Genre 3, Book 3: DIAMOND WILLOW by Helen Frost

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Bibliographic Data  

Frost, Helen. 2008. Diamond Willow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN: 0312603835.

Plot Summary  

Twelve-year-old Diamond Willow, called Willow for short, is a middle child in a middle class family living in the middle of nowhere in the fictional town of Old Fork, Alaska. She loves dogs, and thinks she’s old enough to visit her grandparents for the weekend by herself using one of the family dogsleds and half of their dog team. Her parents let her try, and she arrives safely to her grandparents’ house. However, on the way home, a downed tree blocks the trail she is traveling, and she doesn’t have time to stop. The lead dog, Roxy, is hit by branches that injure her eyes. Willow skids on the snow while running to the dog and injures her own leg. She bundles up the dog and makes it home, only to learn that the vet thinks the dog is now blind and nothing can be done for her. When her parents decide to euthanize Roxy, Willow imagines a bold plan to save her – but will her attempt instead cost the lives of her best friend Kaylie, Roxy, and herself?  

Critical Analysis 

Written for ages 9-12, Diamond Willow is a moving story that tackles many difficult emotions and issues children may face in today’s world – love, jealousy, alienation, euthanasia, grief, and family secrets. The title character is named not after a type of willow, but after a process that happens to willows when they are scarred from losing a branch or suffer an injury. The scar deepens and a diamond forms around it. These diamond scar patterns are what make willows so beautiful to use in woodworking. Her very name tells the reader that there is a deep wound this girl’s life has formed around.

When Willow talks or thinks in the story, her words are formed into a variety of diamond shapes like those found in real willow bark, and a few words in the center of each are bolded to make the scar in the pattern. The bolded words give a hidden message that tells the reader what Willow’s most important thoughts or feelings are at that moment, which motivate her actions or words. The author uses free verse poetry with no discernable poetic devices in them (no rhymes, meter, assonance, alliteration, repetition, simile, etc.). Aside from the concrete poetry motif of creating the diamond scar patterns, Frost’s poetry is stripped bare of all normal poetic contrivances. It doesn’t need them. This plain verse reflects Willow’s simple, direct nature beautifully. All of the other characters are given prose paragraphs when they speak or think.

One intriguing aspect to this story is how animals tell much of it. The reader first listens to Willow’s great-great-grandfather John, who is reincarnated in life as a red fox. He watches Willow as she journeys to and from her grandparents’ house, and comments on her. Several other relatives of hers and other characters appear as animals in the book too. Willow is part Athabascan, the indigenous people of Alaska, on her mother’s side. Though the book does not say, it is likely that animal narration occurs in Athabascan storytelling. Frost deftly addresses several serious issues people face today in this book, and provides a happy ending for the reader.  

Willow is more comfortable around dogs than humans, saying at one point that people scare her. She has one human friend, Kaylie, whom she enlists to help her save Roxy’s life when she discovers that her parents intend to put the dog down. Guilt and love drive Willow’s actions, as she considers Roxy her other best friend. They attempt to take Roxy to Willow’s grandparents’ house, as Willow is sure they would be willing to care for her. A storm hits as they travel out there, they get lost, and they are forced to take shelter under a willow tree until morning. They survive the night, and head out again in the morning. Richard, a boy who likes Kaylie, searches for them and finds them the next morning. Kaylie chooses to head back with him rather than continue on with Willow, as they are close to her grandparents’ house at that point. Willow worries she may lose her best friend to a boy.

Willow makes it to her grandparents, who feed her and her dogs, and tend to Roxy’s eyes. Grandma tells her that the dog may wish to stay with Willow, and not them. Willow’s parents and younger sister arrive soon after. Grandfather tells Dad it may be time to tell Willow the truth about their other baby. Willow’s parents tell her she was a twin, but her sister died four days after birth. They were named Diamond and Willow. When her sister died, they gave her name to Willow also, making her Diamond Willow. The family has a long conversation, and decides together not to euthanize Roxy. Willow will take care of the dog. 

The reader learns that Roxy is Diamond reincarnated, and she’s happy to live in the house and share a room with her sister again. Roxy regains her eyesight, but Willow keeps it a secret so they can stay together in the house. After these events, Willow no longer feels uncomfortable around other people. She makes friends with Richard, and his friend Jon. She enjoys the company of others, and feels like things are right now. Reading this story, it is easy to identify with Willow during her struggles, and root for her success. Her story is skillfully told, and very compelling. The only change I would wish to this story is for Frost to shape the animal narrators' words into images of each animal when they speak. 

Awards 

• 2009 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award

• 2008 Mitten Award--Michigan Library Association
• The Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry: 2009 Honor Book
• 2009 Winner of Best Books of Indiana, Children and Young Adult Book
• 2009 CCBC Choices List
• Indie Next Kids' List Great Read
• Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Finalist
• Bank Street List of Best Children's Books
• Capitol Choices Noteworthy Titles for Children and Teens

Reviews 

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books: "Frost invents an ingenious poetic form for her story. … Interspersed with [the] poems are prose passages from the perspective of Willow's late ancestors and relatives, whose spirits now inhabit animals that watch over the girl as she ventures into the fraught territory between childhood and adolescence. Frost has spun metaphoric gold out of an evocative natural landscape, and she knows just how to craft it into an elegant and moving story of a young girl's deepening understanding of the relationships she shares with those around her."

The Horn Book: "The first-person, present-tense narrative is typeset in diamond shapes echoing the pattern of diamond willow wood. Bold-faced words at the heart of each diamond hold an additional nugget of meaning. As a dog and dogsled story, this has appeal and wears its knowledge gracefully. Considerably less graceful is Frost's inclusion of animal guides who are the spirits of Willow's deceased relatives and who function as fairy-godmother figures to assist her; the blend of realism and magic-cum-religion stretches credulity just a little too far."

Connections

Enrichment Activities 

This story provides a wonderful opportunity to teach children about the Athabascan people, Alaska, dogs, and dog sledding. Here are some websites that offer teaching activities on Athabascans: 
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/curriculum/athabascan/athabascans/section2.html

http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/curriculum/athabascan/athabascans/section5.html 
http://teachmulticulturallit.wikispaces.com/Two+Old+Women+Academic+Service+Learning

on Alaska: 
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/usa-states/alaska/
http://sled.alaska.edu/kids.html 
http://ketchikankids.com/links.html 

on dogs: 
http://www.workingdogweb.com/kids&dogs.htm
http://www.dogplay.com/youth.html 
http://www.petfinder.com/pet-care/breed-based-activities-for-dogs.html 

on dog sledding: 
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/alaska/iditarod/
http://www.ecokids.ca/pub/eco_info/topics/canadas_north/dogsled/index.cfm 
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/iditarod/dogs_life/index.asp?article=dogs_life



Related Readings 

Other Books by Frost: 

• All-Star Quilts: 10 Strip-Pieced Lone Star Sparklers by Helen Frost and Blanche Young (C&T Publishing, 2010)

• Birds (All about Pets) by Helen Frost (Capstone Press (MN), 2006)
• Boa Constrictors (Rain Forest Animals) by Helen Frost (Capstone Press, 2006)
• The  Braid by Helen Frost (Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2006)
• Crossing Stones by Helen Frost (Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2009)
• Keesha's House by Helen Frost (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007)
• Look at Australia (Our World) by Helen Frost (Capstone Press (MN), 2006)
• Monarch and Milkweed by Helen Frost (Atheneum, 2008)
• Radiant Sunshine & Shadow: 23 Quilts with Nine-Patch Sparkle by Helen Frost and Catherine Skow (C&T Publishing, 2008)
• Water as a Gas by Hellen Frost and Helen Frost (Pebble Books, 2000)
• The Water Cycle by Helen Frost (Pebble Books, 2000)

Other Dog Stories: 

• Bad Dog, Marley! by John Grogan (HarperCollins, 2007)

• The Market Square Dog by James Herriot (St. Martin's Griffin, 1991)
• Murphy and Kate by Ellen Howard (Aladdin, 2007)
• For Every Dog an Angel by Christine Davis (Lighthearted Press, 2004)
• The Legend of Rainbow Bridge by William N. Britton (Savannah Publishing, 2007)
• James Herriot's Dog Stories: Warm And Wonderful Stories About The Animals Herriot Loves Best by James Herriot (St. Martin's Griffin, 2006)
• A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron (Forge Books, 2011)