What I am reading now

This book was sitting on the desk of one of my student's desk yesterday morning. I am always looking for new reading material and love to read YA literature because I love to share new readings with my students. I picked it up off her desk, read the back, and starting flipping through the book. I was fascinated and asked her if I could borrow it. This isn't the sort of book I normally read, but I love the way it is written. It is written completely in verse. Since we are studying poetry right now, I found it a perfect example to show my students about how poetry can be written and can be used to tell a complete story.

The main character, Kristina, uses poetry to convey her descent from normal, suburban teenager to drug addicted teen mom. Kristina pays a visit to her father, who she hasn't seen in eight years, one summer. During that visit, she tries drugs for the first time and is hooked. The story follows her from that first experience through some hard life lessons. The poetry tells her story, changing format, style, and content based on what is happening in her life at the time.

It's a gritty book because of its subject matter. It does have some swearing and some sexual content. This book is not a book for everybody, but for an older teen audience, I think it has a lesson to teach. The author loosely based the story on the real life story of her own daughter who had similar experiences. I would rate this book pg-13. It is a worthwhile read, even if just to study the unique writing style.