When My Sister Started Kissing

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
/>   Some Kind of Makeup / 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