Rising Voices Book

One of my seventh grade special education students I work with chose this collection of poems and essays for National Poetry month. I was excited to see her choose such a diverse anthology independently. This quick read is separated into six parts: Identity, Family, Homelands, Ritual and Ceremony, Education, and Harsh Realities. The writing is not amazing in and of itself (to be fair - most of the authors were in middle school and high school) I was also surprised by how many of the writers self identified as "Indian." Still, it was refreshing to hear about different cultures from people actually IN the culture. It is a book about them that is also by them and for that reason alone it is at least worth having in a library for students to look through.