About the Author

Naomi Shihab Nye is an award-winning writer and editor whose work has appeared widely. She edited the ALA Notable international poetry collection, This Same Sky, and The Tree Is Older Than You Are: Poems and Paintings from Mexico, as well as The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems and Paintings from the Middle East. Her books of poems include Fuel, Red Suitcase, and Words Under the Words. A Guggenheim fellow, she is also the author of the young adult novel Habibi, which was named an ALA Notable Book, a Best Book for Young Adults, and winner of the Jane Addams Children's Book Award as well as the Book Publishers of Texas award from the Texas Institute of Letters. Naomi lives in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband, Michael, and their son, Madison.

Reviews

Gr 9-12-- In the preface, Nye says, ``. . . what lovely, larger life becomes ours when we listen to one another?'' This question states the purpose of this anthology that emphasizes selections from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, India, and South and Central America. They are indexed by country as well as by poet. This is a lengthy collection, close to 200 pages long, brimming with much lovely material. The poems are about many things: the nature of poetry (and language itself), the beauty of the natural world, how feelings about childhood are colored by memory, the love of parent for a child (and vice versa). Some are more political in subject matter. Determining the audience is problematic. The preface states that the poems have been especially chosen for young people, but many of them will be of marginal interest to them, and several require an adult perspective to be appreciated. The book may be useful, but it will have to be introduced by a sensitive adult (preferably a very talented teacher who can lead students to draw connections that may seem unlikely at first). For senior high and public libraries where multicultural material is a priority. --Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL