“I have a superhero who lifts me out of / sorrow / and rocks me in her arms.” Hope Anita Smith explores love and loss in a moving collection of poems in the voice of an African American girl whose mother is the anchor in her young life. When her mother dies suddenly, the girl is adrift, at first overwhelmed by grief. Memories offer little comfort early on as she longs for what she no longer has. She is sad and angry and full of regret. She even senses a separateness from friends who are lucky enough to have mothers who drive them crazy. But memory is also a source of healing and solace in the end: “I build trees all the time now / Memory trees. / I start at the base, / my earliest memory, / and work my way up. / Hang moments with my mom in my mind.” Most of the thirty-one poems are accompanied by spare, expressive torn-paper illustrations. (Age 9 and older)

Ayoung girl thinks of her mom as a superhero, a doctor, her North Star. She feels loved in her mother's arms and capable of conquering the world. But when her beloved role model unexpectedly dies, she cannot even cry; sadness is too overwhelming. As she struggles with grief, she must learn how to carry on while keeping the memory of her mother very much alive inside her heart.

In moving poems, Hope Anita Smith explores a personal yet emotionally universal subject: the death of a parent. Through the eyes of a child and then a young woman, these poignant poems, together with stunning folk-art images, powerfully capture the complicated feelings of someone who shows great hope, strength, and will to overcome.