The Girl Who Became a Tree: A Story Told in Poems
Joseph Coelho, Kate Milner
Subjects
- Poetry - rhyme, rhythm and rap
- Friends & Family - tears and laughter, and happy ever after
Average rating
Daphne is unbearably sad and adrift. She feels the painful loss of her father acutely and seeks solace both in the security of her local library and the escape her phone screen provides by blocking out the world around her. As Daphne tries to make sense of what has happened she recalls memories of shared times and stories past, and in facing the darkness she finds a way back from the tangle of fear and confusion, to feel connected once more with her friends and family. The Girl Who Became a Tree sees Joseph Coelho deploy a wide variety of poetic forms with consummate skill in its narration of events. He seamlessly but searingly weaves together the ancient legend of Daphne, who was turned into a tree to avoid the attentions of the god Apollo, and a totally modern tale, mixing real-life and fantasy, in which a latter-day Daphne seeks her own freedom. This is a heart-stoppingly imaginative story told in poems, at times bleak and even tragic, which is layered, rich and ultimately a tour de force of poetic skill and energy.
Reviews
It was a good book about done stories and poem
Duchess Angora Stegosaurus 14.01.2023
"The Girl Who Became a Tree" by Joseph Coelho is my first ever 'verse novel'(a book written in poems and stanzas) and so I was really interested in how I would feel and react after reading the novel.I rather liked the plot and main storyline, but in some places the atmospheric tension would go low and wasn't very engaging then...The plot is about a teen called Daphne(pronounced as daf-nee) who is feeling sad about the passing away of her father who had died rather recently.Soon, she is lost in her own devices-and I mean that quite literally-,she is lost in the screen of her phone, her own creative imagination and the library.It follows her on her 'transformation' into a tree(like the myth of Daphne who turns into a tree so as not to be noticed by Apollo).It was a very good book with a nice flow to the stanzas and main storyline.Since I enjoyed this book so much,I will definitely try improve my poetic reading skills by reading more novels written in verse(like some of the other books shortlisted for the 2021 CILIP Carnegie Medal-RUN REBEL by Manjeet Mann & CLAP WHEN YOU LAND by Elizabeth Acevedo).Personally,I would have preferred it if this book was written in prose-though it was still good! ,so it would have received the one point it lost...I would really love it if this book was chosen and awarded the CILIP Carnegie Medal of 2021! Overall, this would be my second favorite 2021 Carnegie book underneath ECHO MOUNTAIN by Lauren Wolk and I would definitely recommend this book to my friends with a rating of 3/5.
Queen Amazonia Snivel 07.08.2021
It was very random and boring. I did not like the book nor the characters. I would not recommend the book.
Master Catapult Bouncy-castle 20.07.2021
