Your Own, Sylvia, Stephanie Hemphill
Your Own, Sylvia, Stephanie Hemphill
List: $10.00 | Sale: $7.00
Club: $5.00

Your Own, Sylvia

Author: Stephanie Hemphill

Narrator: Various

Unabridged: 4 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/03/2009


Synopsis

Your Own, Sylvia draws on Plath’s writing and extensive nonfiction sources, chronicling Hemphill’s interpretation of Plath’s life from infancy to her death by suicide at age 30. The poems are arranged chronologically and each conveys an experience in Plath’s life told via the voice and perspective of family members, friends, doctors, fellow writers, etc.—as interpreted by Hemphill. Each poem is accompanied by an addendum that further explains the factual circumstances of that poem’s subject. The book also includes an Author’s Note, some photos, a section describing the source material for each poem, and suggestions for further reading.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Nancy on July 12, 2008

This book is extraordinary. I have limited shelf space and even when I love a book, it usually goes right out the door as a gift to someone else when I'm done reading. For example - recently I adored THE HUNGER GAMES, gave it five stars here, raved about it... but as I compare my reaction to that bo......more

Goodreads review by Suzanne on January 09, 2008

So good. So, so, so good. I thought I would be at a disadvantage because (shame on me BA English, MS Library Science) all I knew about Sylvia Plath was that she wrote poetry, wrote something called The Bell Jar which I was fairly certain (now confirmed) was depressing, and that she killed herself. T......more

Goodreads review by elissa on February 08, 2017

Whoo hoo! Today it won a Printz Honor! I just finished this last week, and if I had read this last year (a few days ago at this point) it would have definitely been on my 2007Favorites shelf! It was hard to get ahold of in libraries, though, and my hold was just filled a few days ago. Hopefully it'l......more

Goodreads review by Kristen on December 03, 2020

This author really adored Sylvia Plath and created this biographical verse novel in homage to Plath's work. I loved that on each page the author used a sort of 'footnote' to delineate who was talking: one of her many friends or boyfriends, her mother, her husband. etc. The research that went into th......more

Goodreads review by Kate on September 16, 2017

The element of Your Own, Sylvia which I appreciated the most was its accessibility. Each poem is contextualized with a date and narrator at the beginning and followed by an author's note explaining details of Plath's life relevant to the poem. Particularly after reading Wintering, a prose novel abou......more


Quotes

Starred review, Kirkus Reviews, February 2007:
"[R]eaders come away with a sense ofreally knowing Plath . . . a must for any young-adult reader of poetry or Plath."

Starred review, Booklist, February 15, 2007:
"[A]n intimate, comprehensive, imaginative view of a life, which also probes the relationships between poetry and creativity, mental fragility, love, marriage, and betrayal."

Starred review, The Horn Book Magazine, March/April 2007:
"Hemphill's verse, like Plath's, is completely compelling: every word, every line, worth reading."


Awards

  • Printz Honors