I Heart You, You Haunt Me

Title: I Heart You, You Haunt Me    
Author: Lisa Schroeder  
Publication Date: 2008  
Genre/Format: Teen Issues - Realistic Fiction/Novel in Verse   
Summary: A gripping novel in verse about a girl named Ava whose boyfriend dies...but then comes back to stay with her as a ghost.  
What I Think: I think this book is amazing.  It works so well as a novel in verse, but the plot itself had me teary-eyed throughout and full-out crying by the end.  Death is such a hard subject but this book is a story about how one girl is able to deal with death.  I think it's a great book for teens to be able to experience how Ava deals with the death of her boyfriend and how she is able to live the rest of her life.  I'm a romantic so it had my heart all tied in knots from the first few pages.  In a way it reminds me of The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, which I think is another great love story (and had me sobbing and slobbery by the end, too).    
Read Together: 6 - 8  
Read Alone: 7 - 8  
Read With: Other novels in verse: for an 8th grader Crank (series) and others by Ellen Hopkins; Other love stories: The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen
Snatch of Text: A Day of Black (first chapter)

"I've never been

to a funeral 

until today.

I see 

dazzling arrangements of

red, yellow, and purple flowers

with long, green stems.

I see

a stained-glass window with

a white dove,

a yellow sun, 

a blue sky.

I see a gold cross, standing tall,

shiny,

brilliant.

And I see

black.

Black dresses.

Black pants.

Black shoes.

Black bibles.

Black is my favorite color.

Jackson asked me about it one time.  

'Ava, why don't you like pink?

Or yellow?

Or blue?'

'I love black,' I said.

'It suits me.'

'I suit you,' he said.

And then he kissed me.

I'm not so sure 

I love black

anymore. 


Here's my favorite quote from the book - and a good metaphor example!!!
"As we watched
the balloon
float
up
up
up
and away,
Jackson whispered into my hear,
'Ava,
you are my helium.'"
p. 103

Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections, Making Inferences, Making Predictions,  Asking Questions, Reading Fluency  
Writing Strategies to Practice: Poetry, Anaphora, Descriptive Writing, Dialogue, Personal Narrative, Metaphor  
Writing Prompts: Write about a time in your life when you experienced a tremendous loss.  Choose an experience from your life and write a poem about it using stanzas that start with, "I see..."     
Topics Covered: Love, Death, Guilt, Grief, Moving On, Friendship, Family   
Translated to Spanish: No