This book explores the life of Sylvia Plath through poetry written from the points of view from various people important in Plath's life. Based on biographies written about Plath and with poems written in styles emulating Plath's work, the book traces her life from her early days through her tragic end.
Each poem has a footnote offering a context for the poem and further information. The footnotes were really small and in a light print which made it offputting at first.
After reading the book, I do want to read some of Plath's work. ( )

This book is a must-read for Plath followers. Hemphill has constructed Plath's life story in poetry form, with helpful footnotes following each poem. Voices from the history of Plath's life are many--sometimes the generic/omniscient ("Observing Sylvia Plath..."), but more often very specific (Aurelia Plath, Ted Hughes, friends, and colleagues). The book must be read chronologically. It benefits from a re-read and especially from reading Hemphill's sources listed at the end of the book. Hemphill put in much detailed research into creating this book. The biographical notes at the end of each poem were instrumental in more fully understanding the story of Plath's life and death. Hemphill indicates which "voice" or point of view prior to each poem, then writes her account of Plath's life events in the same forms/formats as Plath's poetry during that time period. Hemphill's poems are softer, less graphic (for the most part), and more easily read and understood that Plath's poetry. Young adult readers may be attracted to this book because of its poetic fomat, with lots of white space, however, a prior knowledge/interest in Plath's work would be a prerequisite for enjoyment and understanding of this book. ( )

Richie's Picks: YOUR OWN, SYLVIA: A VERSE PORTRAIT OF SYLVIA PLATH by Stephanie Hemphill, Alfred A. Knopf, March 2007. ISBN: 0-385-83799-9; Lib. ISBN: 0-375-93799-6.

"April 24, 2007 NEW YORK -- Julia Stiles is to star in and produce the film version of the semi-autobiographical Sylvia Plath novel 'The Bell Jar'."

All I'd previously known of Sylvia Plath was that she'd been a poet who'd written THE BELL JAR and had committed suicide. All I knew of Ted Hughes is that he wrote poems for adults that I'd never read and THE IRON GIANT which I'd really enjoyed reading. I was not aware of Plath and Hughes having been married.

I know much, much more about them now.

"Madness
Dr. Ruth Barnhouse Beuscher, Sylvia's therapist
Fall 1953

"Repression cuts off
circulation like a tourniquet,
and Sylvia throbs with desire.

"I advise Sylvia to experiment,
to stop fretting over a white
wedding dress. Does this shock
the patient? Not really.
Sylvia has been slicing at her arm,
waiting for someone
to grant her permission.

"A junior in college,
she may be ready for this.
'But what would Mother think?'
Sylvia snickers. She wraps a mink stole
of secrets around her shoulders,
luxuriates in playing foul
behind her mother's back.

"Perhaps when she holds back
her desires, her mind
splinters into madness, into deadwood
that we must burn away by electric shock.
I encourage her to release her idea
of the bad girl, punishable for physical contact.

"I ask her to think about herself, not her mother,
about how Sylvia represses Sylvia.
I want to tell her to do what she wants.
I need to help her to let go of her fears."

"Dr. Ruth met with Sylvia for daily psychotherapy sessions, during which Ruth explained to Sylvia her methods and techniques and why she was using them. Sylvia responded well to this sort of inclusion and respect. Dr. Barnhouse Beuscher employed fairly orthodox Freudianism, which entailed leading analysis and discussion about Sylvia's childhood. At the time of the above poem, Sylvia and Dr. Ruth met at McLean Hospital for inpatient treatment, but later they would have sessions at Dr, Beuscher's private practice. They were in contact via phone, letters, or in person every week until Sylvia's death ten years later."

Through inclusion of a book-long series of artistic images, the creators of a graphic novel provide readers with a second dimension -- a visual dimension -- to a story that is also being told with words. In those cases where the images work harmoniously with the text to create an exceptional graphic novel, the reader experiences a piece of literature that is greater in its impact than the sum of its textual and visual elements.

In crafting YOUR OWN, SYLVIA, a striking portrait of the poet who took her own life at an early age nearly half a century ago, author Stephanie Hemphill has similarly provided a second dimension. That second dimension in this case is not visual but textual.

Some may believe that Hemphill's poems, which are conveying the story on one level, constitute the second dimension that adds depth to the factual information appearing throughout the book. Others would propose that, on the contrary, the factual information is the dimension that supplements the poems which are written with the guidance of primary source materials and from the points of view of an amazingly large cast of family members, friends, colleagues, and mental health professionals who knew this a poet who, like a shooting star, burned brightly and was then gone.

What cannot be argued is that, like a graphic novel done to perfection, the author has intertwined these two integral textual dimensions of the story in a manner that makes this portrait of Sylvia Plath consistently intriguing and compelling with all the power and edge of the best tragic, contemporary verse novel.

In fact, there are events within this tale that are so horrific that it is sometimes necessary to remind oneself that they took place in the real world.

Interspersed with the poems from the various points of view are several which are co-titled "Imagining Sylvia Plath," and are each written in the style of one of Sylvia's better-known poems.

"...She blocks Ted out, the rake, her children's
Unfaithful father, invisible as the man who draws
The stage curtain, who ties up the show.
She doesn't need him
To tell her when to begin, when to end.

"Poetry taps beat after beat
From her typewriter keys.
She studies the page, astonished
At her maniac poems, buzzing real as an ear.
She cannot send them back.

"She cannot remember writing them down.
She can only remember the way
The words felt, honest as a morning moon.
And she is their creator,
Standing alone in her laurel crown.

"She escapes this way.
Her early-morning pen
Breaks the kill hours, cleanses her in blood,
Burns the wrinkles from her face.
She radiates language.

"She will not be shut up, will not be eclipsed."

Sure, at times it is like staring in fascination at a terrible accident happening in slow motion, but there is no question that YOUR OWN, SYLVIA will be responsible for bringing the words of Sylvia Plath to the attention of a new generation. It is a haunting and true story that certainly grabbed and held my attention.

Richie Partington
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This book was recommended by Karen Reed, but it also won a Printz Honor. Hemphill has created a book's worth of poems based on Sylvia Plath's life. The majority of the book is written from the point of view of many of the people surrounding her, using some of their own words or quotes from Plath's letters and journal. There are a few poems as well purporting to be in Sylvia's voice, written in the style of Sylvia's poems. This book is subtitled a Verse Portrait, but there is still so much of Sylvia Plath that is unknown - her deepest thoughts and feelings. I really enjoyed this book and thought that Hemphill did a wonderful job bringing her to life. I was amazed by the number of voices that Hemphill uses - you tend to think of Plath as alone and solitary, but really she was surrounded by people who cared about her and her work. This book was published for teens, and won a teen award, but I wonder how much of this they will really get or want to get. Much of this book is about adult relationships and having children - something that they haven't experienced. I think this will do more to distance them from Plath instead of bringing them closer. ( )

This is a delightful book. For the intimately acquainted or the passerby stranger, "Your Own, Sylvia" is a smart look at the life of Sylvia Plath through poetry and footnotes. In many of the poems, author Stephanie Hemphill mimics the style of Plath's most famous works. The work clever and interesting. Most interesting is the depiction of her father's life and death, and then Plath's ensuing relations with men thereafter. In one poem titled, "Boy Crazy," written in Ruth Freeman's voice--a long time childhood friend, Ruth explains, "Between reading her novels/Sylvia dreams boys, drifts/down a river of crushes./Each week she paddles/somewhere new (19)." ( )