School Library JournalGr 9 Up—In her introduction, Nye shies away from laying out her parameters for inclusion, but rather paints a picture of the stumbling, exploratory passage into adulthood that she hopes the voices in the collection will convey. True to form, the young poets may be vastly separated by experience, ethnicity, and gender, but are linked by a common humanity and a desire to make sense of their unfolding life experiences through language. They struggle with race, slurred words, absent loved ones, and unrealized dreams while reveling in snow crystals and childhood memories. From Gray Emerson's "The Indexer in Love," a playful approach to the oft-hackneyed love poem, to Talah Abu Rahmeh's powerful "The Falling Man," a heartbreaking ode to those who fell from the Twin Towers, these selections are diverse in content and form.
