Smith's (Keeping the Night Watch
) deeply personal collection of poems, accompanied by free-form collages, forms a distinct narrative arc, with early poems striking an easy tone. “I know Batman has/ a really cool car./ And Spider-Man can swing on a web/ like Tarzan./ But I have a better superhero than that,” says the girl, wrapped in her mother's lavender shawl. But after the mother's death, the poems draw on complex emotions (“I WANT my mother,/ so I took a picture of her/ and slapped the word 'WANTED,'/ in big block letters across it”) and memories that lead, eventually, to rejuvenation. Ages 8–13. (Apr.)
