Nikki Grimes. (2020). Ordinary Hazards. Astra Publishing House.

Nikki Grimes. 2020. Ordinary Hazards. Astra Publishing House.

Nikki Grimes, Ordinary Hazards. Astra Publishing House, 2020.

Nikki Grimes. Ordinary Hazards. Astra Publishing House, 2020.

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1. • value: family
2. • value: Biography
3. • value: racism
4. • value: Friendship
5. • value: childhood
6. • value: March On Washington
7. • value: foster care
8. • value: mother
9. • value: paranoid
10. • value: sexual assault
11. • value: schizophrenia
12. • value: Writing
13. • value: prose
14. • value: Harlem
15. • value: Alcoholism
16. • value: Young Adult
17. • value: Poetry
18. • value: author
19. • value: poems
20. • value: sexual abuse
21. • value: Abandonment
22. • value: Vietnam War
23. • value: Magic
24. • value: courage
25. • value: truth
26. • value: mental illness
27. • value: writer
28. • value: artist biography
29. • value: memoir
30. • value: school
31. • value: tragedy
32. • value: childhood abuse
33. • value: grit
34. • value: Foster Family
35. • value: inspirational memoir
36. • value: survival story
37. • value: loss of a parent
38. • value: nikki grimes
39. • value: YA memoir
40. • value: me too
41. • value: amanda gorman
42. • value: Amanda Gorman poetry
43. • value: Poems by Amanda Gorman

creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Grimes, Nikki
   • bioText: New York Times bestselling author Nikki Grimes is the recipient of the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, the ALA Children’s Literature Legacy Award, and the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. Her books include her critically acclaimed memoir in verse Ordinary Hazards as well as picture books Kamala Harris: Rooted in Justice and Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope. She won the Coretta Scott King Award for Bronx Masquerade and earned a Coretta Scott King Author Honor five times—for Words with Wings, Jazmin's Notebook, Dark Sons, Talkin’ About Bessie, and The Road to Paris. Visit nikkigrimes.com
   • name: Nikki Grimes

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2020-05-19T00:00:00-04:00

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title

Ordinary Hazards

fullDescription

In her own voice, acclaimed author and poet Nikki Grimes explores the truth of a harrowing childhood in a compelling and moving memoir in verse.
Growing up with a mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and a mostly absent father, Nikki Grimes found herself terrorized by babysitters, shunted from foster family to foster family, and preyed upon by those she trusted. At the age of six, she poured her pain onto a piece of paper late one night - and discovered the magic and impact of writing. For many years, Nikki's notebooks were her most enduing companions. In this accessible and inspiring memoir that will resonate with young readers and adults alike, Nikki shows how the power of those words helped her conquer the hazards - ordinary and extraordinary - of her life.

gradeLevels

1. • value: Grade 4
2. • value: Grade 5

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: Shelf Awareness, starred review
   • content: ★ "Ordinary Hazards is a gorgeous piece of writing that also serves as powerful inspiration for any reader who has struggled and sought grace. Grimes's triumph over adversity is matched only by her skill with the written word--her memoir is accessible to poetry enthusiasts and detractors alike, and will linger long after the final lines."
2. • premium: False
   • source: Booklist, starred review
   • content: ★ "With Ordinary Hazards, Grimes delivers a memoir in the form of a powerful and inspiring collection of poems. She details her early life through adulthood, and she unabashedly explores the highs as well as the lows. Young adults will identify with and connect to the many challenges explored in Grimes' work, which delves into issues of love, family, responsibility, belonging, finding your place in the world, and fighting the monsters you know--and the ones you don't. The memoir has heartbreaking moments--even soul-crushing ones--that will make readers ache for young Grimes and teens grappling with similar circumstances. But inspiring moments bolster her raw, resonant story, showing that there is always light at the end of the darkest of tunnels."
3. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     October 1, 2019
     

     Gr 7 Up-Grimes offers young adult readers the special treat of literary ingenuity in her new memoir. "Time to grab my flashlight / and step into the tunnel," Grimes writes in an early poem-making reference to her task with this new work. In long poems, short poems, and the occasional prose poem, Grimes guides us through her past tragedies and triumphs while keenly observed moments build her inner world. Readers spend time with three different points of view: child Grimes, adolescent Grimes, and burgeoning adult Grimes. Though the circumstances and characters change as she moves and grows, her voice is consistently spare and warm. The poems about experiencing neglect as a five-year-old carry the same powerful simplicity as those written about high school. A memoir that doesn't demand a time line, this work is a personal history in poems that you can read backward and forward. VERDICT This nontraditional memoir from a long-working and highly acclaimed author will speak deeply to young readers harboring their own interest in writing or otherwise squeezing art out of life's spiky fruit.-Sierra Dickey, Center for New Americans, Northampton, MA

     Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

4. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     August 15, 2019
     For award-winning children's and YA author Grimes (Between the Lines, 2018, etc.), writing, faith, and determination were the keys to surviving her tumultuous childhood. In the face of her father's abandonment and the revolving door of her alcoholic mother's psychiatric hospital stays, Grimes becomes savvier and more resilient than any young child should have to be. After being abused by a babysitter when she was 3, Grimes and her beloved older sister, Carol, enter another set of revolving doors: foster care, sometimes loving, sometimes not. At a dark moment when she is 6, Grimes finds escape and comfort in prayer and writing. Despite the instability and danger she endures, Grimes blossoms into a gifted teen with a passion for books, journaling, and poetry. Her personal, political, and artistic awakenings are intertwined, with the drama of her family life unfolding against the backdrop of pivotal moments in Civil Rights-era America. Grimes recounts her story as a memoir in verse, writing with a poet's lyricism through the lens of memory fractured by trauma. Fans of her poetry and prose will appreciate this intimate look at the forces that shaped her as an artist and as a person determined to find the light in the darkest of circumstances. A raw, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting story of trauma, loss, and the healing power of words. (Verse memoir. 12-adult)

     COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

5. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from June 1, 2019
     Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* With Ordinary Hazards, Grimes delivers a memoir in the form of a powerful and inspiring collection of poems. She details her early life through adulthood, and she unabashedly explores the highs as well as the lows. Grimes' struggle with a mother suffering from mental illness, an absent father, and an abusive stepfather plunged her life into turmoil at an early age. Yet through it all, she persevered and used writing as an outlet for her pain. She delves into finding a loving found family after being separated from her older sister and bounced around in foster care, ultimately having to choose between her found family and her birth mother, after her birth mother claims to be well enough for Grimes to come home. Young adults will identify with and connect to the many challenges explored in Grimes' work, which delves into issues of love, family, responsibility, belonging, finding your place in the world, and fighting the monsters you know?and the ones you don't. The memoir has heartbreaking moments?even soul-crushing ones?that will make readers ache for young Grimes and teens grappling with similar circumstances. But inspiring moments bolster her raw, resonant story, showing that there is always light at the end of the darkest of tunnels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

6. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from July 29, 2019
     Grimes (One Last Word) presents a gripping memoir in verse constructed from imperfect recollections of the hardship and abuse she endured as a child. Having lost chunks of her memory as a result of traumatic experiences, Grimes relies on her art to fill in the blanks. In recurring entries titled “The Mystery of Memory,” and “Notebook,” Grimes contextualizes her scattered remembrances to provide a sense of time and place for readers (“Where is the chronology of a life/ chaotic from the start?”). Grimes eloquently conveys the instability of a childhood lived in the unpredictable wake of a mentally ill mother and abusive stepfather alongside hopeful anecdotes about the safe haven provided by her beloved older sister, her growing faith, and the often absent yet doting father she lost too soon. Underlining the idea that “a memoir’s focus is on truth, not fact,” Grimes courageously invites readers to join her on a journey through the shadows of her past, bridging “the gaps/ with suspension cables/ forged of steely gratitude/ for having survived my past/at all.” Ages 12–up. (Oct.)■

7. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     July 1, 2019
     Grimes reconstructs her life story from a patchwork of recollections; old photos; and a few artifacts salvaged despite her impoverished family's frequent moves and time in foster care. Mental illness, alcoholism, domestic violence, and sexual abuse made Grime's early life hazardous and traumatic; writing offered solace and confidence. Striking free-verse poems powerfully convey how her passion helped her survive and embrace her own resilience. A must-read for aspiring writers.

     (Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

8. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from September 1, 2019
     As poetically written as Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming (rev. 9/14) with a story as hard-hitting as Sapphire's Push. In her author's note, poet Grimes (winner of the 2017 Children's Literature Legacy Award) says that memoirs focus on truth, not fact. Because of the childhood trauma she suffered, she has limited memories of her early years but has constructed the truths of her life from a patchwork of recollections; photos obtained from friends and family; and a few artifacts salvaged despite the frequent moves of her impoverished family and time spent in foster care. Overshadowing most of the story, her mother's mental illness (paranoid schizophrenia), alcoholism, and marriage to an abusive and irresponsible man made Grimes's early life hazardous. In a childhood in which she had to elude rats in her apartments and bullies and gangs in her neighborhoods and in which she was sexually violated by her stepfather, young Nikki found solace and confidence through her identity as a writer. She was supported and nurtured by her sister, from whom she was separated at age five; by her father, a violinist who immersed Nikki in Harlem's Black Arts scene; and by an English teacher who insisted on excellence. As her story unfolds (the book is arranged in sections, chronologically, beginning in 1950 and ending in 1966), the striking free-verse poems powerfully convey how a passion for writing fueled her will to survive and embrace her own resilience. My spiral notebook bulges / with poems and prayers / and questions only God / can answer. / Rage burns the pages, / but better them / than me. A must-read for aspiring writers. michelle h. martin

     (Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

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In her own voice, acclaimed author and poet Nikki Grimes explores the truth of a harrowing childhood in a compelling and moving memoir in verse.
Growing up with a mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and a mostly absent father, Nikki Grimes found herself terrorized by babysitters, shunted from foster family to foster family, and preyed upon by those she trusted. At the age of six, she poured her pain onto a piece of paper late one night - and discovered the magic and impact of writing. For many years, Nikki's notebooks were her most enduing companions. In this accessible and inspiring memoir that will resonate with young readers and adults alike, Nikki shows how the power of those words helped her conquer the hazards - ordinary and extraordinary - of her life.

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awards

1. • source: American Library Association
   • value: Coretta Scott King - Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement

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Astra Publishing House

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   • description: Young Adult Nonfiction / Biography & Autobiography / Literary
2. • code: YAN018050
   • description: Young Adult Nonfiction / Family / Orphans & Foster Homes
3. • code: YAN043000
   • description: Young Adult Nonfiction / Poetry