Francesca Butler (“Fresca”) is a 17-year-old girl who lives in what she calls the “cowburbs.” Not quite the country and not quite the suburbs, the cowburbs offer Fresca adventure and room to grow, but also confusion and loneliness. The story is told from the point of view of a smart and sometimes sarcastic teenage girl who struggles to find happiness after the tragic death of her father, the mysterious disappearance of her friend Laurel Dee, and her boyfriend’s battle with Internet Addiction Disorder. Fresca loses a friend who dies from inhaling fumes from an aerosol can, and develops a close bond with her best friend, Veronica, who eases her through a case of “textitis” from too much texting. Veronica becomes an inspiring role model for Fresca when she shaves off all of her hair to protest the importance placed on physical attractiveness in their high school. Fresca also depicts a close relationship with her mother, whose “seventh sense” allows her to understand Fresca in intimate ways, but this relationship is challenged when her mother acquires a new boyfriend who doesn’t seem to like Fresca, or teenagers in general. With the help of her mom, her friends, and a sense of humor, Fresca discovers that love and happiness are not only possible, but waiting for her amidst a flock of dragonflies.
The title poem of Donelle Dreese's remarkable collection Organelle tells us, "(t)his is about getting to know each other / again as a planetary imperative." These striking poems are a path into intimate awareness of the planet we inhabit but scarcely know, and with no less guides than the personas of Rachel Carson and her sisterhood of scientists and environmental activists, named and unnamed. "I think of what needs tending," says the speaker in the poem, "Mothering." Dreese's poems provide the answer: we all do, "from the salted mountain / to the dog barking at a strawberry moon / both familiar and phenomenal." -Pauletta Hansel, Cincinnati Poet Laureate Emeritus Donelle Dreese's poems are delicate and courageous, teaching us about wisdom and compassion. Part I recreates the portrait of Rachel Carson and leads us into a world rife with subtle knowledge about plants, animals, and nature. Dreese's metaphors connect the unexpected and the transcendent. Her work provides models of ecofeminism and fights to preserve the environment. Her poems treasure moments of grace, inviting us to share ceremonies and rituals, kindness and patience. As the lines in one of her poems invite, "Bring your color. All of it. Let every green grave / be a grand piano with moss on its keys. After / a long life, you might hear songs, long to play." -Lucia Cherciu, Train Ride to Bucharest Throughout Organelle, Donelle Dreese makes vivid the contributions of women to science with a lyrical precision befitting their love of the discipline while connecting their work to a vast natural spirituality. In "Rachel Carson at Woods Hole . . . " Dreese writes, "She took long shoreline walks / tide-pooling, examining / her own approachable soul / swirling its finger in a tunnel / of deep time." Laced throughout the collection is environmental concern and call to action-"Do something . . . Your own emerald heart is on fire." Yet the whole book insists on hope, encouraging us to "grow hardwood brave." Dreese takes us on the very "return to lyric forests" which she explores: deep, nimble, nourishing, wild, a restful yet invigorating canopy of starfish and strawberry, tidal pool and snow. -Taunja Thomson, The Profusion
Seventeen-year-old Fresca struggles to find happiness after the tragic death of her father, the mysterious disappearance of a friend, and her boyfriend's battle with Internet Addiction Disorder. She discovers that love and happiness are not only possible, but also waiting for her amidst a flock of dragonflies.
Denver Oakley's home town of Adina, Pennsylvania has become a world on fire. The abandoned coal mines underneath the town are a blazing inferno, the escaping smoke and gases killing vegetation and making residents sick. Denver, who recently lost her parents, feels adrift and alone. She sells the family home, drops out of college and takes refuge in Isabel Beach, North Carolina. There, white, scalloped beaches and a coastal wildlife sanctuary provide Denver with a sense of belonging and a new focus. And then she receives a letter from Josh, a good friend who disappeared from Adina before Denver left. In the letter, Josh asks her to return to their hometown and meet with him at their old meeting place on the river. She thought she'd never go back, and is still not convinced she can re-open those old wounds. But if she ignores the letter, Denver will always wonder what might have been.
Francesca Butler (“Fresca”) is a 17-year-old girl who lives in what she calls the “cowburbs.” Not quite the country and not quite the suburbs, the cowburbs offer Fresca adventure and room to grow, but also confusion and loneliness. The story is told from the point of view of a smart and sometimes sarcastic teenage girl who struggles to find happiness after the tragic death of her father, the mysterious disappearance of her friend Laurel Dee, and her boyfriend’s battle with Internet Addiction Disorder. Fresca loses a friend who dies from inhaling fumes from an aerosol can, and develops a close bond with her best friend, Veronica, who eases her through a case of “textitis” from too much texting. Veronica becomes an inspiring role model for Fresca when she shaves off all of her hair to protest the importance placed on physical attractiveness in their high school. Fresca also depicts a close relationship with her mother, whose “seventh sense” allows her to understand Fresca in intimate ways, but this relationship is challenged when her mother acquires a new boyfriend who doesn’t seem to like Fresca, or teenagers in general. With the help of her mom, her friends, and a sense of humor, Fresca discovers that love and happiness are not only possible, but waiting for her amidst a flock of dragonflies.
From Maine's Acadia National Park to Kentucky's Natural Bridge State Park Nature Preserve, this volume provides a snapshot of the most spectacular and important natural places in the East and Northeast. America's Natural Places: East and Northeast examines over 50 of the most spectacular and important areas of this region, with each entry describing the importance of the area, the flora and fauna that it supports, threats to the survival of the region, and what is being done to protect it. Organized by state within the volume, this work informs readers about the wide variety of natural areas across the east and northeast and identifies places that may be near them that demonstrate the importance of preserving such regions.
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