Partly Cloudy by Gary Soto
The fleeting emotions of teenagers, as changeable as the weather, ring true in these emotionally resonant poems. Told from the point of view of both boys and girls, narrators of various ethnicities fall in love for the first time, pine over crushes, and brood over broken hearts. Tender, lighthearted, and surprising, this collection will capture teens, tweens, and anyone who remembers what it’s like to be a young person in love.
I had the same trouble with this book as I do with many poetry collections; only some of them are good. The other ones aren’t necessarily terrible just okay. But you have to pick through all the other stuff to get to the refined goodness that Soto is capable of.
Out of the collection, nine poems in particular stuck out at me, so if you pick up this book at all, read:
Don’t You See
The Invisible Girl
Lazy Cupid
Pears
Time With You
Sparks
Simple Me
Driftwood
Spreading Love
Other than those ones, eh, they weren’t all that great. But still check out the book, after all, it is national poetry month!
~Remedyleaf
