A Maze Me: Poems for Girls

Nye begins her newest volume of 72 original poems with a wonderful, compact introduction in which she remembers her own “rough years of transition” and, like her beloved ceramics teacher, hopes to impart “faith about ‘growing up.’ ” Writing for girls 12 and older, the author encourages her readers to “write three lines down in a notebook every day . . . you will find out what you notice,” and these poems, one imagines, could have indeed started out as “scribbled details . . . crumbs to help me find my way back.” They often deal with the everyday, smaller moments of childhood—a very large spider named Rose, the ring of a vegetable truck, a little chair, a flour sifter—through which quiet pings of meaning reverberate. Subtly, each of the five sections reflects the poet growing older; what she pays attention to changes and, with seeming simplicity, makes “uncanny connections” visible. From “Sifter”: “When good days came / I would try to contain them gently / the way flour remains / in the sifter until you turn the handle.” A gem. (index) (Poetry. YA)

Nye's ("Going Going", reviewed above) sprawling collection of more than 70 poems run the gamut from capturing a moment to probing more abstract ideas -and many seem right for a wider audience than just females. The best poems take a detailed image and expose its wider application to daily life. For instance, in "Rose," a spider and her delicate web offer a lesson in the beauty that results from measured, persistent care. "Big Head, Big Face" boasts the merits of simplicity by contrasting a small drawer with a big drawer. Several poems on vocabulary grow awkwardly abstract. "The Word "Peace"" takes a common school exercise (making many small words from the letters in one long word) and distorts the idea just enough to be confusing (""Peace" for example contained the crucial vowels of/ "Eat" and "Easy". If people "Ate" together/ they would be less likely to "Kill" one another"). But there's plenty of humor here in contemplating language, too. Take the poem "You're Welcome!" ("People who say 'No problem'/ instead of 'You're welcome'/ have a problem they don't even/ know about") or a baby-sitter's claim that "Baby-sitting should not be called/ sitting. Because it is chasing, bending, / picking up, and major play." Maher's attractive illustrations open each section. Despite a few uneven selections, Nye's talent is ever in evidence, especially with a trio of Wallace Stevens -style meditations on a "Little Chair" and lines such as this one in "Over the Weather": "Creamy miles of quiet/ Giant swoop of blue." Ages 12-up. "(Mar.)" Copyright 2005 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

Gr 4-7 -A lovely, rich collection that promises to be a lasting companion for young writers. In her introduction, Nye says: "If you write three lines down in a notebook every day -&you will find out what you notice. Uncanny connections will be made visible to you. That's what I started learning when I was twelve, and I never stopped learning it." The more than 70 poems (nearly every one previously unpublished) are all over the map in terms of subject, but all are in Nye's unique voice: keenly detailed, empathetic, and humorous. Many of the selections focus on feelings particular to girls. Others are universal, such as "High Hopes": "Now that I know the truth, /that I only dreamed someone liked me, /the cat has curled up in a bed of leaves/against the house and I still have to do/everything I had to do before/without a secret hum/ inside." The small format, with bright and pastel-colored, two-page illustrations that introduce the sections, is clearly directed toward girls. The decision to narrow the audience like this is curious. Most of the poems could be appreciated by a wider readership, but it will be the rare boy who would pick up this book. Too bad -it's a keeper." -Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA" Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.