“First memory: / clinging to the rail. / They were not happy in the living room. / Mama, Dada. / Two big people, hard words / bouncing back and forth. … I didn’t know many words yet, but heard / their edges.” (from “I Stood in My Crib”) Poems about families focus on poet Naomi Shihab Nye’s own family first and foremost, especially her mother and their relationship over time. It’s clear her mother’s ambitions, frustrations, interests, and challenges, including living with depression, imprinted themselves on and influenced Nye’s life from childhood on. Poems that invite reflection on what it means to be a child in relation to the adults in one’s life, and sometimes in opposition to them, may especially resonate with young readers, and be particularly relatable for any living with an adult who has depression. Poems about Nye’s father are also part of this collection that expands in Part Two (“Sometimes We Need a Bigger Family”) to also look at other important people in her childhood and influences in her life. This includes events happening around the world, especially in the Middle East, to which Nye, whose father was Palestinian, has always brought a personal, informed, compassionate lens.