From: Joan Atkinson <jatkinso>
Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 14:19:24 -0500

Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson is one of my favorites using a character's developing talent as a writer as an integral element in the story's structure. Lonnie Collins Motion (hence Locomotion) is an eleven-year-old full of grief and loss. His parents died in a fire, and he's separated from his beloved little sister, who's in a different foster home. Lonnie's been in a group home and has tough memories about that. Now he's with a foster mother whom he perceives as mainly wanting him to be quiet as the books begins. We grow with him as he follows the advice of an influential and caring teacher who has him keep a personal journal to sort out his feelings. She's teaching poetry to her class, and the book is Lonnie's free verse poetry interspersed with other poetic forms as Ms. Marcus challenges the class to appreciate and write various types of poetry. The youthful voice of Lonnie is completely believable throughout, though Woodson's lyrical poetry is stunning.
(Wish I had my book with me to give some examples.) With all the heartache, it's a feel-good story that has readers laughing as well as crying.

 

The vehicle of character-as-writer also works well to me in Rats Saw God by Rob Thomas and Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff.

 

Joan Atkinson

Associate Professor

School of Library and Information Studies

The University of Alabama

205-348-1522

jatkinso at slis.ua.edu
Received on Sat 28 Apr 2007 02:19:24 PM CDT