Verse Novel Challenge: Out of the Dust

My apologies for my sparse blogs of late. I have three main reasons (read: excuses):

1. My parents are visiting
2. I'm rewriting my book (more on that tomorrow)
3. All the other stuff of life: amazing kids, dashingly handsome sidekick, cooking, cleaning, colds, appointments, weird pregnancy hormones, etc.

I've also been reading, because I can't write well without reading well.
I read Out of the Dust  by Karen Hesse while I was down in LA at the SCBWI conference.

I've come to a general conclusion: I love verse novels. I love the language, their way with words, their beautiful sense of simplicity.

It's almost maddening how much I enjoyed this book. But "enjoyed" is such a wrong word because the experience was gut-wrenching, but the ending was so satisfying, and everything about it was so simple. This book took me on an emotional journey and saying I "enjoyed" it is like describing a trip to the moon as "nice." Inadequate.

I'm coming out of this reading with a selfish desire. I want to learn how an author can say so much in so few words. I want that genius for myself.

I made my mother read Out of the Dust as soon as she arrived at my house. She cried. A lot. And thanked me.

I don't usually like making my mother cry, but in this case it was gratifying.