Everything Comes Next: Collected & New Poems
By Lucinda Dyer,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Unforgettable collection celebrates diversity and kindness.
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What's the Story?
EVERYTHING COMES NEXT: COLLECTED & NEW POEMS is divided into three sections. "The Holy Land of Childhood" has poems about how to become a writer, sharing a room with a brother, the reasons you should always bring a pencil, why libraries are "the reasons we can say these things," and a hilarious story about the time she and a friend started walking around in a private residence, mistaking it for a local art museum. "The Holy Land That Isn't" has a serious tone, and the 18 poems focus on the author's Arab heritage. Here, there are poems about Arabic coffee, a 15-year-old who lives in Gaza, her father's love of fig trees, the Occupied Territories, armed soldiers and people being forced from their homes. In the longest section, "People Are the Only Holy Land," there are poems about her travels to Paris, Tegucigalpa, and Japan and life in her home state of Texas. There are poems about happiness and state mottoes (Idaho's is "Let it be perpetual"), poems that declare "you can't order a poem like you order a taco" or touch the Puffins, and ones about young poets who live in Winnipeg, Canada, and an act of kindness at the Albuquerque airport.
Is It Any Good?
This compelling collection has poems that will make you laugh and others that will make you sad. Poems that will teach you something new about the world. Poems readers will return to year after year. Everything Comes Next has verses that are silly enough ("Music lives inside my legs. It's coming out when I talk") to delight even the most poetry averse readers. Other poems (particularly about the continuing conflict between Palestinians and Israelis) take on mature subjects and may need a parent to explain the background and context.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the poems in Everything Comes Next that speak about the small everyday things in life. What are the "small" things in your life that are the most meaningful?
The author encourages readers to explore the joy of writing with a pen and paper. How do you think writing a poem on your computer would be different that writing one with a pen? What could be joyful about writing with a pen?
If you wrote a poem about your childhood, what would the title be?
Book Details
- Author: Naomi Shihab Nye
- Genre: Poetry
- Topics: Book Characters , History
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Greenwillow Books
- Publication date: September 29, 2020
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 9 - 13
- Number of pages: 256
- Available on: Paperback, Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: October 20, 2020
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