The Seventh Raven
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And these are the sons
Of good Jack and good Jane
The eldest is Jack
And the next one is Jack
And the third one’s called Jack
And the fourth’s known as Jack
And the fifth says he’s Jack
And they call the sixth Jack
But the seventh’s not Jack
The seventh is Robyn
And this is his story
When Robyn and his brothers are turned into ravens through the work of an unlucky curse, a sister is their only hope to become human again. Though she’s never met her brothers, April will stop at nothing to restore their humanity. But what about Robyn, who always felt a greater affinity to the air than to the earth-bound lives of his family?
David Elliott’s latest novel in verse explores the unintended consequences of our actions, no matter our intentions, and is filled with powerful messages teased from a Grimms’ fairy tale. Stunning black-and-white illustrations throughout by Rovina Cai.
David Elliott
David Elliott is the award-winning author of more than twenty-five books for young people, including the picture books On the Farm and the New York Times bestselling And Here’s to You! He is the author of the critically acclaimed verse novels Bull, which received six starred reviews, and Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc, which was shortlisted for the American Library in Paris Book Award and is the recipient of the Claudia Lewis Award for poetry. A native of Ohio, David now lives (and writes) in New Hampshire with his wife and their Dandie Dinmont terrier, Quiggy. Learn more about David by visiting davidelliottbooks.com.
Read more from David Elliott
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Book preview
The Seventh Raven - David Elliott
Contents
Title Page
Contents
Frontispiece
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Change
Robyn
Jack
Jane
Robyn
Robyn
Jack
Jane
Robyn
Robyn
Robyn
Robyn
Discovery
April
Jane
April
Jack
April
Robyn
April
April
Jane
Jack
Robyn
April
Jane
Jack
April
Journey
April
Robyn
April
April
The Crone
April
Robyn
April
Jack
Jane
The King
April
The King
April
The Crone
Robyn
April
The Crone
April
Robyn
The Queen
April
The Queen
April
April
The Crone
Change
April
Robyn
Robyn
The Crone
April
April
Robyn
Epilogue
April
Robyn
A Note about Poetic Form
Sample Chapters from VOICES
Buy the Book
Other Novels in Verse by David Elliott
Escape to Another World
Read the Bloodleaf Series
About the Author
Connect with HMH on Social Media
Copyright © 2021 by David Elliott
Illustrations copyright © 2021 by Rovina Cai
All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [email protected] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.
hmhbooks.com
Cover illustration © 2021 by Jonathan Bartlett
Cover design by Sharismar Rodriguez
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file.
ISBN: 978-0-358-25211-5
eISBN 978-0-358-25208-5
v2.0321
To my COVID companions:
Hester, Jane, Kyoko, Pam, Sinan.
I’m with Proust:
"Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy"
The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.
—Carl Jung
I
Change
AND this is the forest
With its primeval trees
And their taciturn trunks
And their hungering roots
Like curious tongues
That kiss the hard stones
And lap the warm rain
And speak to the earth
In the language of trees
And here are the limbs
Their itinerant twigs
The finely veined leaves
That are unblinking eyes
And the eyes watch the wolf
And the eyes watch the bear
And the eyes watch the back
Of the ravening boar
That runs wild through the forest
And when the wind howls
The eyes tumble down
And leave the trees blind
Behold the rough bark
With its numberless ears
That cling to the tree
And hear the birth pangs
Of the fox and the deer
And the growl of the cat
And the break of the branch
And the flight of the stag
And the screech of the owl
And the flap of its wing
And the cry of the hare
And the rip of soft flesh
And the silence of blood
AND this is the river
That runs through the forest
And the river’s a rope
That cannot be tied
And the river’s a secret
That cannot be told
And the river’s a riddle
That cannot be guessed
And the river’s a snake
Ever shedding its skin
And the river’s a bow
On the strings of the earth
And the river’s a mouth
That devours the sun
And the river’s a throat
That swallows the moon
And the river’s a song
That sings to itself
In the ancient and sibilant
Language of rivers
AND this is the cottage
That’s built near the river
Its timbers are aching
Its floorboards are cracking
And creaking they’re quaking
From so many boots
Stomping in stamping out
Eight pairs of boots
Stomping in stamping out
So many boots
Stomping in stamping out
Day after day after day after day
And the hearth burns too hot
And the thatch whispers Stop
And the footsteps are heavy
And the joists beg for mercy
But the heels have no pity
And the boots they keep coming
Eight pairs of boots
Stomping in stamping out
Day after day after day after day
AND here are the boys
Who live in the cottage
The eldest is Jack
And the next one is Jack
And the third one’s called Jack
And the fourth’s known as Jack
And the fifth says he’s Jack
And they call the sixth Jack
But the seventh’s not Jack
The seventh is Robyn
And this is his story
Robyn
They called me Robyn. How did they know from the very start
that the murmuring beat of my infant heart
would not conform to the rhythms of my brothers’?
One no different