Seventh Summer Read, 2019: Crossan

Moonrise by Sarah Crossan

This is my first verse novel. For someone who loves poetry, I leapt into this and whizzed through it. 24 hours and my first affair with the verse novel was over. It was wonderful.

As we decided to teach it to our Year 9s this year, I’ve unfortunately been contemplating how I’d teach it as I read through it. Even though I’ll be on maternity leave and won’t be teaching it this year, I still can’t help but think about how I’d teach it. So...I’ve read it differently.

I’ve read it in the eyes of a teacher rather than me. It’s almost impossible to turn that off. I now can’t read any dystopian fiction as I’ll automatically compare it to Handmaid’s Tale or 1984 like we have to for the exam. It’s quite frustrating. Maybe that goes one day. I’ll even read a newspaper and think which articles I could use for certain classes. Text and words are everywhere and that’s what I like to bring into class - new writing to enhance previous study.

Anyway, back to Moonrise:

I love the range of chapter/poem lengths. Its interesting to see how she’s chosen the length of stanzas and how effective her enjambment is. There are also letters written in verse form. Quite fascinating for lovers of the changing world of form. It shows how people are experimenting - like we've done throughout all of literary history. Shakespearean sonnets were, after all, just a experiment with a Petrarchan sonnet.

Most of all, I’m hooked on the story of Ed.

As it’s written through verse, there’s some mystery being left out. That omission is addictive. I literally sped through the end to see what happened. I remember talking to my partner but wanting to finish talking as I wanted to carry on and read (sorry, Oscar!).

So yes, the story had me from the beginning but so did the form. I’m fascinated and I think this form of novel has a long lifetime and a lot more success to come.

We have some lucky Year 9s starting to study this novel this week.

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