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    Crossing Stones
    Crossing Stones
    Crossing Stones
    Audiobook3 hours

    Crossing Stones

    Written by Helen Frost

    Narrated by Natalia Payne

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Eighteen-year-old Muriel Jorgensen lives on one side of Crabapple Creek. Her family's closest friends, the Normans, live on the other. For as long as Muriel can remember, the families' lives have been intertwined, connected by the crossing stones that span the water. But now that Frank Norman-who Muriel is just beginning to think might be more than a friend-has enlisted to fight in the First World War, the future is uncertain. Muriel is opinionated about the war and women's suffrage, but she is surrounded by people who advise her to keep her opinions to herself. Now she must find a way to care for those she loves while becoming the person she is most truly meant to be. Written in beautifully structured verse by Printz Honor Book author Helen Frost, Crossing Stones captures nine months in the lives of two resilient families struggling to stay together and cross carefully, stone by stone, into a changing world. "Unique and thoughtful perspectives on war, family, love and loss. Heartbreaking yet ultimately hopeful, this is one to savor."-Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Poignant . will hit home with contemporary teens."-Booklist, starred review "Engaging and convincing ."-Horn Book Magazine, starred review
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateDec 23, 2010
    ISBN9781449836917
    Crossing Stones
    Author

    Helen Frost

    Helen Frost is the author of several books for young people, including Hidden, Diamond Willow, Crossing Stones, The Braid, and Keesha’s House, selected an Honor Book for the Michael L. Printz Award. Helen Frost was born in 1949 in South Dakota, the fifth of ten children. She recalls the summer her family moved from South Dakota to Oregon, traveling in a big trailer and camping in places like the Badlands and Yellowstone. Her father told the family stories before they went to sleep, and Helen would dream about their travels, her family, and their old house. “That’s how I became a writer,” she says. “I didn’t know it at the time, but all those things were accumulating somewhere inside me.” As a child, she loved to travel, think, swim, sing, learn, canoe, write, argue, sew, play the piano, play softball, play with dolls, daydream, read, go fishing, and climb trees. Now, when she sits down to write, her own experiences become the details of her stories. Helen has lived in South Dakota, Oregon, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, Scotland, Colorado, Alaska, California, and Indiana. She currently lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with her family.

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    Reviews for Crossing Stones

    4/5

    57 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Beautiful characters. I had the book and read with the audio. I teared up a couple times.

      This is written in verse, my first experience. It seemed a little choppy, but quickly I settled in.

      The story shows the effects of war on multiple people and in different ways.

      A fast read, and one that will stay with me.
    • 5/5
      his novel-in-verse portrays two parallel stories through multiple perspectives about two friends and neighboring families and how they are both affected by WWI, post-war, women’s rights, first love, and more. Frost captures the feel of the 1910’s and how all people are trying to make it, through her beautifully crafted words and verses symbolizing an actual river and stones to emphasize the title and meaning of the story.
    • 3/5
      This novel in verse tells a story of how the WWI impacts two families, namely how the way impacts the 18 year old protagonist Muriel. She lives on one side of a creek with her parents, younger sister Grace, and her brother Ollie, who goes off to the war. The family on the other side of the creek are of similar age, Frank, who goes to fight in the war, and Emma, who is just younger than Muriel. The men go off to the war and the women are left to take care of the home and keep things running. The book is told from different perspectives and the short entries are formed into different shapes. Muriel's entries are long, centered and flowing down the page, while all the others form compact circle shapes.
    • 5/5
      another amazing book from this amazing author
    • 5/5
      Helen Frost never ceases to amaze me.
    • 4/5
      Atmospheric portrayal of life during World War I. Through parallel stories of two friends and neighboring families, Frost touches upon the trench warfare experience, suffragettes' battles, post-war life on the home front, first love, and more. Beautifully written and crafted (alternate verses symbolize a river and the stones in the river bed) it captures the mood of the times well. Nonetheless, this reader wished for more action and narrative thrust. Crossing Stones would be great supplemental reading for a WWI class and with some book talking a valuable find for the sensitive reader.
    • 4/5
      Set in Michigan at the onset of World War I, Crossing Stones is penned in verse - sonnets actually, in the shapes of the rocks and rolling river that separate two neighboring families. It combined two styles - historical fiction and verse fiction - that I normally don't care for - into an entertaining and informative look at the challenges of the time. The young men being led off to fight for their freedoms in war, the suffragists fighting for their freedoms at home, and the country fighting off the flu.
    • 5/5
      Two very close families each have a son who enlists and is sent overseas to fight, and a daughter who remains home. The two girls are close friends, as are the boys. Separation and war changes everything.