Graduation
Today is Mom's graduation
from Tidewater Community College
with her associates in business
and landscape design.
She's the first ever
in our family
to get a degree.
Gran dropped out
in eighth grade to help on the farm
when her brothers got called up
for the war.
When they never came back
Gran gave up her dream
of being a stewardess---
and traveling all over the world.
But someday
I'll buy us a flight to France
and we'll sit under the Eiffel Tower
sharing a croissant.
From the prose novel
Everything is changing for Josie. McMansions have reduced her family farm to an elaborate garden with a small house and is increasingly out of place in their neighborhood.
Her mom has gone back to school to get her degree business and landscape design.
Plus, she's decided she's done with occupational therapy for her cerebral palsy. It makes her look weird and talk funny, going to the therapy that will never fix it just further alienates her from her classmates.
And then, a new boy moves into the neighborhood, a new boy that just might be a friend.
Josie's story is one of trying to find your place in the world. The story is less about her disability and more about growing up. Zimmer's free verse follows Josie through the year, with most of the focus on Summer, when a lot of big changes take place.
I also appreciated the light drawing of a an iris on the side of the page, which grew and bloomed with the seasons. I'm noticing more and more of these subtle things in books, not in the writing, but in the design. Is this becoming more common, or as I read more graphic novels and picture books, am I just paying more attention to things besides the actual text?
Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award.
Semicolon has the roundup!
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