Eleven-year-old Lonnie Collins Motion, nicknamed Locomotion, navigates life in foster care after a house fire kills his parents and separates him from his younger sister, Lili. Living with Miss Edna, Lonnie uses a series of sixty short poems to document his daily experiences, his grief, and his observations of the Brooklyn streets. Through various poetic forms like sonnets, haiku, and free verse, he recounts specific memories of his family, his struggles in the classroom, and his efforts to maintain a connection with Lili during their supervised weekend visits.
This book serves middle-grade readers and educators interested in how creative writing functions as a tool for emotional processing. Readers find a technical introduction to poetic structures while observing how a young person translates private trauma into a public voice. The text provides a model for using verse to organize memory and reclaim identity when external circumstances feel chaotic. It leaves the reader with a clear depiction of how specific literary constraints can help a writer articulate loss and find stability in a new environment.
Inward-looking and thought-provoking; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Empathetic Explorer. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2003
- Language
- EN
