The Plot: Helen Frost's 2013 polyvocal verse novel Salt: A Story of Friendship in a Time of War follows two protagonists Anikwa, a twelve-year-old Miami boy, and James, a twelve-year-old American boy, and emphasizes the ways in which the War of 1812 impacts both of their lives. The narrative alternates perspectives, with every other poem told in the voice of either boy; poems about salt and the natural landscape are interspersed throughout the narrative. Anikwa is being raised by family members after his mother died of small pox and his father was killed in "a skirmish" (7) when he was an infant. James lives with his mother, father, and infant sister outside Fort Wayne near the trading post where his father works. The narrative depicts both boys experiencing hardships and the repercussions of the war. While the polyvocal narrative structure and the attention to poetic form seemed promising, overall Frost's Salt is problematic in both form and content in the way it represents Native voices and the historical relationship between settlers and natives. Primarily because this verse novel puts itself forth as "a story of friendship in a time of war," it might have been more successful if Frost had reached out to a Native author to collaborate with her on this project. (I am thinking of the way in which Jayson Reynolds and Brendan Kiely collaborated on All American Boys.) Anytime I encounter a children's narrative that represents the experiences of American Indians, I consult Debbie Reese's blog. Here is Reese's assessment of Salt; Frost also chimes in in the comments section.The Poetry: One thing that Reese picks up on in her own review of Salt that I would like to echo and expand upon here is the way in which poetic form plays into the representations of the characters. The poems in which Anikwa is the speaker are concrete poems, which Frost describes in her author's note on form as, "shaped like patterns of Miami ribbon work" (133), while the poems in which James is the speaker utilize a series of seven couplets, which Frost says represent "an image of the stripes on an American flag" (133). This dichotomy of form seems to suggest a connection between James and patriotism and Anikwa and folk art. The use of concrete poetry juxtaposed with the couplet also sets up a binary between avant-garde poetic form and more traditional poetic form. The symbolic use of form is intentional, but it sets up a binary between creativity/Native populations and national pride/white settlers that is troubling. Clearly Frost, who has written multiple verse novels, is aware the impact that poetic form has on readers and the ways in which symbols make meaning in poetry. She notes that she utilizes the poems about salt to "allow readers to pause between one event and another" (133). In many ways, Frost's project seems like a missed opportunity to bring in the voices of Native authors and/or scholars. As Reese's blog underscores, it is extremely important for white writers and publishers to ask themselves critical questions when they choose to represent experiences and cultures that are not their own, particularly in historical narratives.
The Page: As previously noted, Frost's polyvocal Salt utilizes dualing voices and this is represented with spreads that include juxtaposed visual poetry. Frost's narrative also includes a map of the "Miami Homeland," an introduction, a cast of characters, a notes section, a glossary of Miami words, and an acknowledgement section. Frost notes in her comments on Reese's blog that she is working on creating a curriculum to pair with Salt that takes into account some of Reese's concerns.
Overall, I thought Frost's Salt was an interesting exercise in formal experimentation and was interested in the historical period she chose to explore, but ultimately, many of the concerns Reese raised about the narrative's representation of Native experience were also troubling to me as a reader. I give Salt three stars. Again, I think a polyvocal project such as Frost's would have been much more successful if she would have reached out to a Native author to collaborate with on the work. This month, the blog Reading While White is focusing a spotlight on #OwnVoices books, "amazing books that have been written by authors and artists of color and Native authors and illustrators." Hopefully, in the future authors can take scholarly and critical views such as those championed by Reese and RWW into consideration when they are interested in telling historical stories that represent a diversity of experiences.
