The Weight of Water

In this contemporary immigration story told in verse, almost-thirteen-year-old Kasienka and her mother move from their home in Gdansk, Poland, to Coventry, England, in search of Kasienka's father, who walked out on them two years before. At night, they go knocking on doors, looking for Tata, while during the day Kasienka is miserably lonely at school in a class with eleven-year-olds: "I thought, maybe, I'd be exotic, / Like a red squirrel among the gray, / Like an English girl would be in Gdansk. / But I am not an English girl in Gdansk. / I'm a Pole in Coventry. / And that is not the same thing / At all." Once she finally moves up to the next grade, she makes two friends: Clair, a popular girl who quickly turns on her, and William, who becomes her first boyfriend. The free-verse narrative presents Kasienka's feelings with economical precision, reflecting her distress but also her resilient nature as she endures bullying, delights in the physical sensations of kissing William, and finally finds her father and accepts his new life. The book realistically depicts modern-day middle school dynamics for an outsider of any kind, and Kasienka solves her own problems gradually: "William is in eighth grade. / He could save me from the pack. / But he does not want to: / He knows / I can save / Myself." susan dove lempke