Coincidences happened this week.

#speakloudly and banned books and lots of reading started it all off.

I’d already read SPEAK. Loved it. Had no problems with it.

I wanted to read a banned book I hadn’t heard about yet. One I probably wouldn’t want my 12 year old daughter to read. Yet. I stumbled upon CRANK by Ellen Hopkins. An incredible free verse novel following the path of a girl getting high on crank (meth) and the downward spiral of her life. Incredible. Moving. Poetic. Heartfelt. Loved it.

And it does happen. In high school, I had a friend. A nice boy. No reason to think otherwise. In fact, I had a crush on him.

I came to school one day to learn he was in a drug rehab. He snuck out his window at night and was probably high on drugs when he was in school, sitting in front of me in British Lit.

It happens.

So after reading Crank and loving the free-verse novel, I decided to enter Caroline Starr Rose’s free verse novel challenge. Read 5 free verse novel before the end of 2010. I could do that. I read three this week. I’m waiting for one on library loan. And another one from Amazon. Oh and I read I Heart You, You Haunt Me earlier in the year. Done.

And there are benefits to reading and writing poetry that will help your prose.

The flow of language.
              Word choice.
                          Use of visual imagery.

White space.

Less is more.
Writing tight.
                  Word economy.
                            Getting to the point fast.

And the last coincidence? My daughter signed out SPEAK from the library this week. I think it was a test. Am I totally comfortable with her reading it at twelve? Not really. (But, hey, after reading Mockingjay, SPEAK is a walk in the park.)

Did you read any banned books? Do you write poetry to help your prose? Up for the free verse novel challenge?