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Summary
Summary
Carrying just a suitcase and an old laundry bag filled with clothes, Kasienka and her mother are immigrating to England from Poland. Kasienka isn't the happiest girl in the world. At home, her mother is suffering from a broken heart as she searches for Kasienka's father. And at school, Kasienka is having trouble being the new girl and making friends. The only time she feels comforted is when she's swimming at the pool. But she can't quite shake the feeling that she's sinking. Until a new boy swims into her life, and she learns that there might be more than one way to stay afloat.
The Weight of Water is a coming-of-age story that deftly handles issues of immigration, alienation, and first love. Moving and poetically rendered, this novel-in-verse is the story of a young girl whose determination to find out who she is prevails.
Author Notes
Sarah Crossan grew up in Ireland and England. She graduated with a degree in philosophy and literature before training as an English and drama teacher at Cambridge University. She also completed her Masters in creative writing at the University of Warwick. In 2010, she received an Edward Albee Fellowship for writing. She taught English for many years before deciding to writing fulltime. Her teen novels include Breathe, The Weight of Water, Resist: Breathe 2, Apple and Rain, and One. She was awarded The Bookseller's 2016 YA Book Prize as well as the CILIP Carnegie Medal for her novel, One.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Written in verse, in the voice of a Polish girl forced to move to England with her mother, this is a wrenching but hopeful story of displacement, loneliness, and survival. In their one-room rental, Kasienka, nearly 13, watches helplessly as her mother unravels, determined to track down the husband who abandoned them. Her school life is also bleak: she's initially placed with younger students because of her poor English, teachers are patronizing, her classmates shun her, and the one girl who befriends her suddenly turns on her. Kasienka's observations are insightful and hard-hitting ("I am not an English girl in Gdansk./ I'm a Pole in Coventry./ And that is not the same thing./ At all"), and her resilience prevents her from being a victim. She finds solace in swimming ("Water is another world:/ A land with its own language./ Which I speak fluently"), in the friendship of a neighbor from Kenya, and in her first love. Crossan's (Breathe) verse packs a punch as she examines the power that difference-but also determination-can wield. Ages 10-14. Agent: Sarah Davies, Greenhouse Literary Agency. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
In this contemporary immigration story told in verse, almost-thirteen-year-old Kasienka and her mother move from their home in Gdansk, Poland, to Coventry, England, in search of Kasienka's father, who walked out on them two years before. At night, they go knocking on doors, looking for Tata, while during the day Kasienka is miserably lonely at school in a class with eleven-year-olds: "I thought, maybe, I'd be exotic, / Like a red squirrel among the gray, / Like an English girl would be in Gdansk. / But I am not an English girl in Gdansk. / I'm a Pole in Coventry. / And that is not the same thing / At all." Once she finally moves up to the next grade, she makes two friends: Clair, a popular girl who quickly turns on her, and William, who becomes her first boyfriend. The free-verse narrative presents Kasienka's feelings with economical precision, reflecting her distress but also her resilient nature as she endures bullying, delights in the physical sensations of kissing William, and finally finds her father and accepts his new life. The book realistically depicts modern-day middle school dynamics for an outsider of any kind, and Kasienka solves her own problems gradually: "William is in eighth grade. / He could save me from the pack. / But he does not want to: / He knows / I can save / Myself." susan dove lempke (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
In this emotional novel in verse, 12-year-old Kasienka emigrates from Poland to Coventry, England, to search for her missing father. Kasienka has a difficult transition as she and her mother move into a crumbling studio apartment, she is unfairly bumped down to sixth grade because of her broken English, and she is teased by the girls at school for being different. While her mother searches door-to-door each evening for her missing husband, Kasienka finds refuge in swimming. The sparse nonrhyming format gives the novel an extra emotional punch as Kasienka struggles with her mother's depression, her strained relationship with her father, and the bullying she is subjected to at school. No easy answers present themselves as Kasienka's story unfolds, though she does learn to stand up for herself and fight back. (A first romance thankfully adds a tender element to the story.) A powerful coming-of-age novel about family and discovering how to be true to yourself.--Thompson, Sarah Bean Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6-9-Kasienka and her mother have left their home in Poland to find the father and husband who left them a few years before. They arrive in the UK with some meager possessions and only a vague notion of where to find a man who may not wish to be found. Kasienka feels "all wrong," a feeling that only gets worse when she finds herself in the crosshairs of one of her school's alpha girls. On top of the bullying, she must travel door to door each night acting as her mother's voice in a demeaning search for her father. Kasienka tells her tale through graceful, effortless verse that succinctly captures the immigrant experience in a way that anyone who has ever felt left out could easily embrace. This is a sweet, well-paced tale not without a silver lining; Kasienka finds happiness and the stirrings of first love in an unexpected place-the swimming pool. Those who have wished for an older version of Carolyn Marsden's The Gold-Threaded Dress (Candlewick, 2002) or Eleanor Estes's The Hundred Dresses (Harcourt, 1944) need look no further. The Weight of Water will more than fill the hole.-Jill Heritage Maza, Montclair Kimberley Academy, Montclair, NJ (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
In this taut portrayal of the immigrant experience, 12-year-old Kasienka moves with Mama from Gdansk, Poland, to Coventry, England, to find Tata, her father. The adjustment is difficult. At school, Kasienka is ostracized. At home, she questions why they are searching for a man who ran from them. When Kasienka complains, Mama questions her love. Kasienka feels powerful only when she swims at the pool--something Tata taught her to do. That is also where William, a schoolmate, first notices her. Narrating in image-rich free verse that packs an emotional punch, Kasienka describes what life is like for a new arrival while also exploring universal themes of abandonment, loyalty, bullying and first love. Concise lines and brief poems--two to three pages at most--mirror her tentative steps in an alien world, offering snapshots of her experiences and thoughts. Her story is broken into three parts, emphasizing the stages Kasienka goes through, with the last providing "starting blocks," as it were. Sweetheart William encourages her to swim; through swimming, Kasienka reconnects with her father; she and Mama make peace; and the school bully is rendered powerless in the face of Kasienka's hard-won happiness. It is fitting that some of the last poems are entitled "Metamorphosis" and "Forgiveness." The Epilogue, "Butterfly," offers good advice for living: "[P]ull, / Push, / Recover." Memorable. (Verse fiction. 10-14)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
