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30th out of 104 books
—
461 voters
Crossing Stones
by
Helen Frost
Maybe you won’t rock a cradle, Muriel.
Some women seem to prefer to rock the boat.
Eighteen-year-old Muriel Jorgensen lives on one side of Crabapple Creek. Her family’s closest friends, the Normans, live on the other. For as long as Muriel can remember, the families’ lives have been intertwined, connected by the crossing stones that span the water. But now that Frank Norma...more
Some women seem to prefer to rock the boat.
Eighteen-year-old Muriel Jorgensen lives on one side of Crabapple Creek. Her family’s closest friends, the Normans, live on the other. For as long as Muriel can remember, the families’ lives have been intertwined, connected by the crossing stones that span the water. But now that Frank Norma...more
Hardcover, 184 pages
Published
September 29th 2009
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
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I had never read anything by Helen Frost before I requested this book on inter-library loan from my library system, but I knew she wrote novels in verse and that was the main reason I chose to read this book to begin with. And having finished Crossing Stones, the story of what happens to the children of two neighboring Michigan families during 1917, when World War I and women's suffrage are both at the political forefront, I can say that the true strength of this book is the poetry.
Not only are...more
Not only are...more
I LOVED this book. I loved the way it was written, the thoughts that Muriel had from her view point, and the many quotable quotes from this book. This is on the top of my list right now of one of my favorites.
Muriel posts questions that are hard and the answers difficult to find/answer.
This book is written for teens but as an adult, I found it charming.
At the very end of the book the author explains the poetic form that the book is written in. I found her explanation to be intriguing and fasci...more
Muriel posts questions that are hard and the answers difficult to find/answer.
This book is written for teens but as an adult, I found it charming.
At the very end of the book the author explains the poetic form that the book is written in. I found her explanation to be intriguing and fasci...more
Crossing Stones is set in the perspective of three narrators; Muriel, Emma, and Ollie, as they encounter the terrors of World War I. Emma's brother, Frank, heads off to war in France and Ollie, Muriel's brother, follows closely behind him. Both families of these young men are crushed from the consequences of violence. During this time, the women's suffrage is gaining momentum in Washington D.C. Muriel is touched by this endeavor after hearing from her Aunt Vera who is deeply involved in the suff...more
This is book about the families who live close by. One family lives one side of crabapple creek and the other lives on the other side. The book is in free verse form and it is interesting to see each characters telling the story by poems.
I like the story a lot because I feel how each character feels. Even though they are just normal people, they have to face those tragic event in history which is the war. Muriel is the strong female character but she is strong and sensitive. Her brother follow...more
I like the story a lot because I feel how each character feels. Even though they are just normal people, they have to face those tragic event in history which is the war. Muriel is the strong female character but she is strong and sensitive. Her brother follow...more
Crossing Stones is a young adult book written by Helen Frost.
This is what amazon.com had to say about this book.
"Eighteen-year-old Muriel Jorgensen lives on one side of Crabapple Creek. Her family’s closest friends, the Normans, live on the other. For as long as Muriel can remember, the families’ lives have been intertwined, connected by the crossing stones that span the water. But now that Frank Norman—who Muriel is just beginning to think might be more than a friend—has enlisted to fight in Wo...more
This is what amazon.com had to say about this book.
"Eighteen-year-old Muriel Jorgensen lives on one side of Crabapple Creek. Her family’s closest friends, the Normans, live on the other. For as long as Muriel can remember, the families’ lives have been intertwined, connected by the crossing stones that span the water. But now that Frank Norman—who Muriel is just beginning to think might be more than a friend—has enlisted to fight in Wo...more
I admit, I was a bit skeptical going into this book initially, mainly because whenever I hear the word "poetry", I automatically assume that I am being forced to read some cute little limerick that will be stuck in my head all the rest of the day. But this book proved my assumptions to be ultimately false. It's poems are so artfully set up in that you don't realize that they're poems until you read about her writing style in the back of the book. This book follows the perspectives of Muriel and...more
Eighteen-year-old Muriel and her brother Ollie Jorgensen live just across the creek from their closest friends, Frank and Emma Norman. The story takes place over nine months, during which Frank and Ollie enlist and fight oversees, and Muriel travels to Washington D.C. to help her suffragist aunt return to her home in Chicago after having been imprisoned for demonstrating outside the White House. The characters each make their own way through the suffering of war, the deadly flu epidemic and the...more
Crossing Stones is the story of Muriel, Emma, and Ollie, three friends who experience the joys and sorrows of life during the time of World War I. Muriel and Emma are left home in Michigan, while Ollie and Frank, Emma's older brother, head off for battle. Muriel is fiercely independent and opinionated. Despite her feminist views, she still has strong feelings for Frank that she has not sorted out yet. Emma worries and misses Ollie terribly and waits for him. Ollie experiences the horrors of war,...more
May 02, 2012
Amber
added it
Amber Randol
Poetry
This book was a story told in verse, and each chapter was a different character's point of view. It involved two families who lived on farms right across a creek from eachother, and they were all great friends. There was the Jorgenson family, who were both parents, the oldest son, Muriel the daughter, and the little sister. The other family were the Normans, who were both parents, Frank the oldest son, and Emma, the daughter. The story followed all of their struggles with keepi...more
Poetry
This book was a story told in verse, and each chapter was a different character's point of view. It involved two families who lived on farms right across a creek from eachother, and they were all great friends. There was the Jorgenson family, who were both parents, the oldest son, Muriel the daughter, and the little sister. The other family were the Normans, who were both parents, Frank the oldest son, and Emma, the daughter. The story followed all of their struggles with keepi...more
Muriel and Ollie Jorgensen live on side of a creek and their best friends Fred and Emma Norman live on the other. Life was enjoyable, yet it could not stay that way. War was calling to young men so that they could come and be a hero. The woman's right movement seemed to be a brave endeavor that Muriel was completely interested. Fred and Ollie enlist and take off to France. But as we know war never returns what it takes, at least not completely. In a time of changes and explosions Muriel discove...more
The Jorgensen’s and the Norman’s are neighbors who live across the creek from one another. Both families are children whose ages and sexes match them up perfectly as couples, which is what both mothers want: Each of their sons to marry each other’s daughter. War breaks the families up when the sons are sent to war and the rest are left at home trying to fill their absences. Muriel is a feminist in the making and doesn’t know it until she goes to DC to collect her aunt who has been protesting. O...more
Apr 03, 2012
Eve
added it
Crossing Stones, by Helen Frost, is written from a few perspectives. It’s written from Muriel’s perspective, who is the main voice, describing the lives of two families living on opposite sides of a creek during the first World War. Muriel suffers loss, and in that finds her strength. It’s also written by Emma, a girl across the creek, who consequently falls in love with Ollie, Muriel’s brother. This novel is also written from the perspective of Ollie, who has to fight in World War I. This novel...more
A colleague laughed at me yesterday when I referenced Crossing the Stones by Helen Frost as beautiful...so beautiful I wanted to read it a second time just as I finished it the first time. And I did.
Part journey, part love story Crossing the Stones (in its own way) balances Aristotle's pathos--ethos--logos. While this novel is not a persuasive essay per se, it does stir up several topics that would serve as wonderful starters for persuasive essays in the middle school classroom. The appeals of l...more
Part journey, part love story Crossing the Stones (in its own way) balances Aristotle's pathos--ethos--logos. While this novel is not a persuasive essay per se, it does stir up several topics that would serve as wonderful starters for persuasive essays in the middle school classroom. The appeals of l...more
Crossing Stones is about two families that live across a stream from each other where the families cross on stepping stones in the river to visit each other. The children grow up together and the families are very close. It is set during World War I and the son in one family enlists and the sixteen-year-old son in the other family lies about his age and also enlists. The protagonist, Muriel, is a very opinionated young woman, who likes to express herself. She ends up getting involved with her au...more
I love the poerty novel writing style! I think it is such an interesting way to tell a story and it keeps the reader engaged because it changes and isn't always stagnant. I really enjoyed this story and how the perspectives of each character was told ad represented. I truly loved this book and the heartfelt story it told.
This book was about two families and how the war affected them in different, but equally hard ways. It is told by three main characters Ollie, Muriel and Emma. They are each rep...more
This book was about two families and how the war affected them in different, but equally hard ways. It is told by three main characters Ollie, Muriel and Emma. They are each rep...more
Summary: Muriel and her family live at the time of WW1. Almost every boy she knows is going to war. She has very big opinions for a young girl of that time. She is against any war that would require those she loves to die. She has adopted the philosophies of her aunt who is a picketer for women's rights. Her brother Ollie has different opinions about the war. He doesn't want to be left out. He wants to fight just like his best friend Frank. So he sneaks away to the war just to see that it is not...more
Crossing Stones is a gorgeous book, written in a poem format. The poems alternate between the characters. The main character, Muriel Jorgensen, is a eighteen year old girl growing up amidst the first world war and women's suffrage. Her family (her father, mother, brother, younger sister)lives right across from another family across the stream. They are very close friends- they see each other nearly every day. Everyone expects Muriel to marry Frank, the oldest son, but she doesn't much think of t...more
I loved loved loved this book- the first time I've made it through a novel in verse. Beautiful writing, a full plot and moving characters. I don't know how it could have everything I love plus beautifully constructed poems, some visually suggesting stones, some suggesting water, but it did.
You know how sometimes two families will grow so close that it's almost a foregone conclusion that the children will marry? I admit I've got at one son's wife picked out. That's how it was between Muriel's fa...more
You know how sometimes two families will grow so close that it's almost a foregone conclusion that the children will marry? I admit I've got at one son's wife picked out. That's how it was between Muriel's fa...more
Crossing Stones by Helen Frost (2009)
Novel in Verse, 178 pages
18-year-old Muriel Jorgensen is an opinionated young woman who begins to question the risks of war and the inequality of women. The Jorgensen’s live across from the Norman’s, and their properties are divided by Crabapple Creek, but the line is blurred as all the families use the creek’s crossing stones to see each other every day. Both mothers hope their children will marry within the families: Muriel and Frank Norman, Ollie (Muriel’s...more
Novel in Verse, 178 pages
18-year-old Muriel Jorgensen is an opinionated young woman who begins to question the risks of war and the inequality of women. The Jorgensen’s live across from the Norman’s, and their properties are divided by Crabapple Creek, but the line is blurred as all the families use the creek’s crossing stones to see each other every day. Both mothers hope their children will marry within the families: Muriel and Frank Norman, Ollie (Muriel’s...more
In general, I am not a huge fan of poetry, but I love the immediacy granted by a truly great novel in verse—and Crossing Stones is exactly that. From Muriel’s first poem, musing rebelliously on her stuffy teacher’s command that she “straighten out her mind” I was hooked, so much so that I plunked down $18 for a hardcover book. It did not disappoint. Muriel’s fiery intelligence is thrilling and her observations about what people expect of her, as a woman, have more relevance to the present day th...more
Seriously? Are you KIDDING me?
This was my reaction to the Notes on the Form at the end of this book. [title:Crossing Stones] is written in verse. And not just any verse. Verse in specific shapes with an impressive rhyme scheme. How did Helen Frost do this? She's amazing.
But even before I knew this, it was a good book. It takes place in rural Michigan during WWI, which in itself is unusual. I've read many novels set in America during WWII, but not many during WWI. I realize, of course, that this...more
This was my reaction to the Notes on the Form at the end of this book. [title:Crossing Stones] is written in verse. And not just any verse. Verse in specific shapes with an impressive rhyme scheme. How did Helen Frost do this? She's amazing.
But even before I knew this, it was a good book. It takes place in rural Michigan during WWI, which in itself is unusual. I've read many novels set in America during WWII, but not many during WWI. I realize, of course, that this...more
There's quite a lot going on with this book, and that is its beauty. It's a WWI historical fiction novel, of which there really are few, so that is good. It's also a novel in verse, and the verse has a particular, and meaningful, form. Another plus, because you can integrate it into Language Arts classes if need be.
It's a relationship novel, and a novel about the hell of war, with glimpses of PTSD. That alone might help kids understand what is happening to our vets returning from Iraq.
And, what'...more
It's a relationship novel, and a novel about the hell of war, with glimpses of PTSD. That alone might help kids understand what is happening to our vets returning from Iraq.
And, what'...more
Helen Frost has the remarkable ability to combine excellence in technique with powerful storytelling. Each of her verse novels depict time and place with just a few words which is something I wish many novelists who write for adults would learn. She is able to develop her characters through short, poetic vignettes which describe their feelings and the circumstances of their lives.
"Crossing Stones" is told from the point of view of four friends who have grown into young adulthood together. Their...more
"Crossing Stones" is told from the point of view of four friends who have grown into young adulthood together. Their...more
Crossing Stones is a story told from the point of view of 3 friends during World War I. Muriel, her brother Ollie and their lifelong friend and neighbor Emma. Muriel is the main character. She is very opinionated and independent. Emma is content with her life and doesn’t desire to change anything. Muriel doesn’t approve of going to war. Despite this her brother Ollie lies about his age and enlist in the war. Ollie is wounded and loses a arm in the war and has learn to deal with his new life. Thi...more
When I began this book, I thought, "Oh, no, not more historical fiction! Oh, no, not another novel in verse!" I had found myself at a point of disinterest with the latter and disgust with the former.
I feel much better now.
This beautiful book tells the story of two closely bonded neighboring families who are torn apart by the horrors of World War I and the perceived conflict between patriotism and the women's suffrage movement. You won't find teen angst here, no whining, no overblown romance. Ins...more
I feel much better now.
This beautiful book tells the story of two closely bonded neighboring families who are torn apart by the horrors of World War I and the perceived conflict between patriotism and the women's suffrage movement. You won't find teen angst here, no whining, no overblown romance. Ins...more
Crossing Stones is a novel told in lovely, free-flowing verse, about the lives of four American teenagers: Muriel, Ollie, Emma and Frank, as they interact with each other and the people surrounding them during the turbulent times of World War I in our country. Not only were we dealing with a war that ultimately would claim an estimated thirty-seven million lives worldwide, but our country was filled with internal strife as the issue of women's suffrage came to a volatile head and the U.S. gover...more
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This book pretty much blew me away. I will admit I am not a huge fan of novels told in verse, or at least I wasn't until I started reading books by Helen Frost. Amazing.
First, the story. Crossing Stones is set in rural Michigan in 1917 and touches on all the major issues of the day. War, the suffrage movement and the flu epidemic. The story is told through the 4 distinct voices of Ollie, Muriel,Frank and Emma, four young people faced with all the unpleasant realities of war and social changes. T...more
First, the story. Crossing Stones is set in rural Michigan in 1917 and touches on all the major issues of the day. War, the suffrage movement and the flu epidemic. The story is told through the 4 distinct voices of Ollie, Muriel,Frank and Emma, four young people faced with all the unpleasant realities of war and social changes. T...more
I love books that are stories written in poetry. I kept wanting to savor individual poems. The writing is rhythmic and flows seemingly naturally, yet the sonnets were incredibly well-crafted. The story involves a young girl who is trying to find herself. I don't necessarily agree with her very strict anti-war stance, but did agree with her willingness to help those who were fighting for women's voting rights. I enjoyed the history lesson on women's suffrage. Her mixed feelings about her boyfrien...more
I have never read a lousy Helen Frost novel. Her work is beautiful. She has a way of weaving history among humanity in such a way that the date of the subject matters little because the story is so universal. She understands that which makes us feel, connect, matter as people. Her words are poetic and she gives great care to the form of her story.
This novel is set in 1917, an interesting time in U.S. history when things were changinfg rapidly (probably as radical and changing as the 1960's). The...more
This novel is set in 1917, an interesting time in U.S. history when things were changinfg rapidly (probably as radical and changing as the 1960's). The...more
I was totally and completely drawn in to Helen Frost's story of two families in Michigan in 1917 and the tragic impact of World War I on their lives. As usual, Frost uses multiple verse forms to tell her story, and the forms help define the characters in multiple ways.
Muriel is the main character, and the story is strongest and at its most vivid when it is told through her voice. Her brother Ollie and her neighbor/best friend Emma give their perspectives as well with a very clever use of poetic...more
Muriel is the main character, and the story is strongest and at its most vivid when it is told through her voice. Her brother Ollie and her neighbor/best friend Emma give their perspectives as well with a very clever use of poetic...more
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Helen Frost is the author of six novels-in-poems and two picture books for children and young adults. She lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/helenf...
More about Helen Frost...
Helen Frost is the author of six novels-in-poems and two picture books for children and young adults. She lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/helenf...
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