Nine

A Book of Nonet Poems

by Irene Latham
illustrated by Amy Huntington

Review posted May 27, 2025.
Charlesbridge, 2020. 36 pages.
Review written November 29, 2023, from my own copy.
Starred Review
2024 Mathical Book Prize Honor Book, Ages 8-10.

Here's a fun idea: Nonet poems about things we associate with the number Nine!

What's a nonet poem? It's a poem using syllable count. There are nine syllables in the first line, eight in the second, seven in the third, and so on down to one syllable in the last line. Or it's done in reverse order, starting with one syllable and ending with nine syllables.

These are kid-friendly poems, with an introductory poem explaining nonets, and then eighteen poems, each getting its own spread or at least its own page. The topics are related to the number Nine, including baseball, a cat's nine lives, the ninth president (William Henry Harrison), a nonagon, the Little Rock Nine, Pluto, Cloud Nine, and Dressed to the Nines, with a special highlight for the poem on Page Nine.

Of course the natural follow-up to this book is to try writing some nonet poems yourself. This book is a light-hearted approach to poetry - and the number Nine. It was a fun choice for a Mathical Honor Book, showing that a book about numbers can also be poetic.