This evocative biography of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver begins with her sitting under a tree as a young girl, wondering about the birds, trees, and “all the things that could not speak yet somehow spoke to Mary.” The book takes us through her quiet wonderings, her discovery of how words and poetry could help her convey her observations and ideas, and her work as a poet.
We also see how she met photographer Molly Malone Cook, who was “asking the same questions about life.” Together, they sought to discover how pictures and words might capture beautiful things, and in their life together on Cape Cod, “Mary saw beauty.”
Readers are taken along with Mary as she explored the woods near her home “in search of wonder.” Even after she became known in Provincetown and beyond, she continued to live a quiet life of writing, occasional teaching, noticing, and always wondering. And when life was hard—like when Molly died—“poetry made the hard parts softer.”
Mary wrote, the book concludes, hoping that readers “just like you” are holding on to wonder just like her.
Author Erin Frankel’s text captures some of the lyricism of Oliver’s own works, while illustrator Jasu Hu’s watercolors elevate the book to something truly special, showing both the natural beauty of the world that Oliver saw and the swirling images of her imagination. The volume is both a biography and an ode to poetry itself, a powerful combination that makes it highly recommended for young readers.
Backmatter includes an Author’s Note with more details about Oliver’s life and why Frankel felt called to write about her; a timeline; a “Note on the Craft of Poetry”; a bibliography, and acknowledgments.
