Edited by Scott Beal

Provocatively titled, this anthology is a teacher’s trove of insights into the minds of middle schoolers. The published book is the culmination of a year-long writer-in-residence program at a Southeastern Michigan K-8 school, in which a professional writer and poet worked with a fifth-sixth grade split class to hone their own writing skills. Quite free form — the editor acknowledges how he abhors formulas — the poems themselves run the gamut of recognizable forms such as haiku and rhyming couplets to pieces that border on the short story. The editor’s approach centered on giving students thinking questions, so there are recurring themes: meditations on the experience of a tree, odes to broken things, apologies. There is also much that was unassigned and is unexpected, such as young adolescents choosing to reflect on what happens to us when we die. Certainly a fun look at student writing, and an excellent model for working with current students, this book is also deceptively deep, reminding teachers what student minds and writers are really capable of.… (altro)