The Horn Book Guide

OLDER FICTION

Dana, Barbara

A Voice of Her Own: Becoming Emily Dickinson

348 pp. | HarperTeen | March, 2009 | Trade ISBN 978-0-06-028704-7 $16.99

(1) YA Boldly casting Emily as first-person narrator, Dana fashions a voice that presages the poet's works, evoking nineteenth-century prose as challenged by its most free-spirited practitioner. Skillfully, Dana limns the Dickinson family's characters, the quiet events of Emily's childhood and young adulthood, and her inner life. Altogether, a touching, believable overview of the sources of Dickinson's uncompromisingly truthful poetic voice. Reading list.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2009