the Last True Poets of the Sea

the Last True Poets of the Sea

"The Larkin family isn't just lucky--they persevere. At least
that's what Violet and her younger brother, Sam, were always told.
When the Lyric sank off of the coast of Maine, their great-great-great
grandmother didn't drown like the rest of the passengers. No, Fidelia
swam to shore, fell in love, and founded Lyric, Maine, the town Violet
returned to every summer."
Now and then, after I do a book review, when I look at the
jacket blurb I wonder if the person who wrote it and I had read the
same book. Of course we had. We had just read it from very different
perspectives. Julia Drake's the Last True Poets of the Sea aroused
that feeling very strongly in me.
The other reviewer focussed on the shipwreck Violet and Sam had
dreamed of finding and Violet's renewed interest in locating it.
Basically the whole town history is built around Fidelia's survival
and marriage. The unofficial town motto reads, "Their love was our
beginning." That strand of the story in itself is enough to make a
great read.
The strand that resonated the most with me, though, was the
reason Violet was at Lyric and Sam wasn't. Just like Violet, I was
the normal sibling of a very fragile child. Sam is very smart but
unable to perceive and deal with reality like most people do. His
crises, large and small, are normally the focus of his parents...until
Violet gets suspended from school for smoking weed. Then when they
are distracted trying to turn her life around Sam tries to commit
suicide. So that summer Sam is in a youth psychiatric facility and
Violet is in the custody of her uncle.
There's a lot to occuppy Violet. There's the search for papers
and other artifacts that can narrow down the shipwreck search area.
There's a job at an aquarium with a cute and intriguing coworker.
There is the community she's becoming a part of. But there's also the
untangling of the complex and sometimes contradictory feelings she has
about Sam and the discovery of who she can be when she isn't in his
shadow.
For this reason, although with the shipwreck tale the Last True
Poets of the Sea will appeal to a wide range of YA readers, I consider
it a must read for teens like Violet and me back in the day.
On a purrrsonal note, it's been a good week with two really good
things happening. One was that Georgia, Maddie, and I did our
PowerPoint in class and it went really well. The other was that a
Multicultural Center lunch and learn I saw the UMaine president. I
told her how I'm going to be doing a poster presentation on the
partnership dining has with Black Bear Exchange to provide food to
students in need, one that is so far unique, at an international
conference. She was impressed. It will be good publicity.
A great big shout out goes out to Georgia and Maddie. It was great
working with you.
jules hathaway


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