Inspiration-seekers will enjoy following in the footsteps of these poetic muses.
This poetry compilation inspired by the British bookshop Poetry Pharmacy explores the subject of creative inspiration.
The 45 poems in this series entry encourage artistic endeavors and celebrate aspects of creativity—uncertainty, play, fearlessness, noticing, and more. Organizing the volume into four sections, editor and bookshop founder Alma guides readers through the necessary “quiet, unfilled moments,” inviting them to surrender control. In “The Patience of Ordinary Things,” Pat Schneider offers painstaking observations of everyday objects (“soap dries quietly in the dish, / And towels drink the wet / From the skin of the back”). Alma writes that “to create is to engage the senses fully.” “Olives,” by A.E. Stallings, is vivid with sensory imagery: “They recall / The harvest and its toil, / The nets spread under silver trees that foil / The blue glass of the heavens.” Attentiveness to nature is another source of inspiration, as in in “Wild Garlic” by Seán Hewitt (“…all across the floor / the spiked white flowers / light the way”), and “Daed-traa,” in which Jen Hadfield writes “I go to the rockpool at the slack of the tide / to mind me what my poetry’s for.” The collection includes many notable British and Irish poets, including Christopher Meredith, Norman MacCaig, Orlagh O’Farrell, Louis MacNeice, and Simon Armitage, as well as distinguished writers from around the world, like Thich Nhat Hanh, Miroslav Holub, Joy Harjo, Rabindranath Tagore, and Nozawa Bonchō.
Inspiration-seekers will enjoy following in the footsteps of these poetic muses. (Poetry anthology. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781035061570
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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