Escaping Tornado Season: A Story in Poems

by Julie Williams

Allie Benton's summer at her grandparents' house in Minnesota is the same as it's always northern lights and pine trees, family gossip and root beer floats. She's come here to escape Nebraska's tornado season every summer for as long as she can remember. The only difference is, this time no one's coming to take her back to Nebraska when fall rolls around. With her father dead, her mother run off to heaven knows where, and her twin brother, seven years buried, just a ghost in her memory, Allie settles in with her grandparents for a cold Minnesota winter. But it's hard to fit in at a new school when her family can't afford to buy her a pair of blue jeans. And, in an ethnically divided community, Allie isn't even allowed to choose the friends she wants-handsome Joey Redfern and Lidia, the beautiful Ojibwe girl who calls Allie my niijikwe, "my friend." With a strong poetic voice, Julie Williams creates snapshots of Allie piecing a new life together- longing for her mother, grieving for her father, remembering her brother, and struggling to do what's right in an imperfect world. As the people around her come and go, Allie starts to get a sense of who she is, and of what she can hold on to despite the changes in her world.

Genres: Poetry, Young Adult, Historical Fiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

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Reviews

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked how the main character had to basically start from scratch at a new school with only one friend. The most remembered part was when she told us that her brother died from cancer. She had a great setting where tornado's usually hit (Minnesota, and Nebraska). It never really challenged my beliefs. What made the book a little difficult was that sometimes I couldn't follow the sentence really well but maybe that's how it works with a story in poems. I think the book is fine but if I had to tell I would probably improve the sentence reading because sometimes I couldn't follow what was going on.

[Kiara Slater · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a fan of poetry style books, but the story was good. I always like reading books set in MN.

[Aasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. But when i first started reading it i didnt realize that this book is a book of poems. The poems tells the story of a girl who becuase of certain events moves in with her grandparents and her mom. The story is about her overcomming all the opsticals in her life. It is a really good book. it is an easy read book.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deals with prejudice against Native Americans (Ojibwe).

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written novel in verse. Can't wait to read more by this author, she has a wonderful way of writing setting (Minnesota and Nebraska.)