My summer diversion this year is to look for unread titles by some of my favorite children’s authors. I came to know Gary D. Schmidt three years ago and devoured The Wednesday Wars, Okay for Now, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, and Orbiting Jupiter in rapid succession, truly excited to read worthwhile young adult fiction written by a contemporary author. Each of them was absorbing and my mind has returned to all those characters regularly since I met them in those stories.

The only nonfiction I read by him until recently was William Bradford: Plymouth’s Faithful Pilgrim. It is an excellent choice for junior to senior high readers studying early colonial America. Imagine my delight to discover that the popular “Poetry for Young people” series includes a volume of Robert Frost for children edited by Gary Schmidt. He includes some of the most beloved Frost poems. Each poem is introduced with brief comments of conditions or meanings of terms mentioned in the following poem. What was especially lovely was that the poems were arranged according to season, so that a turning of the year can be spent with Mr. Frost. A brief biography is included in the beginning of this small collection and references to Frost’s circumstances or setting for each of his poems is included.

Whether you are a poetry lover or a novice to the world of poetry, this collection is an excellent choice to get to know Robert Frost.

For the joy of reading,

Liz