Entry 3: And We Stay

"Crib for pencils matchbooks
splinters of trees in my apron
restructured trunks all over

the place My desk once an oak
its rings now blocked
angles of legs and grooves

Paper I write on past
maple or pine so many
limbs gone sapless

Time has tucked in
arranged days waking
sweeping feeding the cat

washing a plate as moonlight
wants reading poems as
the week unfolds

then folds again
Morning gasses
I can't recall numbers

count back to zero stunned
That I came to be born
The whole night is shrinking

trunks and twigs
kindling to ash the fabric
of sky taken in Seams

hold only so long then
fray frazzle dangle us
all in the dark

when I fall
what pocket
will cradle me?"

This passage from the book is one of the 33 poems "written" by the main character Emily Beam at the end of a chapter.  This poem is one of the last ones written in the book and comes near the very end. While writing this poem Emily was standing in Emily Dickinsons old home where she wrote her poems. Before this Emily had talked about how she felt a connection with Emily Dickinson and maybe believed in reincarnation. While there Emily seems to feel a much stronger connection to Emily Dickinson and writes this poem.  I think this well help hook readers in partially because the poetry is very beautiful and helps show the writers graceful style of writing and because the content of the poem while reading into it is very intriguing.

Entry 4: And We Stay

fter finishing the book And We Stay I was very glad to have chosen it out of the list. I chose this book because I wanted to read one that was written recently so I first looked into the ones that won or were honored in 2015. I naturally looked at the winner, I'll Give You the Sun, first but didn't like the idea of alternating perspectives between both people and times so I looked at the next book on the list, The  Carnival At Bray. This book seemed interesting but I wanted to read something with less of a love story than this one seemed to have. The next book on the list was And We Stay which I thought seemed interesting and had poetry at the end of each chapter which seemed interesting. The next two books just didn't seem as interesting as And We Stay so I decided to read that. After reading I never really felt a personal connection to the main character Emily. The only similarity I really found was she uses poetry as a creative outlet and I enjoy writing stories and occasionally read poetry for fun but never write it. I couldn't find a lot of personal connections in this article as it deals with something I've never experienced and is set in a boarding school when I've only gone to public school. I would recommend this book to my cousin because she is also into poetry as a way to express her feelings and skipped entering a poetry contest in the past out of fear of losing. Overall I found this book thought provoking and interesting. I looked forward to reading it and finding out more all the time.

Entry 2: And We Stay

The main character of my book, And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard, is a 17 year old girl named Emily Beam. At this point in my book the reader has just found out then before and maybe when Emily's ex-boyfriend Paul killed himself, Emily was pregnant. The readers can assume from things that were said, that she's not pregnant now, and doesn't seem to have a baby, that Emily had an abortion. The abortion may have been what caused Paul to threaten Emily then kill himself. Right now Emily's seems to want to understand why this caused Paul to kill himself and how to get over the guilt of both the abortion and her boyfriend's suicide. Emily's French teacher and her new roommate K.T., other major characters, seem to know that Emily is going through something and wants to help her use her poetry to help rebuild get confidence and help her get better. K.T. also seems to want to be Emily's friend as she seemed to be best friends with the girl who used to live with her in Emily's room and looking for a new best friend. Themes that are beginning to appear are just because you stop living in the world doesn't mean you won't stop affecting the world. You can see this in Emily's constant guilt and want of understanding over what Paul did. When Paul shot himself it seems like he just wanted to stop having to deal with things or face consequences but now other prod have to do it for him. The structure of And We Stay is very interesting. It is in present tense but third person so Emily's story is being told as it goes on but seemingly not by her. For the flashbacks in this book they often start with phrases such as "Emily tried to forget" or "Emily remembered how" and then goes into past tense while telling about something happened before she got to boarding school. Another interesting thing about the structure of And We Stay is that at the end of each chapter is a poem "written" by Emily that helps show her feelings and reveal things that happened. Now that the book has revealed more about Emily and her boyfriend Paul's relationship I'm even more interested in what happened and how it will continue to affect Emily.

Entry 1: And We Stay

For my summer reading assignment I chose the book And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard. The main character in this book is a 17 year old girl named Emily Beam. Other main characters in this book are Paul Wagoner, Emily's ex-boyfriend, K.T., Emily's new roommate, Emily's teacher, and surprisingly Emily Dickinson plays a major part in this book. The main setting of this book is Amherst School for Girls, a boarding school that Emily Dickinson went to under a different name. However the usual setting for the flashbacks are Emily's home town Grenfell County in Ohio. The main conflict in And We Stay so far is person vs. self conflict where Emily tries to deal with the memories and seemingly guilt over her boyfriend's suicide. Predictions I have for this book so far are that Emily may have broken up with Paul for some reason causing him to threaten her with a gun and then feel so guilty over it he instead kills himself. Questions I have about this book right now are why the girl that lived in Emily's room in boarding school previously moved out before the school year was over. Also, why was Emily in Boston before coming to Amherst School if she previously lived in Ohio? And We Stay reminded me of a book I started but never finished called A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray where a girl is sent to a boarding school away from home after her mother commits suicide, something she feels a lot of guilt over. Overall, so far this book has been very intriguing and makes me want to read more into Emily's story.