WHAT IS FREE VERSE?
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Laura is a typical fifteen-year-old growing up in the 1960’s, navigating her way through classes, friendships, and even a new romance. But she’s carrying around a secret: her mother is suffering from a mental illness. No one in Laura’s family will talk about her mother’s past hospitalizations or increasingly erratic behavior, and Laura is confused and frightened. She finds some solace in art, but when her mother, also an artist, suffers a breakdown, Laura fears that she will follow in her mother’s footsteps. Left without a refuge, can she find the courage to face what scares her most?
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Laura is a typical fifteen-year-old growing up in the 1960’s, navigating her way through classes, friendships, and even a new romance. But she’s carrying around a secret: her mother is suffering from a mental illness. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Transcript of WHAT IS FREE VERSE?
Laura is a typical fifteen-year-old growing up in the 1960’s, navigating her way through classes, friendships, and even a new romance. But she’s carrying around a secret: her mother is suffering from a mental illness.
No one in Laura’s family will talk about her mother’s past hospitalizations or increasingly erratic behavior, and Laura is confused and frightened. She finds some solace in art, but when her mother, also an artist, suffers a breakdown, Laura fears that she will follow in her mother’s footsteps. Left without a refuge, can she find the courage to face what scares her most? ****************************
Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
Fiction, Ages 13 & up
October 2014ISBN: 978-0-8028-5437-7
Original paperback, 320 pages$9.00
WHAT IS FREE VERSE?
Free verse is poetry that is free of rules!
YAY! HAPPY DANCE!
APPLAUD! YIPPEE!!
YOU ARE THE CAPTAIN OF YOUR SHIP (er, poem)….
and you may bring whatever you like on board !
Rhyming Punctuation
CapitalizationRhythm
AHOYTHIS
IS
THE
CAPTAIN
SPEAKING FOLLOW
ME
You might even want to bring along some extra cargo if you have it handy……
similesmetaphors
sensory words
alliterationonomatopoeia
repetition
Free verse travels well because it is so flexible it can be
A few words on a page
OR
enough words to fill a book
THERE IS ONE MORE THING I REALLY LOVE ABOUT FREE VERSE……
Free verse loves to help you talk about persons, places, or things that might be difficult to talk
about any other way.
Bipolar Disorder Is a serious brain disorder
genetic not curable often starts in late teens or early adulthood
Also known as manic depression Mood swings from happy or “up” (called
mania) to sad or “down” (called depression) More severe than normal ups and downs Makes it difficult to go to school or hold a job Treatment is available and patients can get
better and lead successful lives Sometimes need to try several medications to
find the one that works best
Why I wrote Crazy I lived with a mother who had bipolar disorder
I had many questions and strong feelings about it
Writing in free verse helped me work through my feelings
I hope sharing my story might be helpful to someone else who may have gone through similar hard times
Other books in free verse… Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
Tells the story of a family of farmers during the Dust Bowl years in Oklahoma during 1934-1935
Stop Pretending: What Happened When my Big Sister Went Crazy by Sonya Sones
Based on a true story of an older sister who has a mental breakdown, and how the family and friends cope with it.
Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai Inspired by the author’s childhood experience of fleeing
Vietnam after the fall of Saigon and immigrating to Alabama
Becoming Billie Holiday by Carole Boston Weatherford Based on the life of Billie Holiday, one of the greatest jazz
singers of all time.
