📘 Crossing Stones
by Helen Frost
Genre Fiction ◦ Young adult
Format & Source Print ◦ Library
Publication Farrar, Straus and Giroux ◦ 2009
Rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
📚 What It's About
Muriel is an 18 year old living in the time of WWI. Both her brother and her closest friend, neighbor, and most recently, love interest, have enlisted. While they’re off fighting the war, Muriel becomes increasingly interested in the women’s suffrage movement, despite getting into constant trouble for voicing her opinions. As tragedy strikes, Muriel decides to take a stand for what she believes in, while tending to broken hearts, including her own, at home. This is a novel told in verse.
📝 My Review
I’ve never been one for historical fiction, but I had to read one for my YA Lit class for library school and I’m glad I chose this one! I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was all written in verse with alternating narrators, with the strongest focus on Muriel. It was a really short, fast read. I liked the simplicity of the verse format in combination with the complex story lines of life during war. It made it less heavy to read, if that makes any sense.
There were several stories going on here like Muriel and the women’s suffrage movement, Muriel’s love interest, her brother’s love interest, friendship, families, tragedy… this book crammed a lot into less than 200 pages. I liked Muriel a lot as well. She had a lot of spunk and a voice of her own, unafraid to share her opinions, even if she was going against the grain.
My only complaint was that the book was too short and therefore didn’t develop or expand as well as it could have on a lot of the story lines and issues, particularly Muriel’s love interest. I would definitely recommend this book to fans of historical YA fiction and verse novels.
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