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Keesha’s House by Helen Frost
Module 1-What is YA? Printz Award Winner
Bibliography
Frost, Helen. Keesha's house. New York: Frances Foster Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003. ISBN 0-374-34064-1
Critical Analysis
Using poetic styles such as sonnets and sestinas, Frost uniquely crafts authentic characters with convincing voices through little text. The result is a thoughtful, powerful and somber novel in prose form that offers up treasured moments of joy in the middle of pain and fear. Set in an urban area near a high school, teens are taught that although they may not always be able to count on the ones who are supposed to care for them, the faithful person who reaches out to them is a gift they should honor by reaching out to others. Some of the house’s inhabitants need its safety. Some want its warmth and companionship. But all require the solitude and security they cannot find anywhere else. Keesha is young herself and still hurting but she touches others who also need what she has found-a home. She can’t protect them, save them or change their situation. But she can listen to them and sit with them as long as they need her.
Book Hook
What would you do if you knew someone at school needed a place to stay? There are all kinds of reasons why someone may need help. Would you be there if they needed you?
“I made one good decision three months back. It spreads its light ahead of me, and I walk on.” (Frost 2003, 107)
“Keesha’s face looks hard sometimes, but she’s kind-hearted. Her eyes can look right through you. Straight across whatever secret you might carry, she follows and stays with you.” (Frost 2003, 44)
“Tobias Walker, age fourteen, found dead. Has anyone ever asked what Tobias was doing on that street on a school-day afternoon?” (Frost, 2003, 87)
External Assessments
School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up-Frost has taken the poem-story to a new level with well-crafted sestinas and sonnets, leading readers into the souls and psyches of her teen protagonists. The house in the title isn't really Keesha's; it belongs to Joe. His aunt took him in when he was 12, and now that he's an adult and the owner of the place, he is helping out kids in the same situation. Keesha needs a safe place to stay-her mother is dead; her father gets mean when he drinks, and he drinks a lot. She wants to stay in school, all these teens do, and Keesha lets them know they can stay at Joe's. There's Stephie, pregnant at 16, and terrified to tell anyone except her boyfriend. Harris's father threw him out when his son confided that he is gay. Katie's stepfather has taken to coming into her room late at night, and her mother refuses to believe her when she tells. Carmen's parents have run off, and she's been put into juvie for a DUI. Dontay is a foster kid with two parents in jail. Readers also hear from the adults in these young people's lives: teachers, parents, grandparents, and Joe. It sounds like a soap opera, but the poems that recount these stories unfold realistically. Revealing heartbreak and hope, these poems could stand alone, but work best as a story collection. Teens may read this engaging novel without even realizing they are reading poetry. Angela J. Reynolds, Washington County Cooperative Library Services, Hillsboro, OR Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Booklist
Gr. 6-10. Like Virginia Euwer Wolff's True Believer (2001) and much contemporary YA fiction, this moving first novel tells the story in a series of dramatic monologues that are personal, poetic, and immediate, with lots of line breaks that make for easy reading, alone or in readers' theater. Keesha finds shelter in a house in her inner-city neighborhood and helps other troubled teens find home and family there ("like finding a sister when I'm old / enough to pick a good one"). Stephie is pregnant, and she's heartbroken that her boyfriend doesn't want the baby. Harris is gay; his dad has thrown him out. Carmen is fighting addiction. Dontay's parents are in jail, and he doesn't feel comfortable in his latest foster home. Interwoven with the angry, desperate teen voices are those of the adults in their lives: caring, helpless, abusive, and indifferent. In a long note, Frost talks about the poetic forms she has used, the sestina and the sonnet. But most readers will be less interested in that framework than in the characters, drawn with aching realism, who speak poetry in ordinary words and make connections. Hazel Rochman Copyright © American Library Association.
