Grace Notes

With themes of family, love, kindness, empathy, grief, growing up, and resilience, these one hundred never-before-published poems by the beloved poet, speaker, and teacher Naomi Shihab Nye will resonate with a wide audience.

National Book Award finalist and former Young People’s Poet Laureate Naomi Shihab Nye’s Grace Notes: Poems about Families celebrates family and community. This rich collection of one hundred never-before-published poems is also the poet’s most personal work to date. With poems about her own childhood and school years, her parents and grandparents, and the people who have touched and shaped her life in so many ways, this is an emotional and sparkling collection to savor, share, and read again and again.

In these pages, Nye holds a life up to the light, finding grace in the smallest details.
Mother Daughter Relationship: A tender and honest portrait of the poet’s mother, tracing a lifetime of conversations, memories, and unspoken love.Coming of Age Poetry: Lyrical reflections on childhood, from first memories and schoolyard secrets to the poignant journey of self-discovery.Family History and Heritage: Explores the rich tapestry of a multicultural family, with moving poems about grandparents, a Palestinian father, and an American mother from two sides of the world.Free Verse Poems: One hundred accessible, never-before-published poems written in a clear, conversational style that feels like sitting down with an old friend.