Book list
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Moderation can wait--plenty of time for that later, says acclaimed poet and anthologist Nye. She knows how to reach teens, and this lively collection by young contemporary writers is rooted in the strong, emotional particulars of family, friendship, childhood memories, school, dislocation, war, and more; interestingly, there is almost no talk of sex or romance. The spare lines are passionate, wry, irreverent, and eloquent about meaning found in daily-life scenarios. One poet describes a meditative moment with her cat that destroys all my knitting to teach me about impermanence. Another prays for a soldier, a kindergarten best friend who has returned from Baghdad. In several selections, immigrants remember their arrival in the U.S. In a brief, appended biography, one poet describes her draw to poetry: Unresolved, uncomfortable, and sometimes repulsive moments of memory can be made somehow graceful through writing. Teens will connect with the passionate, unmoderated feelings that are given clarity and shape in each poem.--Rochman, Hazel Copyright 2010 Booklist

School Library Journal
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Gr 9 Up-In her introduction, Nye shies away from laying out her parameters for inclusion, but rather paints a picture of the stumbling, exploratory passage into adulthood that she hopes the voices in the collection will convey. True to form, the young poets may be vastly separated by experience, ethnicity, and gender, but are linked by a common humanity and a desire to make sense of their unfolding life experiences through language. They struggle with race, slurred words, absent loved ones, and unrealized dreams while reveling in snow crystals and childhood memories. From Gray Emerson's "The Indexer in Love," a playful approach to the oft-hackneyed love poem, to Talah Abu Rahmeh's powerful "The Falling Man," a heartbreaking ode to those who fell from the Twin Towers, these selections are diverse in content and form. They are also alternately raw, poignant, quiet, and loud. They are many things, but never amateurish. Readers will have no trouble finding little pieces of themselves in this beautifully orchestrated collection.-Jill Heritage Maza, Greenwich High School, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A selection of the work of 26 (not 25) young poets makes up this varied collection, musing on topics from personal identity to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Nye's introduction artfully sets a tone that encourages readers to remember the experience of being under 25it is humming and evocative, but an odd choice for a volume at least ostensibly intended for teen readers. The poets employ a range of styles and write in drastically different voices with the result that most will find something they like. Lauren Espinoza's darkly humorous couplets draw office workers into analogous companionship with vampires in "death taxes," while Allison River's sparse, musical lines in "Even Before You" paint a brief, lovely image. Jonah Ogles's quiet but fierce scenes of rural farm life in "Belle Union, Indiana" contrast with Henry Mills's searing picture of immigration in "Run." Still others, such as Catherine Bates, write with a breathtaking intensity about family violence. Teen poets will be a natural audience, as will adult teachers of young writers. (Poetry. 14-25) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Horn Book
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In this exceptionally well-selected collection, the coming-of-age free verse poems speak poignantly on themes of love, family, heritage, trauma, and identity. With four pieces by every contributor, each section provides a glimpse of the poet's style as illuminating as the brief bios included in the final pages. What makes these poems so satisfying is their urgency and unabashed courage. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly
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Nye (Honeybee) presents an anthology of poets under the age of 25, each of whom contribute four poems. The poets chiefly employ free verse and utilize intensely personal material, but these are their sole similarities. The poems cover territory spiritual and saccharine, philosophical and experimental, angry and irreverent ("do you think/ if you left your house/ emily dickinson/ your poems would have titles?"). Some writers are concerned with excavating the past, contemplating death and illness, dissecting class divides, and questioning feelings of displacement, be it geographical, emotional, or cultural (Amal Khan, born in Pakistan, writes, "They have called me subcontinental,/ Ethnic and oriental-/ Suffering and my creed-/ It is a romantic thing indeed"). Several exhibit a delicacy in the handling of memory and attention to detail; "She collages her disasters/ by finding her own feelings in the/ magazine faces," writes Ben Westlie. While the poems don't necessarily break new ground, the collection is gripping and provocative in its portrayal of vastly different lives and experiences, strong sense of place, and sheer exuberance. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved