Absolutely beautiful. What an excellent example of collaborative and educational poetry! Kids can learn all kinds of types as you read them aloud or study certain forms.

This book would be a great way to start the school year - A-Z Counting Up to an Inclusive Community! Also, identifies a variety of different poems to help teach kids about poetry. The anecdotes remind me of the power of story - "Try It" invites new stories.

Great gift book for ages 8-18! It might also be fine for college students/young adults and also older adults. When I borrowed this book from the library in late February or early March (it’s the last checked out library book I’m getting to these many months later) I was expecting a picture book for preschoolers or early elementary school students. This book is much more advanced than that. I know that this is a children’s book but my opinion is that to get the full value of it, it’s best for older children, young adults, and also adults.

I love the format. It’s wonderfully illustrated with mostly full page illustrations with the text incorporated into the pictures. The art is glorious, fun, beautiful, and varied. Each letter has one to four words and for each word there is a poem (and the poem’s form is included, and I learned a LOT) and a quote (many are great) and a true life very short story about an event in their life or musings about something of importance to one of the authors, with a “Try it!” suggestion inspired by the biographical account.

I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy or feel interested in this book’s contents but I did. When I was a kid/teen I would have loved this book. I avoided reading it and considered putting it with my library materials ready to return when the pandemic rules permit. I’m glad that I decided to read it.

The word open for the letter O is why this book is on my vegan shelf. I am thrilled. (This was a 5 star book for me before I got to the letter O.)

Unlike virtually all other “alphabet books” the X word was not a cheat, though not as well used/defined as I would have liked.

In the back of the book is an authors’ note, a list of the books and poems and speech referenced in the book, and a list of additional recommended books, a list of poetry resources, an index of poetic forms (47 of them!!! I wish I’d read that section first!), and gratitude lists that are the acknowledgments pages, and bios and photos of the two authors and the illustrator. Really there are two photos of the three book creators. Cute illustration at the end with them appearing in it!

The words: Acceptance, Ally, Belonging, Compassion, Courage, Create, Dialogue, Diversity, Dream, Empathy, Equality, Exercise, Experiment, Forgiveness, Freedom, Fuel, Gratitude, (Epitaph for) Hate, Hope, Humility, Intention, Justice, Kindness, Laughter, Listen, Love, Mindfulness, Nature, Netiquette, Open, Pause, Peace, Question, Reach, Release, Respect, Service, Shero, Team, Tenacity, Upstander, Voice, Vulnerable, (Bear) Witness, Wonder, Xenial, Yes, Zest

I’d be delighted to see this book as part of every family’s book collection, in every library, in every school/classroom, and in every psych treatment center (children, teens, adults,) youth centers, etc. It’s a great book for independent readers and also perfect for sharing and discussing. Highly recommended!

Poetry, artwork, and shared experiences that encourage social improvement through achievable suggested practices. Expansive array of poetry variants, with explanatory footnoted definitions of each variation.

A+ in concept and construction. Content gets a little too preachy at times and drags on for too long, and I think kids would get tired reading it from start to finish. But as a teaching tool for poetry, this would be an amazing choice.

This book has everything -- poems, short essays responding to the poems/topics, quotes, a book list, and GORGEOUS illustrations. Perfect for browsing, using as a mentor text, and lifting your spirits.

Some many of my loves come together in this amazingly illustrated book. If you love poems, quotes, and are working on becoming a better human, this is the book for you.

Ooof. YES, YES, AND YES. This is a visually stunning, poetically challenging, social justice filled book of goodness ripe for any classroom or library no matter the aged student. Sooo many mentor poems and lessons for SEL and morning meetings in this skinny little book. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

So so so good! This is a beautiful book! ♥️
Please go get it, read it, read it again, and live it.
The book is organized by concepts in alphabetical order. Each concept has a poem (utilizing various poetic forms which are always defined), a quote, an anecdote from one of the authors, and a call to action to help kids put the idea in play in their own lives.

I read this book super slowly, savoring it. Now that I’ve finished, I plan to start over and read it again. I want to know this book thoroughly and be able to turn to it for myself and my students.