Turtle under Ice

December 1, 2019

Gr 7 Up-In the six years since their mother died, Filipino American sisters Rowena and Ariana have dealt with their grief by coasting on autopilot, going through the motions necessary to keep up appearances. They even have had moments of happiness, like anticipating the arrival of a new baby sister by their likable stepmother, Maribel. But when Maribel miscarries 12 weeks into her pregnancy, the sisters' worlds come crashing down. No longer able to fake being all right, they each react in different ways. Ariana sets out in a snowstorm without telling anybody, determined to display artwork inspired by her mother at a downtown art exhibit. Rowena turns inward, rebuffing the attempts of her best friend to help her and focusing on soccer instead. Del Rosario aptly conveys each sister's depth of emotion and pain in beautifully written free verse that alternates viewpoints and helps fill the gaps in the narrative. The lyrical writing is purposefully sparse, but the author does a fine job of building a tangibly melancholy atmosphere using few words. The girls are described as brown-skinned and their dad is Filipino. VERDICT A poignant, quiet novel in verse that will appeal to teens seeking a meaningful story. A recommended purchase.-Melissa Kazan, Horace Mann School, NY

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2019
Two sisters struggle to overcome the loss of their mother. Rowena is a star soccer player with an abundance of friends. Her older sister, Ariana, is quiet, has no talents or hobbies, and pushed away her only friend. At risk of not graduating high school and feeling like a failure, Ariana leaves in the middle of the night without telling anyone. When Row wakes up and finds her sister missing, she feels unmoored. Seeking comfort, Row invites her best friend over but is instead forced to face her feelings head-on, including opening up about the fresh misery of her stepmother's miscarriage. Meanwhile, on a bus heading to the city, Ariana must also confront her inner demons when she runs into her former friend. With a sea of sadness separating them, the sisters must find a way to overcome their own pain and open their eyes to each other's suffering. Told candidly in first-person free verse poems narrated by each sister, this story of siblings navigating the world without their mother is quiet and poignant. Use of plainspoken language to illustrate the intricacies of sisterhood and explore the depths of mourning makes this accessible for reluctant readers. Row and Ariana's father and stepmother are Filipino; their late mother is cued as Chamorro. A moving story about sisterhood, family, and overcoming the insurmountable mountain that is grief. (Verse novel. 12-18)

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December 15, 2019
Grades 9-12 Hewn apart by the death of their mother when they were young, Ariana and Rowena have grown increasingly different and distant from each other. Row, the younger sister, plays the part of school soccer star, pouring her efforts into on-field excellence. Meanwhile, Ariana, on the cusp of graduating high school?or potentially failing out?faces the prospect of a directionless future, while fearing that she will never truly belong anywhere. Rocked by news of their stepmother's miscarriage, both sisters retreat into themselves even more. Row doubles down on sports, and Ariana decides to take more radical steps by wandering off into the snowy night, telling no one where she went. Through twin narratives told in verse, the reader learns how both sisters nurse the still-open wound of their mother's death. While the short description may imply a thriller or mystery, the book is actually a story of profound silences and words not spoken, of secreted pains slowly and steadily revealed. Elegiac and beautiful, del Rosario's tale plumbs the deep relationships between sisters with grace and compassion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)