the old family farm last year, her life was suddenly divided. Now on weekdays she’s a city girl, called Ellen, who hangs out with her friends, plays the sax, and loves old movies. And on weekends she’s a country girl, nicknamed Joey, who rides horseback with her cousin, Hayden, goes fish...more
JoEllen’s parents divorced when she was very young, so she was used to splitting her time between them, shuttling four blocks from one Cincinnati apartment to another. But when her dad moved to the old family farm last year, her life was suddenly divided. Now on weekdays she’s a city girl, called Ellen, who hangs out with her friends, plays the sax, and loves old movies. And on weekends she’s a country girl, nicknamed Joey, who rides horseback with her cousin, Hayden, goes fish...more
JoEllen is a girl with two names, two houses, two sets of friends, and really, two different lives. In the city, where she lives with her mom, she's Ellen--a girl who plays the sax, hangs out with her girlfriends and goes to movies. 42 miles away, in the country, she's Joey--a girl who loves to ride horses with her cousin and listens to bluegrass. What could a girl with two lives want for her upcoming thirteenth birthday? To join her two lives into one, to be JoEllen! How will it be possible to...more
42 miles is the distance between JoEllen's mom's apartment in the city and her dad's home in the country. When she's with her mom during the week in the city, she's Ellen. When she's at her dad's on the weekends, she's Joey. She leads two very different and seperate lives. As her 13th birthday approaches she wants to find a way to meld her two identites and become JoEllen again.
This book is written in free-verse poems. Although the story was good and felt very realistic, the poetry didn't always...more
This book is written in free-verse poems. Although the story was good and felt very realistic, the poetry didn't always...more
42 Miles tells the story of JoEllen, a young teen trying to navigate big changes in two separate worlds. Her parents are divorced. During the week she goes by Ellen and stays with her mom in the city. There her life is filled with school, friends, and fun urban activities. When the weekend rolls around she stays with her dad in the country, where she goes by Joey and enjoys a laid back, carefree farm life.
Written as a free verse novel, 42 Miles depicts JoEllen's struggle to fit into both of thes...more
Written as a free verse novel, 42 Miles depicts JoEllen's struggle to fit into both of thes...more
"As her thirteenth birthday approaches, JoEllen decides to bring together her two separate lives - one as Joey, who enjoys weekends with her father and other relatives on a farm, and another as Ellen, who lives with her mother in a Cincinnati apartment near her school and friends." I liked this novel-in-verse story OK, but the verses were awkward and choppy. Half the time the line breaks worked as punctuation, half the time the punctuation was there. It got annoying. It felt like the only real p...more
The premise of '42 Miles' by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer was good. The writing was actually very good. The difficulty is with the way it was laid out. It was very difficult to follow the story at times. I think the attempt to mirror a book of poetry while remaining prose created a conflicting storyline. The way the pages jumped to different ideas while at other points tried to tell a chronological story left me feeling a little out of the loop. The story and writing has amazing potential but fell flat...more
Told in free-verse poems, this short novel explores the feelings of a girl whose parents have been long divorced, hence the “42 miles” that JoEllen must commute between them both. JoEllen finds her father's move to the countryside tough to navigate, as she is forced to re-arrange her schedule around her divorced parents needs. "Joey" spends countryside weekends with her father cooking, exploring the outdoors and visiting her cousin. During the week, "Ellen" hangs with her friends, orders take-ou...more
JoEllen is about to turn 13. Her parents have been divorced since she was still in diapers, but until last year, they only lived a few blocks away. Now, her dad has moved back to his family's farm, 42 miles from the city where JoEllen lives with her mom most of the week. Having separate parents, separate houses, and separate names (her mom calls her Ellen, her dad calls her Joey) has caused JoEllen to feel that she has two separate identities. The poems in this book lead the reader through JoEll...more
Two names, one girl. JoEllen’s name comes from her father’s and mother’s names (Joey and Ellen). Now that her parents are divorced they can’t seem to call her JoEllen anymore. It reminds them too much of each other. So she is called Joey by her dad and Ellen by her mother. No one bothered to ask her if this was okay with her. And it seems they didn’t bother to ask her about a lot of things – such as if she minds spending the week with Mom and the weekends with Dad, traveling the 42 miles from on...more
Reviewed by Sally Kruger aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com
JoEllen leads a double life. It's a bit like the old fable about the country mouse and the city mouse. Since her parents divorced long ago, JoEllen has divided her time between her father, who lives in the country, and 42 miles away in the city, where her mother lives.
It isn't just the living arrangements that divide JoEllen's life. She explains that even back when her parents named her they couldn't agree. Her name became part Jos...more
JoEllen leads a double life. It's a bit like the old fable about the country mouse and the city mouse. Since her parents divorced long ago, JoEllen has divided her time between her father, who lives in the country, and 42 miles away in the city, where her mother lives.
It isn't just the living arrangements that divide JoEllen's life. She explains that even back when her parents named her they couldn't agree. Her name became part Jos...more
JoEllen lives two lives-- one as Ellen with her mother in the city, and one as Joey with her father in the country. As she approaches her thirteenth birthday she becomes increasingly dissatisfied with her two completely separate lives. Will she have the courage and ability to merge the two? This short novel in verse surprised me at the end. My favorite poem is the penultimate one in the book (p.70-71):
The Poems I Like Best
The poems I like best
wear classic black
with vintage accessories
and smell l...more
The Poems I Like Best
The poems I like best
wear classic black
with vintage accessories
and smell l...more
This book was right on so many levels. The prose was perfect - not intimidating or trite, but honest and lilting. The character, struggling to figure out where she fit in the world, between her parents expectations, those of her peers, and her own heart - priceless. And the artwork complimenting each poem/detail compliments the ideas without becoming saccharine or compromising the integrity of the story at all.
LOVED IT.
So much so that I'm reading it again tonite. And maybe even tomorrow, too.
LOVED IT.
So much so that I'm reading it again tonite. And maybe even tomorrow, too.
**Finished this book last night and am still basking in the glow of reading a beautifully written book of poetry! And I am NOT a poetry lover! I kept reading passages out loud to my husband and then sighing. I wish I could use words so eloquently!
Loving this simple, beautiful book told in free verse poem with charming, scrapbook like illustrations about the life of a 13-year old girl split between the 2 worlds of her divorced parents. Extremely well-done so far!
Loving this simple, beautiful book told in free verse poem with charming, scrapbook like illustrations about the life of a 13-year old girl split between the 2 worlds of her divorced parents. Extremely well-done so far!
Apr 08, 2009
Andrea
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Those who love Poetry, who've dealt with divorce, young and old
This is a fiction story told through free-verse poetry. The poems are linked and illustrate a beautiful story about a young girl discovering which "her" she wants to be. Torn between two lives; one with her dad and one with her mom, this book only touches on how children are effected by divorce. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves poetry, anyone who has dealt with divorce, and anyone who loves to see courage blossom.
A collection of free-verse poems describes JoEllen's life with her divorced parents. During the week she lives an urban lifestyle in the city with her mother, and on the weekend she experiences a rural life on the farm where her father lives. She loves both places in their own way, but as she is becoming a teenager, she strives to integrate these two disparate sides of her life and find a less fractured identity.
A verse novel - Haven't I read them all yet? Well not this one, I guess. Joellen is the child of divorced parents living 42 miles apart. At her dad's house she goes by Joey and her mom's she goes by Ellie (If I remember correctly). The poems tell the story of how she keeps her two lives separate, out of fear of rejection. After her birthday, she decides to integrate her lives and the end is very satisfying. Sweet.
I love books done in free verse. It's a great new genre that's emerged over the past 10 years. This book, by Ohio author Tracie Zimmer, takes place in Cincinnati, OH where the main character lives with her mother, as well as on a rural farm 42 miles away where her father lives. A quick and engaging read, intermediate aged girls will really enjoy the story and the "scrapbook style" illustrations.
This book is told completely in prose - each "chapter" is a poem. This is a great book for the 10 and up crowd. The story is about a 12 year old girl whose parents are divorced and it explores her feelings in regards to living as one type of girl when with her mom and as another type of girl when with her dad. My almost 10 year old son read this book for school and recommended it to me.
I like novels-in-verse, and with the illustrations, this feels a bit like a middle school girl's journal. The idea that JoEllen is Joey when she's with her dad and Ellen when she's with her mom is one that I think many kids of divorced parents can understand. I wish there'd been a bit more plot, but it's a quick read with a strong voice, and it's a good example for young writers.
This book is done in poetry format that documents the life of a girl who spends weekdays with her mother is the city and weekends in the country, 42 miles away, with her dad. It describes the differences in her friends at the two locations, what is expected of her, and how even the name she goes by is different based on the location. An interesting read for the upper elementary reader.
Life in poetry, living in tow houses as many kids do today. Very accesible for students. Liked thebirthday ending a joining of two lives into one. What do parents think they are doing when they divide living for a child and don't work together tohelp the child stay one person. This character is able to firge her own unity. Remarkable.
JoEllen is "Joe" with her dad on the weekends and "Ellen" with her mom during the week. She (like many children of divorce) feels like she lives two separate lives and neither of them is actually her. Written in free verse poetry, this story is a great suggestion for any girl struggling with her parents' divorce. Nicely done!
A sweet read in the form of a collection of poems. JoEllen lives with her Mother in the city during the week and her Father in the country on the weekends. In the city she is called Ellen and in the country she is called Joey. Through poetry, JoEllen makes the attempt to bring the two sides of herself together.
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