Time You Let Me In (Greenwillow, 2010) got excellent reviews from School Library Journal, Booklist and VOYA generally suggesting it for grades 9-up. While I liked some of the poems, I was a bit disappointed in it. The book somehow didn't seem to me to be really aimed at teens. Yes the authors were young but 25 is way different than 15. Nye is a well-known poet - her A Maze Me: Poems for Girls belongs in every high school library.
I would recommend it to students who are interested in writing or thinking about majoring in English in college by reading aloud a poem like Fourth or fifth Love by Mary Selph that starts out:
I want love to be simple, like
the creased notes that you slipped
through locker grates in high school
and as careful as efforts to decipher
what you'd written beneath clouds
of eraser marks. I want the brazenness of poems
stuffed in your backpack when you left
the room. I want us to exist
as we were when the world was still
the bed of your father's truck. ...
4 comments:
What caught my attention is when you said you'd recommend it for students who like to write or are thinking about majoring in English. I majored in English and wrote a lot since elementary school and I would've been interested in reading this.
I like that the book has a variety of different types of poems from a variety of authors. Finding books that are a compilation of poems that could pave the way for future writers is always a keeper.
25 is very different than 15 that is how I felt about the book I chose too. It is was a good read but very mature. I would definitely be interested in reading this book to check it out.
I agree that the age difference between the poets and teenagers has an affect. Twenty five year olds will have experienced things that most fifteen year olds have not and will have a different perspective on them. That is not to say that the two cannot understand each other, but it does make a difference.
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