Student Saturday: Diamond Willow by Helen Frost

 

Genre:  Middle Grade, Adventure, Novel in Verse

Student Reviewer:  Anna H.

 “Diamond Willow” by Helen Frost is a beautiful book with many different perspectives from a variety of characters. Diamond Willow (Willow) is a twelve-year-old girl from Alaska who lives in a cabin with her mother, Father, and Zanna, her little sister. Willow and her dad train dogs to pull them on the sled and teach them the way around the forest. Willow’s father was on a dog sled the day willow was born and found a diamond willow stick which is where she got her name from. Roxy is their best sled dog who leads in most of their rides and knows her way around the entire area. Willow feels as though her parents view her as a little kid and no one sees who she really is, but there is more to Willow than others see. Shes not much of a social butterfly and only has one friend, not including Roxy, named Kaylie. Kaylie is too focused on her crush, Richard, anyway which makes Willow seem like she really is alone. Willow's grandma and grandpa adore her and only live only about twelve miles down one of the sledding trails. Willow had been begging her parents to let her drive the dog sled by herself to her grandparents for forever, but they always thought she was too young. One day both of her parents agree that she may venture alone to her grandparents. Her and her father set up the sled with Roxy as the lead dog and she was on her way. Her ancestors watch over her in the form of animals to ensure that the trip goes smoothly. Sadly, on her way home, Willow and the dogs were going too fast to see a fallen tree and crashed. Willow got stabbed in the leg with a stick and poor Roxy had her gorgeous sparkling eyes jabbed with branches. Willow rushed over to Roxy and stopped the bleeding that gushed from her eyes and began her way home not sure what would happen. Willow told her parents, and they were furious, but they held themselves together well. Turns out that Roxy had been blinded and now their best sled dog could never see again. As willow eavesdropped on her parents, she heard that they were going to put down the dog. She couldn't let this happen so the next day she loaded the sled and took Kaylie with her to her grandparents' house. She put Roxy safely in the sled and left without her parents knowing. They happened to take a wrong turn and got lost in the woods where they decided to camp in a small shelter. They were found by Richard who brought Kaylie home, but Willow proceeded on to her grandparents' house. When she arrived, her entire family had a heart-to-heart conversation about Roxy and events from the past. They told Willow that she had a twin sister whos name was supposed to be Diamond but when she perished four days after being born Willow took both names. Where they had gotten lost on the trail is where Diamond's ashes had been laid. It would be crazy to think that is just a coincidence, wouldn't it?

   “Diamond Willow” is a book of many secrets and plot twists. You never know what will happen next, but in the end, it turns out to be a very heartwarming story. I loved the way Helen Frost incorporated a diamond shape when writing about Willows thoughts and feelings and adding messages that relate to the paragraph. This book reminds me of what it feels like to be getting older while your parents seem to think you are still five. I recommend this novel to anybody between the ages of 10-14 since they will be able to relate to the main character well.