{"id":37290,"date":"2024-04-27T21:05:34","date_gmt":"2024-04-28T01:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37290"},"modified":"2024-04-27T21:05:34","modified_gmt":"2024-04-28T01:05:34","slug":"review-of-cast-away-by-naomi-shihab-nye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37290","title":{"rendered":"Review of Cast Away, by Naomi Shihab Nye"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Cast Away<\/p>\n

Poems for Our Time<\/em><\/p>\n

by Naomi Shihab Nye<\/p>\n

Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins), 2020. 159 pages.
\nStarred Review
\nReview written March 6, 2020, from a library book<\/p>\n

This is a book of poems about trash. And I was surprised, but it made me want to write poems about trash, too. In fact, I will never look at things thrown by the side of the road the same way.<\/p>\n

In the Introduction, Naomi Shihab Nye writes about her compulsion to pick up trash. She makes a habit of going out and cleaning up her spaces. And other spaces in her neighborhood. And even spaces where she visits.<\/p>\n

And then she writes poems about it. Here are a few short ones.<\/p>\n

Two<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two white buttons
\nnot matching
\nin hot white gravel
\ndreaming of
\nshirts<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Junk Mail<\/strong><\/p>\n

The great poet
\nWilliam Stanley Merwin
\nknown as W. S.
\nwrote first drafts of his poems
\non junk mail envelopes
\nplucked from the garbage
\nso he never had to worry
\nabout wasting paper
\nor being perfect<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Most of the poems are longer than these. And most either make you smile or make you think.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed this book, reading several poems per day. I will not look at things thrown out the same way again. I\u2019m even thinking maybe it\u2019s time to pick up some of the detritus on the edges of my local lake.<\/p>\n

My favorite part of the book, though, is at the back, called \u201cIdeas for Writing, Recycling, Reclaiming.\u201d After reading all the poems about things thrown away, I was ready for ideas about getting out and cleaning up \u2013 and then writing about it. Here\u2019s the second idea listed, after the first idea of ways to equip yourself to get out and pick up trash:<\/p>\n

Write about what you find. You learn a lot about human nature while doing this. Why do people throw certain things away? What do these leavings tell you about your neighbors? Imagine the litterer. Create a character study from everything you find on one day, as if it all came from one person. Or write a story including 5-10 of the items you find.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Further ideas involve ways of including other people as well as further writing prompts. I also like this one: \u201cWrite a letter to a particular piece of trash.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final paragraph of this section is something she\u2019s shown to be true with the entire book:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s never too late to make things better. Understanding them more might help.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

harpercollinschildrens.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I\u2019m posting the oldest reviews I\u2019ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They\u2019re still good books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cast Away Poems for Our Time by Naomi Shihab Nye Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins), 2020. 159 pages. Starred Review Review written March 6, 2020, from a library book This is a book of poems about trash. And I was surprised, but it made me want to write poems about trash, too. In fact, I will never […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,28,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-nonfiction-review","category-poetry","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37290"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43673,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37290\/revisions\/43673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}