Garvey's Choice

Reviewed by: Phyllis Fuchs - Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: January 10, 2017

Review

Award winning poet Nikki Grimes has written a brief, feel-good story about a book loving son who with help from a good friend makes a difficult choice that succeeds in bringing father and son into a closer relationship. The story is written in tanka, an ancient poetry form from Japan, and the story reads easily in just over one hundred pages. So inviting is Grimes' explanation of the five line poems, each one titled and appearing on every page, that readers may be tempted to try writing some tanka themselves rather than turning away from what looks like a book of short poems. Readers who do not turn away will discover a story told in an easily read format. Recommended to boys of about twelve and up and to girls as well, to language arts teachers, to parents and for /.,mnbthe young adult shelves of both school and public libraries.

Overall Book Score: very good