“Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, / the world offers itself to your imagination, / calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting — / over and over announcing your place / in the family of things.” ~ Mary Oliver
Beloved American poet Mary Oliver is well known for her sensitive, pure-hearted observations of the natural world, but did you know she credited her love of nature and poetry with saving her life?
Thanks to Woods & Words: The Story of Mary Oliver by Sara Holly Ackerman and Naoko Stoop (Beach Lane Books, 2025), young readers will learn how a lonely girl survived a difficult childhood by finding refuge in the woods and writing about the wonders she found there. Her lifelong practice of walking in the wild and treating poetry as central to her very existence would earn her literary acclaim, but more importantly, the rare status of being a popular, best-selling poet in an otherwise poetry-indifferent age.
We first see young Mary in the woods, crouched in a grass-and-sticks hut she had stitched herself, “noticing” treasures like birdsong, velvet leaves, and “a glittering beam of light.”
Whenever she felt confined by classroom walls, she made the woods her school. There, she wrote, filling stacks of notebooks, alone except for books by favorite poets like Poe, Blake, and Whitman.
The spring after graduating from high school, Mary drove to Steepletop in upstate New York, where she stayed in an old farmhouse where the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay once lived. She helped Edna’s sister organize papers and “wrapped herself in woods and words. What more could she ask for?”
One day, Mary saw a visitor at the kitchen table — it was love at first sight! Mary and Molly became inseparable, capturing the world around them, Mary with her words, Molly with her camera.
They eventually settled in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where Mary continued to walk the woods or along the shore, searching for poems: “There were always poems if you paid attention,” whether under leaves, on the backs of black snakes, or prompted by the sweet or rotten smells she encountered. She carried a pocket notebook and stashed pencils in trees so she’d always be ready.
At department parties, I eat cheeses my parents never heard of—gooey pale cheeses speaking garbled tongues. I have acquired a taste, yes, and that's okay, I tell myself. I grew up in a house shaded by the factory's clank and clamor. A house built like a square of sixty-four American Singles, the ones my mother made lunches With—for the hungry man who disappeared into that factory, and five hungry kids. American Singles. Yellow mustard. Day-old Wonder Bread. Not even Swiss, with its mysterious holes. We were sparrows and starlings still learning how the blue jay stole our eggs, our nest eggs. Sixty-four Singles wrapped in wax— dig your nails in to separate them.
When I come home, I crave—more than any home cooking—those thin slices in the fridge. I fold one in half, drop it in my mouth. My mother can't understand. Doesn't remember me being a cheese eater, plain like that.
Raise your hand if you grew up with Kraft American Singles — *looks around* — okay, I see that’s most of you. 🙂
photo byJ. Kenji López-Alt/Serious Eats
Did your Mom tuck them in your lunchbox sandwiches along with baloney or ham? Did you ever snack on a slice to satisfy between-meal munchies? Remember how your mouth watered as you anticipated that first bite of a juicy grilled burger with melty cheese oozing down the sides? Or best of all, what about the fine art of slowly pulling apart a warm grilled cheese sandwich just to see how far those gooey strings would s-t-r-e-t-c-h?
Basil and Cornelius are beary excited about a new children’s poetry book written by UK poet and editor Rachel Piercey.Wisdom of the Woods: 40 Poems to Treasure (Magic Cat Publishing, 2024), is part of the wildly popular Brown Bear Wood series illustrated by Freya Hartas, which includes board books, coloring books, and interactive search-and-find adventure stories written in verse (which we featured here and here).
Readers who enjoy a poetic blend of nature and science will revel in these lyrical gems, as they immerse us in the wonder, joy and magic of Brown Bear Wood. How delightful to spend more time with our friend Bear and his many forest companions — above, below, and on the ground!
This book is actually a special gift to Bear from his Papa:
Dearest Bear,
The time has come, my little cub, to pass into your paws the Wisdom of the Woods -- a book of Nature's ancient laws.
It's been with us for many years, passed down from bear to bear. And now it's yours to read and use, to think about and share.
The poems you will find inside explore our woodland home, the tiny daily miracles occurring as we roam,
and how the plants and creatures work in harmony, to grow. So turn the page -- you're ready, Bear. These things are yours to know . . .
Love, Papa Bear
The winsome rhyming poems are presented in eight sections, taking us from dawn to dusk:
Beginnings
At Home in the Woodland
Among the Trees
Woodland Weather
Mighty Minibeasts
Look Closer
So Many Seeds
Goodnight, Woodland
Piercey effortlessly incorporates lots of interesting facts in her fun-to-read-aloud verses, everything from seed dispersion and pollination, to metamorphosis and migration, to condensation and photosynthesis. Readers will learn how the natural order of things works, especially with regard to the symbiosis of plants and animals, all the while charmed by lovable Bear and the fascinating creatures who share his cozy woodland habitat.
Buckle Up and Start Your Engines! Vroom! Zoom! We’re off on a prehysteric prehistoric poetry adventure sure to get your motors humming.
If you relish turbo-charged humor, well-oiled rhymes, fun facts and genius cartoons, steer your way right into Dinos That Drive by Suzy Levinson and Dustin Harbin (Tundra, 2025). This well-versed vehicle consisting of 21 poems is packed with fossilized fun from brontos to buses and triceratops to tractors, with friendly herbivores and one terrifying carnivore throwing a wacky wrench in the works (say that fast five times). Look, here they come now, roarin’ down the highway . . .
DINOS . . . GOING?
You've never seen a dinosaur that's into driving cars? You've never seen a dinosaur that flies a jumbo jet? You've never seen a dinosaur that rockets to the stars? Then buckle up! Let's take a ride . . . YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET!
The concept of putting dinosaurs behind the wheel is brilliant: Dinos + Things That Go = Kid Heaven. Dustin Harbin’s imaginative, immersive Scarry-esque cartoons expand upon the captivating humor of Levinson’s rollicking poems via zany details and cool sight gags.
Jama's Alphabet Soup 