Partly Cloudy: Poems of Love and Longing
CCBC Review:
In two parts, titled “A Girl’s Tears, Her Songs” and “A Boy’s Body, His Words,” Gary Soto explores the intense and often fleeting experience of young love. His seventy-seven poems speak in a range of distinct teenage voices along the spectrum of love: longing from a distance (“Don’t You See”), total immersion in a shared romance (“Time”), and the sharp pain of its demise (“Eternal Love”). The elusive nature of love is explored in several of the poems, including “Rough Hands”: “Lotion is a slippery essence / Applied on a winter day / When an icy wind sings through the bare trees. / But I prefer my hands rough. / This way when I hold yours, / You won’t slip away.” ©2009 Cooperative Children's Book Center
CCBC Age Recommendation: Age 13 and older
Age Range:
Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Format:
Poetry
Subjects:
Feelings/Emotions
Love and Romance
Publishers:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Harcourt
Publish Year: 2009
Pages: 100
ISBN: 9780152063016
CCBC Location: Non-Fiction, 811 Soto