D-39: A Robodog’s Journey, by Irene Latham and a Book Givaway

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by poet Bridget McGee HERE at Wee Words for Wee Ones. Thank you Bridget for hosting! Be sure to stop by her blog and see what poetry musings she has for us this week.

Are you interested in winning a copy of Irene Latham’s fabulous new MG novel in verse? If so, please LEAVE A COMMENT AT THE END OF THIS POST by 5/10/21.

There are many things to look forward to in 2021. One of them is the release of a Irene Latham’s newest and fast-moving novel, D-39: A Robodog’s Journey. Look for it this month, on May 21st.

The novel is written in prose poems, some divided into stanzas. The prose poem form lends itself to narrative, but it also supports Irene Latham’s playful language, full of newly minted compound words, and a main character’s voice full of energy, humor and other-worldly qualities.

Klynt Tovis, the protagonist and hero of this story is a twelve year-old girl. In the first poem of the book, like any first page of a novel, we learn just enough to spark our interest and keep us quickly turning pages to see what will happen. (FYI: In the novel, you will find the margins justified right and left, so the poems are rectangular in shape on each page. I couldn’t reproduce that here, but you get the idea.)

Hey Hi Ho There

It’s me, Klynt Tovis, coming to you live 
from a looganut farm in the Worselands. 
I click the button on the ham, ears alert
for a reply. I’m not supposed to talk to
strangers, even on an old ham radio-
especially now that even low-power
unlicensed broadcasts are against the law. 
But now that I’ve unburied myself from
the heap of wires and metal parts in my
room, and now that I’ve finally gotten 
a signal, how can I not try it? Besides,
does it really count if no one is around
to listen?

What does this poem tell us? For one thing, Klynt greets us “Hey Hi Ho There.” This greeting is surprising and welcoming. Who wouldn’t want to know the person who greets you like this?

Then:

“It’s me, Klynt Tovis, coming to you live from a looganut farm in the worse lands.”

With this sentence we understand that we are in a different kind of place. She lives on a farm but what and where is Worselands? And what are looganuts? We are not the present or the past, at least in any recognizable world. The story seems to be taking place in the future.

We read along about the “old ham radio,” that she is trying to use even though it is “against the law.” This is an important clue into Klynt’s character. She has grit and is willing to do what she must, even break the law, to do what she must do.

In the following poems, we see what our main character wants. These are big wants, not trivial. A terrible war has separated her and her father from her mother. She wants them to be reunited. The other thing is she wants more than anything is to keep D-39, a robodog she discovers in the barn.

Why did the author chose to write this novel in prose poems? I quote from her:

“I chose to present this story in prose poems because each poem acts as a burrow, offering readers a safe place to experience invented words and a dystopian reality. The technique of using the last words of one poem to serve as the title of the next poem is a variation on a traditional “crown” of sonnets—because in Klynt’s world, the old is often bumping up against the new.“

The poems do feel like burrows full of interesting words and images. I love that the last word of each poem provides a seed for the next. The poems read like scenes that move this powerful narrative along. The narrative is tight, well constructed, which is helped by this form, in my opinion.

In terms of conflict and story, the obstacles Klynt faces in the beginning are relatively minor, such as disagreement with Dad over her new found pet.

But Irene Latham knows how to get a character into very bad trouble. The war escalates. and Klynt fights, to stay alive, to keep D-39 safe, and to undertake a dangerous winter’s journey’s North to find her mother. Will she succeed in reuniting her family? Will she and her beloved D-39 survive the war? And the ending occurs as it does in any well constructed plot: It is surprising and inevitable. Readers won’t be disappointed.

Don’t forget to comment at the end for a chance to win a copy of D-39: A Robodog’s Journey.

Have a great weekend and thank you again, Bridget, for hosting this week’s Poetry Friday!