A Fire in My Hands by Gary Soto

A Fire in My Hands by Gary Soto and illustrated by James M. Cardillo was published in 1990 and contains 22 free-verse poems along with questions and answers about poetry. The poems are loaded with imagery and accessible to children of today even though they were written a while ago.

I found this book at a little free library, but now that I've found it, I'm keeping it. At the beginning of each poem, he shares his inspiration for the poem. The illustrations by James M. Cardillo add to the poetry and are well done. This is a great book for a classroom or for a child who enjoys writing poetry. He is Latino, yet his writing speaks to all ethnicities.

This is the copy I found, but there is an expanded  newer version that I now need to buy.

This is the cover of the expanded edition.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.