Chasing Soof
Created By: Ayesha Malik Novel By: Sarah Weeks
Found Poetry by: Ayesha Malik
Mama's got a bum brain (114)
I didn't have a father (5)
Things were just too hard for mama (11)
One memory was so important (46)
She called it Soof (46)
No one knew what it meant (47)
"Is this Soof? Is this?" (47)
I was going to Liberty, New York (78)
To chase the meaning of a four-letter word (98)
"Back soon Heidi?" Mama called
I had never felt more lost in my life (115)
I arrived in Liberty (146)
Elliot answered for me... "Soof" (164)
How does Elliot know mother's word? (172)
What is soof? (219)
Elliot's nickname for your mother (219)
He couldn't pronounce Sophia (219)
Bernadette called me (159)
Come home Heidi (226)
I felt dizzy (223)
Dead? Is Mama dead? (225)
I began to cry (231)
Soof meant love (236)
Goodbye Mama, I whispered (237)
Analysis and Explanation
I chose these phrases becuase they held extra weight to the book, making it interesting. For example, "What is Soof" held weight because it was one girl's hunt for a make-believe word that her mother said. It bothered her and she wanted to know what it meant and why it meant so much to her mother. In the end, she finds what the word means but it was too late becuase her mother passed before she could come home.