(About the Contributors) (Poetry with audio CD. The final pages provide space for readers to add their own poems-a good idea, because after paging through this eclectic and powerful anthology many will indeed be inspired to take up the pen. The design of the volume, with its funky typefaces and brightly colored cover, will also appeal to young teens.

An audio CD featuring many of the poets reading their work as well as some poets reading the works of others is included these clear and powerful readings add a welcome dimension and will no doubt enhance readers’ enjoyment of the collection.

The poems selected deal with themes of particular interest to young teens, such as romance, growing up, loneliness, friendship and identity. Paschen casts a wide net for material, including pieces by William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, Billy Collins, Nikki Grimes and Ogden Nash, among many others. 10-14)įrom the creators of the popular anthologies Poetry Speaks and Poetry Speaks to Children (2001, 2005) comes another volume, this one aimed at the 12-14 set. Meyer (Rio Grande Stories, 1994) gives her characters the motives, beliefs, hearts, and dreams to make each one's behavior compelling and inevitable. The story is fascinating as an in-depth examination of two disparate cultures that-the boys discover-share many of the commonalities of the human experience it's also a great coming- of-age novel, inhabited by people who may dress and speak differently from many readers but whose actions are entirely understandable. There is trouble in the outwardly idyllic household: Gideon does not get along with the autocratic Datt (father) and plans to leave, even though he will be shunned by family and friends ``for all eternity.'' A quaint tale of another era? Not likely. Isaac begins to heal under the gentle ministrations of Mamm (the mother) and makes friends with two of her children-Gideon, 16, and his younger sister Annie-but life in an Old Order Amish household is not easy for him, an Orthodox Jew. An Amish farm family takes Isaac in while Jakob returns to his wife, who is about to give birth. Isaac, 12, and his father, Jakob-a peddler of household goods just after the turn of the century-are making the rounds of their customers in eastern Pennsylvania when an accident leaves the boy badly hurt.

Gideon's People by Carolyn Meyer