Kissing Annabel: Love, Ghosts, & Facial Hair and A Place Like This (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Kissing Annabel: Love, Ghosts, & Facial Hair and A Place Like This Karen Coats Herrick, Steven . Kissing Annabel: Love, Ghosts, & Facial Hair and A Place Like This. Simon Pulse, 2009 137p. Paper ed. ISBN 978-1-4169-8287-6 $7.99 R Gr. 7-10 This volume contains two verse novels previously published separately in Australia: Love, Ghosts, & Facial Hair and A Place Like This. In the first book, Jack and his family attempt to come to terms with the loss of Jack's mother to breast cancer. Jack meets Annabel, and her acceptance of the fact that he writes poetry and talks to the ghost of his mom helps him through his grief. In the second book, Jack and Annabel decide to forego university and get in their car and spend a year driving around the country. After only two days, however, they run out of gas, and they're picked up by a farmer who needs their help harvesting apples. While at the farm, the two learn more about who they are and what they want through their relationship with the farmer's pregnant teenaged daughter. The poems are all free verse, each written in the voice of one of the characters, most only a couple of pages long; each is titled, and a table of contents appears at the beginning of each book. The poetry is simple yet lyrical, with the most poignant moments coming through the poems in Jack's father's voice. Herrick does not overuse imagery or figurative language, preferring instead to work with repetition of sounds, gentle rhythms, and straightforward sense depictions. The effect is subtle and quietly realistic; readers who enjoy real romance laced with an appreciation for and love of family will enjoy this antipodean import. Copyright © 2009 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois