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Grace Notes
“First memory: / clinging to the rail. / They were not happy in the living room. / Mama, Dada. / Two big people, hard words / bouncing back and forth. … I didn’t know many words yet, but heard / their edges.” (from “I Stood in My Crib”) Poems about families focus on poet Naomi Shihab Nye’s own family first and foremost, especially her mother and their relationship over time. It’s clear her mother’s ambitions, frustrations, interests, and challenges, including living with depression, imprinted themselves on and influenced Nye’s life from childhood on. Poems that invite reflection on what it means to be a child in relation to the adults in one’s life, and sometimes in opposition to them, may especially resonate with young readers, and be particularly relatable for any living with an adult who has depression. Poems about Nye’s father are also part of this collection that expands in Part Two (“Sometimes We Need a Bigger Family”) to also look at other important people in her childhood and influences in her life. This includes events happening around the world, especially in the Middle East, to which Nye, whose father was Palestinian, has always brought a personal, informed, compassionate lens. ©2025 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
CCBC Age Recommendation: Age 12 and older
Age Range:
Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Format:
Poetry
Subjects:
Asian Americans
Depression
Families
Mothers
Palestinians and Palestinian Americans
Diversity subjects:
Arab
Asian
Middle East
Psychiatric Disability/Condition
Publishers:
Greenwillow, HarperCollins
Publish Year: 2024
Pages: 216
ISBN: 9780062691873
CCBC Location: Non-Fiction, 811 Nye