A lyrical picture book biography tells the story of American poet Mary Oliver, who as a child was enthralled by nature and held on to the sense of wonder and channeled it into her poems. Simultaneous eBook. Illustrations. - (B & T Entertainment)
ABA 2025 Best Book for Young Readers
This lyrical picture book biography of beloved American poet Mary Oliver shows young readers ages 7 - 10 how her love of nature and sense of wonder inspired her art.
Young Mary Oliver was enthralled by nature. In the forest, she wondered about the birds and the lilies and the water in the stream—about all the things that cannot speak yet somehow spoke to Mary. She wondered, too, about poetry, about how words pieced together filled her with light and how some poems felt like they were written just for her. How could this be?
Author Erin Frankel shows how Mary Oliver held on to that sense of wonder from her childhood, channeling it into some of the most beloved poems of the past hundred years. Illustrator Jasu Hu’s lush nature scenes beautifully complement Frankel’s soulful writing about the creative process. Together text and art honor Mary Oliver and her astonishing poetry. - (Random House, Inc.)
Booklist Reviews
"I wish I had discovered Mary Oliver as a child," Frankel writes, and, in a beguiling bid to steer more young readers toward the sensitive nature poet, offers—within a general overview of Oliver's own wild and precious life—a lyrical appreciation of how closely she observed the everyday natural world. That world takes on a properly wondrous glow in Hu's atmospheric digital watercolors, as a quietly attentive child moves through woodsy and seaside settings into adulthood, discovering along the way the vital importance of both poetry and longtime companion Molly Malone Cook in her life and writing "poems that longed to be told— / poems meant for everyone." Rather than quote any directly, the author makes oblique references to select subjects or images and follows closing personal reflections and a quick note on the general craft of writing poems with citations for over two dozen recommended examples. "Mary Oliver," she concludes, "hoped that there was someone / just like you / on the other side of her words / holding on to wonder." Grades 2-4. Copyright 2025 Booklist Reviews.
