The Braid
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- £8.99
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- £8.99
Publisher Description
A tale of two sisters, bound together by a braid of hair, even as fate pulls them apart.
In alternating narrative poems, sisters Jeannie and Sarah share their interwoven stories. As Jeannie leaves Scotland during the Highland Clearances with her father, mother, and younger siblings, Sarah stays behind with her grandmother, hiding so she can remain in the Western Isles where their family had lived for generations. Each sister carries a length of the other's hair braided with her own, a reminder of their unbreakable bond despite the distance between them.
Award-winning poet Helen Frost twists strand over strand of language, braiding words at the edges of her poems to create new poetic forms while intertwining the destinies of two young girls and those who cross their paths in this unforgettable novel in verse. An author's note describes the inventive poetic form in detail.
The Braid is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year, perfect for fans of historical fiction and sibling stories told through poetry.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Frost's (Spinning Through the Universe) ingeniously structured novel in verse about a Scottish family may be set in 1850, but its themes will resonant with today's teens. The events unfold through the alternating perspectives of sisters Sarah, the oldest of four, whose strength and agility with tools help her father ("just like a lad," says he), and Jeannie, the comely one with golden curls. Readers quickly learn that the British landlords are forcing out the residents of Scotland's Western Isle of Barra. The night before the family's planned departure for Canada, Sarah braids together her hair with Jeannie's, takes one half of the braid for herself and leaves the other for her sister. While 14-year-old Jeannie departs with her parents and two younger siblings by boat, 15-year-old Sarah hides out in order to stay with their grandmother and return with the woman to Mingulay, the small island south of Barra where their grandfather is buried. The braid not only symbolizes the bond between the sisters ("You'll always long for Jeannie, Aunt Mari says . No matter how far/ away she is, you may know when something hard is happening to her"), but also nods to Frost's form here, the Celtic knot, which she employs seamlessly. This brief, memorable book spans two years, several deaths, first love and the stigma attached to unwed mothers, while also conveying the resolve of one family to survive and to preserve hope. Ages 12-up.
