“ 'Thank you’ / is a seed I plant / in the garden / of your heart.” Nikki Grimes offers a variety of reasons for giving thanks and feeling appreciation in this collection of poems written in the voices of children. One child is grateful for the neighbor who cares for her after school, another thanks God for weekends, a third finds her mother’s lunch-box notes of love and gratitude lighten the resentment she feels at having to play with her baby brother. A homeless girl wishes she had her own place to stay, but is thankful for her mom and brother. A boy who trips and falls at school feels indebted to the one classmate who didn’t laugh. The theme may be pointed but the delivery is pleasing in poems that are generally lighthearted and often humorous (with a few obviously weightier moments), and accompanied by warm acrylic paintings. (Ages 6–10)

What makes you thankful?

A book?
Weekends?
Your family?

How do you say thanks?
With a flower?
With a chocolate bar?
With a surprise?

In sixteen extraordinary poems that range in form from a haiku to a rebus to a riddle, Nikki Grimes reminds us how wonderful it is to feel thankful, and how powerful a simple "thank you" can be.