Fall 2024

The Mistakes That Made Us

Confessions from Twenty Poets

  • Interest Level: Grade 2 - Grade 5
  • Reading Level: Grade 3

Scoring a goal against your own team. Copying a classmate’s schoolwork. Accepting a dare to jump down the stairs . . . and getting hurt.

This engrossing poetry anthology explores making mistakes and learning from them. Twenty brave poets―Linda Sue Park, Margarita Engle, Allan Wolf, David Elliott, Matt Forrest Esenwine, Lacresha Berry, George Ella Lyon, Jaime Adoff, Vikram Madan, Kim Rogers, Douglas Florian, Tabatha Yeatts, Jorge Argueta, Jane Yolen, Charles Waters, JaNay Brown-Wood, Irene Latham, April Halprin Wayland, Darren Sardelli, and Naomi Shihab Nye―share real-life mistakes they made as young people . . . and what happened next. Edited by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, with brilliantly evocative illustrations by Mercè López, this is a book for all who are growing and discovering and still figuring out who we are. (Which is to say . . . all of us!)

Format Your Price Add
978-1-7284-9210-0
$14.24
979-8-7656-3024-2
$23.99
Available at all major wholesalers and distributors. Save 25% off list price on hardcovers and ebooks when you buy direct! Digital purchases will be accessed on Lerner Digital Bookshelf. An account will be created for you after purchase.
Interest Level Grade 2 - Grade 5
Reading Level Grade 3
Genre Picture Books
Category Reading/Language Arts, SEL: A Self-Awareness, SEL: B Self-Management, SEL: C Social Awareness, SEL: D Relationship Skills, SEL: E Responsible Decision-Making, Social Emotional Learning
Copyright 2024
Publisher Lerner Publishing Group
Imprint Carolrhoda Books ®
Language English
Number of Pages 40
Publication Date 2024-10-01
Text Type Poetry
BISACS JNF042000, JNF053200, JNF053050
Dewey 811/.608
Dimensions 9.25 x 11
Guided Reading Level TBD
Features Author/Illustrator biography, Original artwork, Reviewed, and Starred Reviews

Author: Irene Latham

Irene Latham is the author of more than a dozen current and forthcoming works of poetry, fiction, and picture books. Her work includes Charlotte Huck Honor Book and ALA Notable Children’s Book Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship (co-written with Charles Waters) and the Caldecott Honor Book The Cat Man of Aleppo(co-written by Karim Shamsi-Basha). In 2016 she won the ILA Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award. Visit her at www.irenelatham.com.

Author: Charles Waters

Charles Waters is a children’s poet, actor, and co-author of Charlotte Huck Honor Book Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship. His novel in verse, Mascot (co-written with Traci Sorell) was recognized as a Charlotte Huck Honor Book and a 2024 American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book. His poems have appeared in various anthologies including One Minute Till Bedtime and The National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry. Charles performs his one-person show as well as conducts poetry performance and writing workshops for elementary and middle school audiences. He lives in Georgia.

Illustrator: Mercè López

Mercè López is an artist and illustrator who lives in Barcelona, Spain. Her illustrated work includes I Am Smoke and Big Problems Little Problems.

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Reviews

School Library Journal

“An engaging, emotionally honest collection of poetry that offers children a comforting glimpse of adults and their imperfections . . . This accessible, well-tuned collection of poetry will reassure and delight young readers in equal measure.”—School Library Journal

Publishers Weekly

“Dynamic mixed-media artwork from López (Sylvie and the Wolf) offers energetic visual support for each poem in an anthology packed with a broad spectrum of human emotion and experience.”—starred, Publishers Weekly

Kirkus Reviews

“Comforting reminders that nobody’s perfect, infused with lessons large and small.”—Kirkus Reviews