Teeny Little Grief Machines - Perma-Bound Books

Teeny Little Grief Machines

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Saddleback Publishing

Just the Series: Gravel Road Verse

Annotation: In a novel in verse, Lexi, a year after her baby half-sister's death, attempts to cope with the problems of everyday life as well as with her alcoholic father, now in jail, her anorexic, bipolar stepmother, and her autistic half-brother.

Genre: [Novels in verse] [Realistic fiction]

Reviews: 2

Catalog Number: #5637867

Format: Paperback

Special Formats: High Low

Publisher: Saddleback Publishing

Edition Date: 2014 Release Date: 07/14/14

Pages: 243 pages

ISBN: 1-622-50883-1

ISBN 13: 978-1-622-50883-9

Dewey: Fic

Dimensions: 21 cm.

Subject Heading:
Mental illness. Fiction.
Sudden infant death syndrome. Fiction.
Sisters. Death. Fiction.
Grief. Fiction.
Family problems. Fiction.

Language: English

Reviews:

School Library Journal (Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2014)

Gr 9 Up-Issues of teen pregnancy, drug use, self-harm, alcoholism, autism, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrom all shape High's verse novel. Narrator Lexi, 16, lives with her previously incarcerated father, a vacuous and uneducated stepmother, and a brother who is severely autistic. Her mother was a stripper and saddled Lexi with what her a classmates call a "stripper" name. This could beand sometimes isa heavy-handed problem book. But the verse form serves the voice of Lexi well, and the poems feel authentic. The initial couplet ("My name is Lexi/(rhymes with sexy") is initially cringe-inducing, but readers begin to understand its aptness as more is revealed about Lexi and her family history. When the teen's life burdens become too much to bear, she goes to a psychiatric hospital, is healed, and eventually emerges strong enough to survive in her relatively unchanged circumstances. A quick read and a useful one, with some interesting examples of concrete verse, especially, "Life Eats Me Alive," which screams Lexi's anguish in varied fonts.— Nina Sachs, Walker Memorial Library, Westbrook, ME

Reviewing Agencies: - Find Other Reviewed Titles
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
School Library Journal (Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2014)

Word Count: 9,968

Reading Level: 3.9

Interest Level: 9-12

Accelerated Reader: reading level: 3.9 / points: 1.0 / quiz: 175385 / grade: Upper Grades

Themes: Realistic Fiction, Poetry, Verse, Depression, Self Harm, Death, Teen Angst, Teen, Young Adult, Hi-Lo, Hi-Lo Books, Hi-Lo Solutions, High-Low Books, Hi-Low Books, ELL, EL, ESL, Struggling Learner, Struggling Reader, Special Education, SPED, Newcomers, Reading, Learning, Education, Educational, Educational Books. Like watching a movie frame by frame, we watch Lexi come unglued in this novel in verse. Shes alienated from school and family. Her father is in the county jail. She cannot connect with her chain-smoking stepmom. Her brother, Blaine, is trapped in his own autistic world. And her infant sisters death has sent her into a spiral of grief and rebellion. Bright, witty, and irreverent, Lexi tries to navigate the rocky transition from adolescent to young woman. Just like prose, a novel in verse tells a story. But verse is unique because readers access the text through short chapters, or poems. The varying lengths of the chapters are ideal for a struggling reader, giving them breaks to collect their thoughts, to imagine the characters in their minds eye, and to set the scenelike a frame in a movie. The structure of poetry makes the books appear less intimidating, with plenty of airy white space. Moreover, the depth and substance conveyed in verse is every bit as deep and real as in a Gravel Road prose novel.

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