Poetry Friday -- The Secret of Me

For Poetry Friday: a review of a book in verse

The Secret of Me by Meg Kearney

The Plot: An adopted child, Lizzie, tells her story thru poetry; her experiences and her thoughts. This is a work of fiction, but is based on the author's life and feelings (but, still, fiction).

The Good: This book in verse is told from the point of view of teenaged Lizzie, looking back at her own adoption as well as her siblings, imagining or remembering events, and also telling of current things in her life, from boys to friends to trying to raise the issue of her adoption with her parents. While her parents have never hidden that from her, it's also something that they are oddly reluctant to discuss. Or, at least, they are reluctant to discuss the details.

It's like this: yes, Lizzie and her siblings are adopted. But her parents say "my daughter, my son," believing that there is no difference between children born to a family or adopted into a family. Yet, when Lizzie raises a question about her birth mother, her upset mother leaves the room. It's a tightrope of emotions.

Why this works: because teenaged girls write poetry. So it makes sense for Lizzie to tell her story in poems. What is also cool is since the author is a poet, the afterword includes a guide to the poetics used in the book. Also at the end are a handful of the poems that Lizzie has mentioned in the book; I really like that, because it makes sense that Lizzie would refer to a poet or poem, and instead of having the reader search for them, wow, here it is at the end.

A sample of the poetry:

How I Arrived

...
I was like The New Thing my parents had ordered
from a catalog after lots of shopping around. But
they were puzzled. None fo the dresses they'd bought
were my size. No shoes fit...

Links:
My Journey Through The Land of Poetry review
Wordswimmer review

Round Up is at The Blue Rose Girls. If you posted anything poetry related today (a poem, a review, a write up of a poet, your own original work) go over to the Blue Rose Girls, and in the comments leave your name and blog URL. The blogosphere is big, without your comment there's no way to know to include you!