A fresh, appealing anthology that celebrates the freedom inherent in possibility.
Thirty-one poets contemplate all that the word if might portend.
In addition to drawing from previously published works, the anthologists issued an open call for submissions. First-time published poets appear alongside Emily Dickinson, Nikki Grimes, Joseph Bruchac, Janet Wong, and more. The unifying theme yields ruminations both sky-high and intimately observed. The work opens with Latham and Waters’ poem “Welcome,” followed by 29 entries divided into four sections. Amy Ludwig VanDerwater suggests that learning the name, markings, and song of “just one bird” can be transformative. “You will feel big and small at once / if you learn the name of just one bird.” Two poems examine youngsters’ nighttime fears in distinct ways. Siv Cedering’s “If a Bad Dream Comes” reimagines the child’s bed as a protective house, while Teresa Owens Smith’s “Opening Windows” urges an expansive reaction to sleeplessness: “Search the dark sea of the night sky. / Your dreams are hiding there. / …Grab the stars and let moonlight dance inside you.” Lacresha Berry harnesses powerful, self-affirming imagery: “If I imagine / sunlight made me / my soul soars / like a blackbird / chirping in celebration / of my midnight wings / without anyone / telling me / I am too dark / to be related / to the sun.” Sua’s charming mixed-media illustrations, which make wonderful use of collage, echo and extend the poets’ imagery, depicting oft-joyous children with varied skin tones and hair textures.
A fresh, appealing anthology that celebrates the freedom inherent in possibility. (editors’ note, copyright acknowledgments) (Poetry. 6-9)Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781536219791
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40.
From two Nobel Peace Prize winners, an invitation to look past sadness and loneliness to the joy that surrounds us.
Bobbing in the wake of 2016’s heavyweight Book of Joy (2016), this brief but buoyant address to young readers offers an earnest insight: “If you just focus on the thing that is making / you sad, then the sadness is all you see. / But if you look around, you will / see that joy is everywhere.” López expands the simply delivered proposal in fresh and lyrical ways—beginning with paired scenes of the authors as solitary children growing up in very different circumstances on (as they put it) “opposite sides of the world,” then meeting as young friends bonded by streams of rainbow bunting and going on to share their exuberantly hued joy with a group of dancers diverse in terms of age, race, culture, and locale while urging readers to do the same. Though on the whole this comes off as a bit bland (the banter and hilarity that characterized the authors’ recorded interchanges are absent here) and their advice just to look away from the sad things may seem facile in view of what too many children are inescapably faced with, still, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the world more qualified to deliver such a message than these two. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-48423-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era.
The New Orleans school child who famously broke the color line in 1960 while surrounded by federal marshals describes the early days of her experience from a 6-year-old’s perspective.
Bridges told her tale to younger children in 2009’s Ruby Bridges Goes to School, but here the sensibility is more personal, and the sometimes-shocking historical photos have been replaced by uplifting painted scenes. “I didn’t find out what being ‘the first’ really meant until the day I arrived at this new school,” she writes. Unfrightened by the crowd of “screaming white people” that greets her at the school’s door (she thinks it’s like Mardi Gras) but surprised to find herself the only child in her classroom, and even the entire building, she gradually realizes the significance of her act as (in Smith’s illustration) she compares a small personal photo to the all-White class photos posted on a bulletin board and sees the difference. As she reflects on her new understanding, symbolic scenes first depict other dark-skinned children marching into classes in her wake to friendly greetings from lighter-skinned classmates (“School is just school,” she sensibly concludes, “and kids are just kids”) and finally an image of the bright-eyed icon posed next to a soaring bridge of reconciliation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era. (author and illustrator notes, glossary) (Autobiographical picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-75388-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
