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    Keesha's House
    Keesha's House
    Keesha's House
    Ebook138 pages1 hour

    Keesha's House

    By Helen Frost

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    An unforgettable narrative collage told in poems

    Keesha has found a safe place to live, and other kids gravitate to her house when they just can't make it on their own. They are Stephie – pregnant, trying to make the right decisions for herself and those she cares about; Jason – Stephie's boyfriend, torn between his responsibility to Stephie and the baby and the promise of a college basketball career; Dontay – in foster care while his parents are in prison, feeling unwanted both inside and outside the system; Carmen – arrested on a DUI charge, waiting in a juvenile detention center for a judge to hear her case; Harris – disowned by his father after disclosing that he's gay, living in his car, and taking care of himself; Katie – angry at her mother's loyalty to an abusive stepfather, losing herself in long hours of work and school.

    Stretching the boundaries of traditional poetic forms – sestinas and sonnets – Helen Frost's extraordinary debut novel for young adults weaves together the stories of these seven teenagers as they courageously struggle to hold their lives together and overcome their difficulties.

    Keesha's House is a 2004 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateSep 6, 2016
    ISBN9781466896321
    Keesha's House
    Author

    Helen Frost

    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.

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    Reviews for Keesha's House

    4/5

    91 ratings12 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Told from many viewpoints, each character's story is told through poems - specifically the classical forms of Sonnet and the Sestina. Not just the main characters speak, but also the adults surrounding them - parents, coaches, social workers, teachers, guardians. Keesha found safety and stability in the house own by a man named Joe (who lets troubled kids stay at his home without payment or official sanction). She reaches out to others, kids like herself, those whose home and life have crumbled around them, who need a place to stay. Each comes with their pain, their own fear, their own troubles, and each find the healing and safety they need at Keesha's House. While most of the story is through the eyes of the kids, there is a part told through the eyes of the adults. This gives the story a unique depth, helping the reader to see the parents as more then just stock characters. Instead, it speaks to the frequent communication issues between adults and children, and reminds us that adults are often as lost as the kids they try to guide. While race and gender are touched upon, the real topic is the idea of hope, help, and healing. Because of the format and subject matter, this book is a excellent choice for educational purposes. I would recommend it for high school students (and mature middle school age). There is reference to sex (both consensual and non), abuse, abortion, homosexuality, drugs, and crime, but all in passing (no glory details), and isn't anything that teenagers don't already have detailed knowledge about. For my part, I found this book enlightening, educational, thought-provoking, and bittersweet. I highly recommend.
    • 2/5
      Not my favorite, although recommended by someone I trust. I didn't find the adolescent voices believable.
    • 3/5
      Follows 6 different teens as they make very tough decisions when their are not what they should be
    • 5/5
      5Q, 4P Seven teenagers each tell their story comprised of disappointment, discovery, homelessness, fear, and hope for happiness. What makes the story so unique the poetic stanzas which capture so much detail and emotion in such short prose. Hard to put the book down because the reader looks forward to the next character's update and of course, the interest in how their lives are intertwined. I especially appreciated part three, featuring the parent or guardian's point of view, emphasizing love and concern for the young adult. The writing is beautiful and gives the reader clear feelings of how teens manage movement to maturity.
    • 4/5
      As beautifully written as Helen Frost's stories always are, I love the fact that she includes thorough notes about the various poetic forms she uses. She is a true artist in the way she shapes and molds and plays with her words.
    • 5/5
      Keesha’s house is written by Helen Frost in the traditional poetic forms of sestina and sonnet. She tells the story from the perspective of six troubled teenagers looking for a place where they can be safe. Each character in the story feels like they need to runaway from their problems including pregnancy, homosexuality, drug abuse, sexual abuse, and absent parents. Even with the odds against them the teens struggle to survive and stay in school with the help of Keesha (a high school classmate) and Joe (the owner) who provide a secure home with no questions asked. The book also features the more mature perspective of the adults involved in their lives. I truly enjoyed this book and even though it was written in traditional forms of poetry it still made for an easy and exciting read. Frost doesn’t stay on one particular character to long, with smooth transitions making it appealing for reluctant readers. Grade 9 and up.
    • 5/5
      Keesha’s House is a novel-in-verse by Helen Frost that follows the stories of 7 struggling teenagers. The novel-in-verse format perfectly compliments the stories in this book. Each chapter is written in the perspective of one of the characters. Stephie is pregnant, Jason is the teenage father of Stephie’s baby, Keesha is the child of alcoholic parents and is living on her own, Dontay’s parents are in prison and he is living with a foster family, Carmen lives with her Grandmother and has been in and out of jail, Harris’s parents kicked him out of their house when he told them he was gay, and Katie’s step-father is molesting her. All of these teens are struggling, in one way or another, and all are trying to make it on their own. Their stories converge around Keesha, a strong and caring friend who gives them a safe place to live. The teens in this novel are trying to figure out who they are. They struggle with rules and decisions and are trying to figure out what’s right and wrong. They see how life is unfair, but they don’t give up. I think that is one of the reasons that I liked this novel so much. The teens acknowledge both their own faults, and those of their friends and family, and they struggle to accept and forgive.
    • 5/5
      I wouldn't consider myself a fan of contemporary poetry, but Keesha's House blew me away. Helen Frost really accomplishes something amazing in this work that explores the lives of seven teenagers facing a wide range of challenges and difficulties. The work explores issues of teen pregnancy, alcoholism, death, sexuality, belonging, acceptance, and the difficulties of having less than encouraging/capable parents. The issues are relevant though heavy in nature and Keesha's House would be best for those on the older or mature side of the young adult audience. Stylistically this work is amazing and would serve as a great introduction to those unfamiliar or skeptical of poetic works. The only aspect of the book that I did not care for was in the choice of organization. Each "chapter" contains a poem exploring each of the seven characters' lives. This rapid introduction of characters makes it difficult to engage the overarching narrative at first, but midway through the book everything clears up to reveal an engaging story centered on the only refuge that these teens have--Keesha's House.
    • 4/5
      Written in poetic verse, from multiple point of views, this book captures the realistic hurdles teens often must overcome that usually get overlooked in other novels.
    • 5/5
      Seven teenagers going through various personal trials such as sexual identity crisis, pregnancy, and gang violence all find refuge in the home of a generous man. That house becomes known as Keesha’s House, Keesha being the first teen to tell others of this safe zone. This is a must read for every teenager. The peoms are easy to understand and pull the reader into the lives of the teens dipicted.
    • 5/5
      I found this collection of poetry very enthralling and written as if they were written by young adults or adolescents who had the problems. Helen Frost uses two traditional forms of poetry to show students that the patterns can be modified to allow students to use this mode of writing to talk about their lives. Our students who need help often need different forms of writing to convey what they need to say. I really enjoyed reading the poetry and compare how the writing conveys some of the same ideas found in novels such as Luna and other novels. I also was happy to see that many of the young people found a place where they could be safe and still attend school. They did not have to pay if they could not afford anything. It is in homes like this that young people can come to terms with their problems and begin a move to independence or work things out with their parents.
    • 3/5
      Alternating narrators share their stories about how they came to Keesha's house when they needed a place to stay. Each narrator is a high school student with a different trouble. Stephie's pregnant, Harris was disowned when his father found out he's gay, Dontay is a foster kid whose foster family doesn't seem to care... The neat thing is that instead of free verse, the poems are written in two different traditional forms. Poems from the kids' points of view are written in sestina (a French form) and poems from the adults' point of view are written as sonnets. A note about the poetic forms used is included at the end of the book.

    Book preview

    Keesha's House - Helen Frost

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    Table of Contents

    About the Author

    Copyright Page

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    Please note that poem formatting is best represented on your device at smaller text sizes.

    CAST OF CHARACTERS

    STEPHIE—pregnant, trying to make the right decisions for herself and those she cares about

    JASON—Stephie’s boyfriend, torn between his responsibility to Stephie and the baby and the promise of a college basketball career

    DONTAY—in foster care while his parents are in prison, feeling unwanted both inside and outside the system

    CARMEN—arrested on a DUI charge, waiting in a juvenile detention center for a judge to hear her case

    HARRIS—disowned by his father after disclosing that he’s gay, living in his car and taking care of himself

    KATIE—angry at her mother’s loyalty to an abusive stepfather, losing herself in long hours of work and school

    KEESHA—struggling to find a way to take care of herself and protect her younger brother after her father kicks her out

    Dedicated with love

    to my sister

    Barbara

    PART I

    HOW I SEE IT

    NOW THIS BABY     STEPHIE

    My parents still think I’m their little girl.

    I don’t want them to see me getting bigger,

    bigger every week, almost too big to hide it now.

    But if I don’t go home, where can I go?

    Jason said, You could get rid of it. I thought of how he tossed

    the broken condom in the trash, saying, Nothing

    will happen. Now this baby is that nothing,

    growing fingers in the dark, growing toes, a girl

    or boy, heart pulsing. Not something to be tossed

    aside, not nothing. Love and terror both grow bigger

    every day inside me. Jason showed me where to go

    to take care of it. I looked at him and said, I can’t. Now

    he isn’t talking to me, and if he won’t talk now,

    I know what to expect in six months’ time—nothing.

    His family doesn’t know about the baby. When I used to go

    there every day, his mom would say, It’s nice to have a girl

    around the house. But they have bigger

    dreams than this for Jason. All my questions are like wind-tossed

    papers in the street, and after they’ve been tossed

    around, rain comes, and they’re a soggy mess. Now

    I’m hungry. I had a doughnut, but I need a bigger

    meal. I’m not prepared for this. I know nothing

    about living on my own. At school there’s this girl

    I know named Keesha who told me there’s a place kids go

    and stay awhile, where people don’t ask questions. I go,

    Yeah, sure, okay. I kind of tossed

    my head, like I was just some girl

    who wouldn’t care. But now

    I wish I’d asked her the exact address. (Nothing

    wrong with asking.) To lots of girls, it’s no big

    deal to have a baby. They treat it like a big

    attention getter—when the baby’s born, they go

    around showing it off to all their friends. But nothing

    like this ever happens in my family. Mom and Dad won’t toss

    me out, or even yell at me, if I go home right now.

    But how can I keep acting like the girl

    they think I am—a carefree teenage girl with nothing

    big to worry me. As for what I’ve started thinking now—

    don’t go there. Heads is bad; tails is worse: like that no-win coin toss.

    WHAT’S RIGHT?     JASON

    Coach keeps asking me what’s wrong.

    I missed the free throw, cost our team the game.

    I thought I could count on you, he said,

    quiet, really puzzled, those dark eyes steady,

    looking through me. How can I say, Forget

    the championship, forget the scholarship, college

    is out of the question? And without college—

    what? You want to know what’s wrong?

    I want to know what’s right. I can’t forget

    Stephie’s eyes, the light through her tears. The old game

    plan won’t work now. Are you two going steady?

    Coach asked. He was serious. He said,

    She’s a lovely girl, Jason. All I can say

    is, times have changed. In his day, you went to college,

    married the lovely girl you’d gone steady

    with for four years. Nothing went wrong

    like this. I wish I could play the game

    like that. I wish I could forget

    about this baby. But I can’t forget

    the night it happened. Stephie said

    she loved watching me play in the big game;

    she loved the brains that got me into college,

    but there was more than that. I was wrong

    if I thought that was all she saw in me. Steady

    light in her eyes. I want to be steady

    for her now. But I’m not. I can’t. Forget

    it. It’s all turning out wrong.

    When I drove her past the clinic, she said,

    You want me to kill our baby so you can go to college,

    play basketball, be a big hero in every big game?

    Those words: Kill our baby. No. This is not a game.

    I need some kind of job, a steady

    income. I could stay here and go to college

    part-time, but I’d have to forget

    about my basketball career. Whoever said

    these are the best years of your life was wrong.

    But Stephie’s also wrong. I don’t think everything’s a game.

    I just can’t

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