Hidden by Helen Frost
Poetry sure has changed over the years. To express the words spilling out from their hearts, authors do not have to fill in the paragraphs but they are allowed to follow their own rhythm, to create a music masterpiece on the page. To form a dance with the words on a blank script, an illusion for all to read and notice. For some readers, they feel the magnitude of the words, they understand the power and the drama these words provide and for others, these words offer confusion. The confusion lies for the words seems out of place, they are dancing out of line, there is no structure in a world where the reader needs it. For everyone is different and poetry is just another form of reading, you feel it and can understand the merit behind its language or you can’t.
In Hidden, this book is told in alternating viewpoints using poetry. Wren was waiting for her mother in the car when it gets hijacked. Safely hidden in the backseat, she finds herself in Darra’s garage, hidden from police. The TV shouts the news about the hijacking, the shots fired, and the missing child. The hijackers did not realize that Wren was in the vehicle when they drove off with it and now, it’s too late. Darra is wondering if Wren is in her garage and what she can do now. They are both the same age and she realizes how scared she must be. With the situation escalating, the tension building, Wren realizes she hasn’t much time to react. I feel as if I am scanning the garage, finding anything to help the situation, I see it as soon as Wren recognizes it and she quick, she’s not wasting any time. The story fast-forward’s six years and somehow they end up at the same camp (this is amazing, I feel) and it wasn’t long before they realize how they are connected. Over the past six years, their lives have been affected by this dramatic event and now they have to deal with facing each other. It’s the pace of the story, the rhythm and the tone as it slides up and down that makes or breaks this story for the reader. It’s amazing to me how an author can create such a story using poetry, how they can create this dramatic event using short lines and few words. This author also included a special trick; using the long lines of her poetry she has the readers draw special attention to one word to create another story line. This additional story line was not revealed until the acknowledgments in the back of the book.
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