Partly Cloudy: Poems of Love and Longing (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Partly Cloudy: Poems of Love and Longing Deborah Stevenson Soto, Gary Partly Cloudy: Poems of Love and Longing. Harcourt, 2009 [112p] ISBN 978-0-15-206301-6$16.00 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8 Romance of the earliest variety is chronicled in this series of poems divided into the female point of view ("A Girl's Tears, Her Songs") and the male ("A Boy's Body, His Words"), with nearly forty verses for each. Poems, almost all written in the first person, cover love aspects such as coveting from afar ("If you were to bump into me in the cafeteria . . . "—"A Certain Weakness") to coveting up close ("That was the first time we touched"—"Getting to Know You"), reveling in love ("Time with You") and losing it ("When I Lost You"). Motifs—flowers, bees—run with great subtlety through the collection, yet the poems themselves are written with considerable accessibility that will make them both legible and appealing to the entry-level lovers and aspirants in the thirteen and under category. The blend of literalness, unapologetic romanticism, and lean rather than lush vocabulary makes the verses eminently suitable for a variety of reading levels and for reading aloud or alone, wherever love is in the air. [End Page 259] Copyright © 2009 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois