Starred Review As in Margarita Engle's The Poet Slave of Cuba (2006), this ambitious portrait uses poetry to illuminate the facts of a famous life, in this case, Sylvia Plath's. Although classified as fiction, the book draws from numerous nonfiction sources, including biographies and Plath's journals and letters, and each poem is accompanied by footnotes grounding Hemphill's imagined scenes within the facts. Rather than write in Plath's voice, Hemphill channels the voices of those who knew the poet in chronologically arranged poems, written from the perspective of family members, friends, colleagus, even Plath's doctor. Plath's own voice is evident in the poetic forms, though, with many of the poems written "in the style of" specific works. The result is an intimate, comprehensive, imaginative view of a life that also probes the relationships between poetry and creativity, mental fragility, love, marriage, and betrayal. Some readers may be slowed by the many poems that chronicle the bitter dissolution of Plath's marriage, and readers who know the Plath poems Hemphill references will have an advantage. But Plath's dramatic genius and personal struggles, particularly the difficulties of reconciling the writing life with the roles of wife and mother, have long attracted teen interest, and this accomplished, creative story may ignite new interest in Plath's original works. A bibliography of sources is appended.

In this fictionalized biography in verse, Hemphill channels the romantic version of Sylvia. The majority of the poems are putatively composed by the people who knew Plath; the remainder are identified as Hemphill "Imagining Sylvia Plath." Hemphill is metrically adept and possesses Plath's eye for figurative language. Hemphill's verse, like Plath's, is completely compelling: every word, every line, worth reading.

Perhaps at this literary juncture, where novelists supply bibliographies for their fiction and memoirists fictionalize to liberate certain "truths" and dramatize their memories, a "verse portrait" seems entirely in order. Here, though, this book-length series of poems telling the biography of the revered Sylvia Plath forms a novel where pages pair poetry with nonfiction sources that work to make the borders of genre entirely transparent. Each poem speaks through a different point of view in the voices of those who knew Sylvia; a subtitle makes clear who the speaker is. Notes from the author explain the poem's inspiration or style along the base of the page. All of this works to an astonishing effect: readers come away with a sense of really knowing Plath—her life, her art, her process and her being. Hemphill's own poetry is often remarkable, whether she is aiming to write in the style of Plath (she indicates when she is doing precisely that) or in her own free verse. The backmatter includes an extensive bibliography and source notes. A must for any young-adult reader of poetry or Plath. (Fiction/poetry. 12+)

Hemphill ambitiously undertakes a fictionalized portrait of Sylvia Plath in poems, many of them inspired by Plath's own works. Hemphill stays true to the basic framework of the poet's life, highlighting her major milestones: her childhood, college years, her hospitalization and first suicide attempt, as well as her first meeting with poet Ted Hughes—whom Plath would marry (in a poem from his viewpoint, he describes her as "Blond and tall as a magazine/ swimsuit model. I nibble/ at the whippet's neck./ Her lips fury-red, she bites/ me—teeth tearing my cheek./ I retreat, imprinted, stunned")—and her suicide ("She could not help burning herself/ From the inside out,/ Consuming herself/ Like the sun./ But the memory of her light blazes/ Our dark ceiling," Hemphill writes, in the style of Plath's poem "Child"). Accompanying each entry, the author includes footnotes with background information about the people and events alluded to in the poems. Plath committed suicide during a prolific time in her life. Her autobiographical novel, <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">The Bell Jar, had just been published, and she was working furiously on a collection of poems (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Ariel) which would be published posthumously. Hemphill's innovative portrait may not shed any new light on this tragic figure, but it could well act as a catalyst to introducing Plath to a new generation. Ages 12-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Mar.)

Gr 8 Up-Through a series of skillfully crafted poems, Hemphill has pieced together a collage of the life and work of the American writer. Arranged chronologically from Plath's birth to the month of her suicide, the poems are written from the points of view of people involved in her life. The voices of Plath's mother; her poet husband, Ted Hughes; and other intimates are interspersed with those of more fleeting acquaintances, each chosen to underscore a unique aspect of the subject's fiery life and tumultuous literary career. Hemphill rises to the challenge of capturing the life of a poet through poetry itself; the end result is a collection of verse worthy of the artist whom it portrays. Form is of paramount importance, just as it was to Plath herself. Many of the selections were created "in the style of" specific Plath poems, while others are scattered with Plath's imagery and language. While the book will prove an apt curriculum companion to Plath's literary works as touted on the jacket, it will also pull the next generation of readers into the myth of Sylvia Plath.-Jill Heritage Maza, Greenwich High School, CT Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Distinct, skillfully crafted character voices portray brilliant and beautiful Sylvia Plath, torn apart by her public ambitions, private life, and personal demons. "Drawing on both Plath's writing and nonfiction sources, each poem conveys an experience in the author's life told from the perspective of one of her family members, friends, fellow writers," or acquaintances. Hemphill includes a prose explanation of each poem's factual base. Burdened with guilt over her father's death when she is eight, Plath obsessively strives to prove her worth. She is never too thin, too popular, or too accomplished. Her drive and talent win scholarships to Smith and Cambridge but also require her to seek psychiatric help. Rejecting many suitors, she marries Ted Hughes, a British poet to whom she subordinates her work. After two children, Plath divorces her husband when he finds another woman. His rejection consumes her. Her failure as the perfect wife and mother drives her to suicide at thirty-one. In an absorbing and informative portrait, Hemphill leads readers to Plath's work through specific citations and sometimes uses the form and tone of other Plath poems to create the voices. Hemphill's concluding letter to the reader describes the journaling technique she used to write the text, and her last source note cites http://www.sylviaplathforum.com as an excellent site for research. Hemphill will immerse the mature student and many adults in Plath's life and work and motivate them to learn more about Plath and other poets.-Lucy Schall.