The following unabridged reviews are made available under license from their respective rights holders and publishers. Reviews may be used for educational purposes consistent with the fair use doctrine in your jurisdiction, and may not be reproduced or repurposed without permission from the rights holders.

Note: This section may include reviews for related titles (e.g., same author, series, or related edition).

From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

Nikki Grimes’s poetry memoir of her childhood and teenage years recounts the chronic instability of her life while tracing the development of her love of writing. As a child, Grimes entered the foster care system because her mother, who had schizophrenia, could not care for her. Already traumatized by neglect, she was devastated to be separated from her older sister. After a rough start, she found happiness and belonging with her foster family, only to be retrieved a few years later by her mother. As her teen years began, her stepfather began to sexually assault her, and her mother continued to experience schizophrenic episodes. Although her father reappeared in her life as a force of good, offering her support and a place to live and exposure to the richness of Black cultural life, Grimes learned to rely on herself with help from her older sister and an English teacher who pushed her to be the best writer she could be. Throughout these years, Grimes took great comfort in reading and writing, carrying a beloved notebook everywhere and using her journal and poetry as a coping mechanism and a way to work through the chaos of her family life. This poems in this powerful memoir reveal the author’s incredible fortitude and perseverance in the face of extreme circumstances. (Age 13 and older)

CCBC Choices 2020 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2020. Used with permission.

From School Library Journal

October 1, 2019

Gr 7 Up-Grimes offers young adult readers the special treat of literary ingenuity in her new memoir. "Time to grab my flashlight / and step into the tunnel," Grimes writes in an early poem-making reference to her task with this new work. In long poems, short poems, and the occasional prose poem, Grimes guides us through her past tragedies and triumphs while keenly observed moments build her inner world. Readers spend time with three different points of view: child Grimes, adolescent Grimes, and burgeoning adult Grimes. Though the circumstances and characters change as she moves and grows, her voice is consistently spare and warm. The poems about experiencing neglect as a five-year-old carry the same powerful simplicity as those written about high school. A memoir that doesn't demand a time line, this work is a personal history in poems that you can read backward and forward. VERDICT This nontraditional memoir from a long-working and highly acclaimed author will speak deeply to young readers harboring their own interest in writing or otherwise squeezing art out of life's spiky fruit.-Sierra Dickey, Center for New Americans, Northampton, MA

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Horn Book

Starred review from September 1, 2019
As poetically written as Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming (rev. 9/14) with a story as hard-hitting as Sapphire's Push. In her author's note, poet Grimes (winner of the 2017 Children's Literature Legacy Award) says that memoirs focus on truth, not fact. Because of the childhood trauma she suffered, she has limited memories of her early years but has constructed the truths of her life from a patchwork of recollections; photos obtained from friends and family; and a few artifacts salvaged despite the frequent moves of her impoverished family and time spent in foster care. Overshadowing most of the story, her mother's mental illness (paranoid schizophrenia), alcoholism, and marriage to an abusive and irresponsible man made Grimes's early life hazardous. In a childhood in which she had to elude rats in her apartments and bullies and gangs in her neighborhoods and in which she was sexually violated by her stepfather, young Nikki found solace and confidence through her identity as a writer. She was supported and nurtured by her sister, from whom she was separated at age five; by her father, a violinist who immersed Nikki in Harlem's Black Arts scene; and by an English teacher who insisted on excellence. As her story unfolds (the book is arranged in sections, chronologically, beginning in 1950 and ending in 1966), the striking free-verse poems powerfully convey how a passion for writing fueled her will to survive and embrace her own resilience. My spiral notebook bulges / with poems and prayers / and questions only God / can answer. / Rage burns the pages, / but better them / than me. A must-read for aspiring writers. michelle h. martin

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Kirkus

August 15, 2019
For award-winning children's and YA author Grimes (Between the Lines, 2018, etc.), writing, faith, and determination were the keys to surviving her tumultuous childhood. In the face of her father's abandonment and the revolving door of her alcoholic mother's psychiatric hospital stays, Grimes becomes savvier and more resilient than any young child should have to be. After being abused by a babysitter when she was 3, Grimes and her beloved older sister, Carol, enter another set of revolving doors: foster care, sometimes loving, sometimes not. At a dark moment when she is 6, Grimes finds escape and comfort in prayer and writing. Despite the instability and danger she endures, Grimes blossoms into a gifted teen with a passion for books, journaling, and poetry. Her personal, political, and artistic awakenings are intertwined, with the drama of her family life unfolding against the backdrop of pivotal moments in Civil Rights-era America. Grimes recounts her story as a memoir in verse, writing with a poet's lyricism through the lens of memory fractured by trauma. Fans of her poetry and prose will appreciate this intimate look at the forces that shaped her as an artist and as a person determined to find the light in the darkest of circumstances. A raw, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting story of trauma, loss, and the healing power of words. (Verse memoir. 12-adult)

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Publisher's Weekly

Starred review from July 29, 2019
Grimes (One Last Word) presents a gripping memoir in verse constructed from imperfect recollections of the hardship and abuse she endured as a child. Having lost chunks of her memory as a result of traumatic experiences, Grimes relies on her art to fill in the blanks. In recurring entries titled "The Mystery of Memory," and "Notebook," Grimes contextualizes her scattered remembrances to provide a sense of time and place for readers ("Where is the chronology of a life/ chaotic from the start?"). Grimes eloquently conveys the instability of a childhood lived in the unpredictable wake of a mentally ill mother and abusive stepfather alongside hopeful anecdotes about the safe haven provided by her beloved older sister, her growing faith, and the often absent yet doting father she lost too soon. Underlining the idea that "a memoir's focus is on truth, not fact," Grimes courageously invites readers to join her on a journey through the shadows of her past, bridging "the gaps/ with suspension cables/ forged of steely gratitude/ for having survived my past/at all." Ages 12â€"up. (Oct.)â— 

From Horn Book

July 1, 2019
Grimes reconstructs her life story from a patchwork of recollections; old photos; and a few artifacts salvaged despite her impoverished family's frequent moves and time in foster care. Mental illness, alcoholism, domestic violence, and sexual abuse made Grime's early life hazardous and traumatic; writing offered solace and confidence. Striking free-verse poems powerfully convey how her passion helped her survive and embrace her own resilience. A must-read for aspiring writers.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Booklist

Starred review from June 1, 2019
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* With Ordinary Hazards, Grimes delivers a memoir in the form of a powerful and inspiring collection of poems. She details her early life through adulthood, and she unabashedly explores the highs as well as the lows. Grimes' struggle with a mother suffering from mental illness, an absent father, and an abusive stepfather plunged her life into turmoil at an early age. Yet through it all, she persevered and used writing as an outlet for her pain. She delves into finding a loving found family after being separated from her older sister and bounced around in foster care, ultimately having to choose between her found family and her birth mother, after her birth mother claims to be well enough for Grimes to come home. Young adults will identify with and connect to the many challenges explored in Grimes' work, which delves into issues of love, family, responsibility, belonging, finding your place in the world, and fighting the monsters you know?and the ones you don't. The memoir has heartbreaking moments?even soul-crushing ones?that will make readers ache for young Grimes and teens grappling with similar circumstances. But inspiring moments bolster her raw, resonant story, showing that there is always light at the end of the darkest of tunnels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

From Kirkus

Award-winning poet and author Nikki Grimes shares moments that she endured and overcame in a memoir of her youth. After she discovered the magic of writing at a young age, her notebooks became her chosen medium to express the pain of being separated from her sister in the foster system, an alcoholic mother with paranoid schizophrenia, and a father who was in and out of her life. Grimes is able to express the emotions she put into her free verse, turning her work into an oral poetry presentation that conveys her belief in the power of words. This inspiring audiobook will have listeners seeking out Grimes's other works. E.J.F. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine