by Helen Frost
go down to the lake. A great blue heron flies overhead,
I smile down at Tyger—and he smiles back at me.
NOTES ON FORM
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES ON FORM
AS YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED, the poems in When My Sister Started Kissing are written in different forms.
Most of Claire’s poems are in quatrains (four-line stanzas) with the second and fourth lines rhyming, sometimes with a half-rhyme or a light rhyme (just one sound matching in the words at the ends of those two lines).
In Claire’s kayak poems, to create the sensation of the kayak moving through water, I’ve set the words at the ends of the lines in boldface; these words say more about what is on Claire’s mind.
Abi’s poems are in a free-verse form, shaped on the page in jagged three-line stanzas, to resemble lightning.
The poems in the voice of the lake are acrostics: the first letters of each line, when read down the left side of the page, spell something out—this is called the armature of the acrostic. In these lake poems, I have used lines from poems I love as the armatures. They represent the current running through the lake.
Here are the poems from which I have taken these lines:
“Tyger Tyger, burning bright,”
From “The Tyger,” by William Blake
“Somebody loves us all.”
From “The Filling Station,” by Elizabeth Bishop
“… lie back, and the sea will hold you.”
From “First Lesson,” by Philip Booth
“Live not for the-end-of-the-song / Live in the along.”
From “Speech to the Young. Speech to the Progress-Toward,” by Gwendolyn Brooks
“She folds her wings about her sleeping child.”
From “Bats,” by Randall Jarrell
“Life is what it is about;”
From “Keeping Quiet,” by Pablo Neruda (Alastair Reid, translator)
“What can anyone give you greater than now,”
From “You Reading This, Be Ready,” by William Stafford
“A power of Butterfly…”
From “From the Chrysalis,” by Emily Dickinson
“I hear it in the deep heart’s core.”
From “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” by William Butler Yeats
“… O brace sterner that strain!”
From “The Handsome Heart,” by Gerard Manley Hopkins
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THANKS TO Margaret Ferguson, my editor, and to Susan Dobinick, Karla Reganold, and so many others at FSG who bring this book from my hands to yours. All we learned from Frances Foster shines through these pages.
Thanks to the young readers I meet in schools—I couldn’t include all of your names, but I hear your strong, clear voices as I write.
Thanks to writer friends and teachers and reviewers and librarians—we are lucky in the community we create and sustain. Special thanks to Ginger Knowlton and Kate Kubert Puls.
Thanks to early readers, especially the Fort Wayne SCBWI group, Ruth Kronlokken, Ingrid Wendt, and young readers Jem and Naima van Tyn, Christine Howe, Gemma Goette, and fifth-grade students at Rick Marcotte Central School in South Burlington, Vermont—and to their parents and teachers.
I thank my children, Lloyd and Glen, and my large extended family. I believe David Kronlokken is to be credited with the peanut butter ravioli recipe.
Again and always, love and thanks to Chad.
ALSO BY HELEN FROST
Keesha’s House
Room 214: A Year in Poems
The Braid
Diamond Willow
Crossing Stones
Hidden
Salt: A Story of Friendship in a Time of War
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
You Make Me Happy / Heartstone Lake remembers
Ten Years Later
Wishing / Claire
Memories / Abigail
Puzzle Pieces / Claire
Almost the Same, Except / Claire
All Mom’s Art / Claire
Cough, Sputter, Blink / Claire
Sunset / Claire, in the kayak
Welcome Back / The lake
Come On In / Claire
Splashing It with Color / Abigail
Would You Be Okay? / Claire
If She Knew / Abigail
Dad’s Hand on the Tiller / Claire
The Lake Trail / Claire
Mirror / Claire
Glitter and Gloss / Claire
Eastside Swimming Beach / Claire
What Is Summer For? / Abigail
Something’s Different / Claire
Pointers / Claire
All I Did / Abigail
Dad’s Still Dad / Claire, Abigail, Dad
My Side of the Blanket / Claire
Jonilet / Claire
These Two Sisters / The lake
New Running Clothes / Claire
Wind at Our Back / Claire
A Little Bit Closer / Abi
We Rest, Swim On / Claire
Fireworks / Claire
Stormy Weather / Claire
Getting Closer / Claire
The Johnson Family / Claire
Shut Up About TJ / Claire
Speaking in the Dark / Claire
Blake / Claire
Abi Swims Out to the Raft / Claire
How Do You Know? Conversation while canoeing home / Claire, Abi
Not Ready / Claire, in the kayak
Telling the Neighbors the Baby Is Born / The lake
Abi Turns Away and TJ Stands There / Claire
They Find a Place / Claire
Pizza Pete’s / Abi
Family / Claire, in the kayak
Claire Paddles Around a Bend / The lake
I Am Not / Claire
It Won’t Ever Be / Abi
A Spy and a Snoop / Claire
Don’t Talk About Your Mother / Claire
Now We Are Five / Claire
Try Holding Him / Claire
Quiet / Claire, in the kayak
Tyger Tyger / Claire
Probably. Yes. Of Course. / Claire, Abi
He’s Avoiding Me / Claire
He Didn’t Say No / Claire
Cover for Me / Claire
A Drumbeat / Abi
Where’s Abi? / Claire
White T-Shirt / Abi
Now Under the Stars / The lake
Footsteps on the Gravel Path / Claire
Two Boys / Abi
Squirrels Chasing Each Other / Claire
From Out Here / Claire, in the kayak
Abi Doesn’t Want to Talk / Claire
Grounded / Claire
Claire, Let’s / Claire
Dad Didn’t Say / Claire
Don’t Tell Dad / Claire
A Path of Moonlight / Abi
Night Swimmers / The lake
I Need Your Help / Claire
We Paddle Past the Island / Claire, in the canoe
An Owl Hoots / Claire
Think, Claire, Think / Claire
Thanks, TJ / Claire
A Friend-Kiss / Abi
Rivals / Claire
It Means a Lot / Claire
A Quick Turn / Claire
Glad We Can Talk / Claire
Splashing Water on Blake’s Hands / The lake
One Boy at a Time / Abi
Nothing Much / Claire
Questions / Claire, kayaking to the beach
I Leave That Out / Claire
A Quiet Place / Abi
Okay, I Can See That / Claire
A Fawn and Its Mother / Claire
It Rises in the Yeast / Claire
My Form of Rest / The lake
Ring the Bell If You Need Me / Claire
More Lemonade? / Abi
An Idea for Pam / Claire
The Truth Starts Pounding / Abi
How Should We Celebrate? / Claire
I Close My Eyes / Claire
If I’m Going to Try / Claire
That Boy You Mentioned / Claire
A Haircut and a Kiss / Claire
Eleven / Claire
Benjamin Bunny / Abi
Abi and TJ Sitting in a Tree / Claire
See You Next Summer, Maybe / Abi
The Swans Swim Closer / Claire
This Day / Abi
Heartstones / The lake
Until We Come Back / Claire
Notes on Form
Acknowledgments
Also by Helen Frost
About the Author
Copyright
Excerpt from “Filling Station” from Poems by Elizabeth Bishop. Copyright © 2011 by the Alice H. Methfessel Trust. Publisher’s note and compilation copyright © 2011 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. / “First Lesson,” from Lifelines: Selected Poems 1950–1999 by Philip Booth, copyright © 1999 by Philip Booth. Used by permission of Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. / Excerpt from “Speech to the Young. Speech to the Progress-Toward” by Gwendolyn Brooks, from Blacks. Reprinted by consent of Brooks Permissions. / William Stafford, excerpt from “You Reading This, Be Ready” from Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems. Copyright © 1980, 1998 by William Stafford and the Estate of William Stafford. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc. on behalf of Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org.
Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers
An imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue, New York 10010
Text copyright © 2017 Helen Frost
All rights reserved
First hardcover edition, 2017
eBook edition, March 2017
mackids.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Frost, Helen, 1949– author.
Title: When my sister started kissing / Helen Frost.
Description: First edition.|New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2017.|“Margaret Ferguson Books.”|Summary: Claire and Abi have always loved summers at the lake house, but a pregnant stepmother and Abi’s intense new interest in boys have changed everything.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016028011 (print)|LCCN 2016054982 (ebook)|ISBN 9780374303037 (hardback)|ISBN 9780374303044 (Ebook)
Subjects:|CYAC: Novels in verse.|Sisters—Fiction.|Dating (Social customs)—Fiction.|Stepmothers— Fiction.|Lakes—Fiction.|BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Family / Siblings.|JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / New Experience.
Classification: LCC PZ.5.F76 Whe 2017 (print)|LCC PZ.5.F76 (ebook)|DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016028011
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eISBN 9780374303044