In two parts, titled “A Girl’s Tears, Her Songs” and “A Boy’s Body, His Words,” Gary Soto explores the intense and often fleeting experience of young love. His seventy-seven poems speak in a range of distinct teenage voices along the spectrum of love: longing from a distance (“Don’t You See”), total immersion in a shared romance (“Time”), and the sharp pain of its demise (“Eternal Love”). The elusive nature of love is explored in several of the poems, including “Rough Hands”: “Lotion is a slippery essence / Applied on a winter day / When an icy wind sings through the bare trees. / But I prefer my hands rough. / This way when I hold yours, / You won’t slip away.” (Age 13 and older)

A poignant, humorous collection by acclaimed poet Gary Soto

The fleeting emotions of teenagers, as changeable as the weather, ring true in these emotionally resonant poems. Told from the point of view of both boys and girls, narrators of various ethnicities fall in love for the first time, pine over crushes, and brood over broken hearts. Tender, lighthearted, and surprising, this collection will capture teens, tweens, and anyone who remembers what it’s like to be a young person in love.