DISAPPEARING ACT

Poet Castle’s father was first imprisoned for fraud when she was 12, leaving her burdened with a heavy secret.

Jiordan deals with the significant fallout of her father’s actions while also navigating the usual challenges of adolescence—starting high school, struggling with more advanced schoolwork, dating for the first time, and making sense of changing social dynamics. She must sell many of her most prized belongings when her family moves to a smaller house. Jiordan worries about her father’s physical safety and grapples with feelings of relief that she, her mother, and her older half sisters no longer have to contend with his pill-popping, suicidality, and cruelty. The author, who is white and Jewish, grew up on Long Island. She mentions in her author’s note that for years she sought books for kids whose parents were in prison but could not find them; she wrote this verse memoir to help fill that void. The abrupt ending will leave readers with many questions about Castle’s current relationship with her father, later pursuits, process of healing and making sense of her childhood, and more. However, her accessible poetry is appealing. The occasional use of blank lines in place of words asks readers to guess what she is trying to say, bringing them into the narrative in an interesting way. All in all, verse is an unusual and rewarding format for telling this story.

Thoughtfully recounts the challenges of growing up with an incarcerated parent.