Eva of the Farm (review)

Twelve-year-old Eva (Evangeline) loves her life on the family orchard in Washington State, loves her baby brother Achilles, and loves to write poetry. Indeed, writing poetry is Eva's way of making sense of her world, as she writes about how much she misses her grandmother and her former best friend, Chloe, and how she worries that her family will lose their farm that, to her, is utterly magical. This last worry is not an idle one, as a events soon put Eva's family in dire financial straits. However, Eva's poetry, a newfound adult friend, and Eva's own strength bolster her through this difficult time, and although the story ends with the farm's ownership still in limbo, there is a feeling of hope and possibility as well. Calhoun writes Eva's story in ragged-right-margin prose, with Eva's many poems tuned a bit tighter and printed in italics to differentiate them from the main narrative. The poetic voice of the narrative generally works well, and some of Eva's poems are lovely in their simplicity ("Sit/ in the pure snow./ Fall/ on your back. Swish/ arms up and down./ Make/ a snow angel./ Do/ it again./ Fill/ the orchard with angels./ Watch/ them rise from the snow./ Send/ them flying to Achilles"). Others are a bit overwrought, even for an imaginative twelve-year-old, and Eva's melodramatic artistic nature slips into the histrionic at times. Calhoun deftly handles Eva's relationships with her parents, her brother, and her former BFF, however, rendering them realistic in their complexity and intensity. The potentially hopeful but ultimately unresolved ending is also refreshing, and kids who have also faced financial uncertainty may especially relate to Eva's family's plight.