Diamond Willow (11 page)

Sometimes Willow gives someone a ride—Zanna, or Kaylie and Richard, or Jon.

It's not so dark now, these late afternoons when she comes home and melts snow for the dogs.

Today, after all the dogs are fed and watered, Willow turns to Roxy:
Come on, let's go inside.

Later, when the sun goes down, a light comes on in Willow's room, shining from the lamp that Willow and her father made. In the circle of its light, Willow sits cross-legged on the bed with Roxy.

It looks for all the world like the two of them are deep in conversation.

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank—

Everyone at Farrar, Straus and Giroux for all they do. Special thanks to Frances Foster for her vision, wisdom, and friendship, and to Janine O'Malley for her countless manifestations of thoughtful support.

The people of Telida, Nikolai, and McGrath, Alaska; special thanks to Agnes Eluska Marker, who read the manuscript and answered my questions.

Dr. Eliza Jones, Athabascan elder, scholar, and trusted friend, for careful reading and thoughtful suggestions.

Jeff King, Iditarod champion, for help with dog-mushing questions; Louise Magoon for medical knowledge; Bob Gander and Ken Laninga for information about diamond willow.

Good readers Danae DeJournett; Mary Clare DuRocher; Ana, Cara, and Gretchen Liuzzi; Ingrid Wendt; Claire Ewart; and members of the Indiana Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

My family and the animals who live with us and around us. Special love and thanks to the Bartlett family; to Glen; and to Lloyd, Penny, Cameron, and Jordan, and their dog, Roxanne. As always, thanks to Chad—and a quick smile to the mouse who ran through our house and blinked at us.

HELEN FROST

Answers Questions from Her Readers

Have you ever ridden a dog sled? Did you go very fast? Have you ever crashed?

Yes, I've ridden several dog sleds, not too fast. I've never crashed. My experience in crashing has been on bikes, cross-country skis, and one time running down a sand dune, knowing I was going too fast and about to lose my balance, and then I did. The worst part was that my father had a movie camera going, and recorded my face-down-splat-in-the-sand for everyone to watch over and over again.

Why were you in Alaska?

My aunt lived in Alaska when I was a child. When she came to visit, she showed slides and told stories about living there; that was when I first wanted to go to Alaska.

Later, I became a teacher and taught for three years in a one-teacher school in Telida, a small (25 people) Athabascan community in the interior part of the state. The people who lived there became like family to me.

At other times, I worked at Denali National Park, raised small children in Fairbanks, and taught fifth grade in Ketchikan.

Do you follow the Iditarod?

When I lived in Telida, the Iditarod came through the nearby towns of Nikolai, McGrath, and Takotna, so I followed it closely during those years. One year, one of the mushers, Miki Collins, was from a town near Telida, and the whole school went to Nikolai to cheer her on (remember this was a small school, nine students that year). Miki later mentioned us in a book she wrote,
Trapline Twins,
describing how we met her and gave her grape juice when she arrived in Nikolai after midnight.

I've known several other mushers, too—I met Herbie Nayokpuk in Shishmaref before I knew anything about the Iditarod, and later found out that he was very well-known and much loved by Iditarod mushers and fans. I met Jeff King just as he was beginning his racing career, and now he's won the Iditarod four times. When I was writing
Diamond Willow,
Jeff read the manuscript and answered my questions about sled dogs.

How many times do you have to rewrite a poem to get it to fit in your shape?

It used to be possible to answer this question. When I wrote poems mostly on paper, I could just count the number of different pages, and that would be how many times I rewrote the poem. For
Diamond Willow,
I wrote each poem in a rough shape on paper, and then worked on the computer to finish it. The changes were ongoing, so I can't count the drafts. I can only answer “lots.”

Do you ever get sick of following your own rules when you write poems?

When it's working, as it did in this final form of
Diamond Willow,
it's fun, and I don't get sick of it. But sometimes before I find the form for a new book, I work with my own rules for several months before admitting to myself that it's not working. That's not fun. If it happens, I take a break and then come back and try something new. When I eventually do find the form that moves the story forward, it's exciting to see it all fall into place.

Have you ever met Gary Paulsen?

I've met him the way you've met me—by reading his books. Once I heard him speak, but I didn't have a chance to talk with him personally.

How cold does it get in Alaska?

Alaskans like to say things like, “It's so cold that you can spit and hear it crackle before it hits the ground.” But when it really is that cold (40–60 degrees below zero), you're too busy keeping a birch fire going in the woodstove, and trying to keep your boot liners dry, and cooking big pots of moose soup, to ever remember to spit in order to find out if that saying is true.

One thing I love is on a day when it gets warmer after it has been cold for a long time, there are patches of warmer air, like someone is stirring the air, and you can walk from bitter cold into a warmer place. It might still be very cold—maybe 20 below instead of 40 below—but you can feel the difference as you walk along.

Another thing I love is the Northern Lights.

Did you know that you can hear things from farther away on a cold day?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Note: None of these questions has a “right answer.” They are suggestions of things you might think about or talk over with someone else who has read
Diamond Willow.

1. Do you think Willow is lonely? Is being lonely the same as being alone?

2. Is having a pet just as good as having a person-friend?

3. What does Willow discover that makes it easier for her to make new friends?

4. Have you ever experienced the death of someone who loves you? If so, do you sometimes feel like their love for you is still somewhere in the world, as expressed by the animals in
Diamond Willow?

WRITING IDEAS

1. Try writing a diamond-shaped poem of your own. Can you put a “hidden message” inside it?

2. Observe an animal without writing anything down. Pay close attention to what sounds it makes, how it moves, what it eats, how it relates to other animals, and how it relates to people. Then write a story or poem from the point of view of the animal. Give it to someone to read, without naming the animal, and see if they can figure out “who” is speaking.?

3. Make your own rules for a poem and see how hard it is to follow them. If it doesn't lead you to discover something fun or interesting, try a different rule.

     Examples:

• A poem of three stanzas, four lines each, that has a different color in each stanza.

• A poem shaped like a circle, square, triangle, or rectangle.

• A poem, at least ten lines long, that doesn't say anything true.

THINGS YOU MIGHT LIKE

Please note that some of the links referenced in this work are no longer active.

Spinning Through the Universe
by Helen Frost

If you enjoy trying to write in the voices of different people, or using different forms (rules) for your poems, this book will give you a lot of new ideas.

 

Websites

 

http://iditarodblogs.com/zuma

Zuma's Paw Prints, using the Iditarod in the classroom

 

www.iditarod.com

the official Iditarod website

 

www.helenfrost.net

Helen Frost's website

 

An accidental kidnapping leaves unanswered questions. Years later, the truth is revealed.