Somebody Give This Heart a Pen    by Sophia Thakur Order:  USA  Can Candlewick, 2020 (2020) Hardcover, e-Book      Reviewed by Hilary Williamson Here's a fitting gift for the budding young poet on your holiday list - or for someone of any age who appreciates empathetic verse. Performance poet Sophia Thakur offers a thought provoking, emotive collection of coming-of-age poems in Somebody Give This Heart a Pen. After introducing '... the process' of repeated growing, breaking and healing, and exhorting her readers to 'Learn to speak heart', Sophia divides her collection of poems into: GROW, WAIT, BREAK and GROW AGAIN. In GROW, I liked 'What matters is not what you are called / But what you answer to' in Picking a Name and 'My mum said that giving birth / is like pulling a part of your heart out / and watching it learn the earth' in How She Breathes Now. In BREAK, I especially appreciated I'm fine thanks, you? And other white lies, while Fidgeting: 'Be with yourself for a moment, / Be yourself for a moment. / Airplane mode everything but yourself for a moment' seems very relevant to today's reality. In GROW AGAIN, I loved Soul Mate's homage to friendship: 'Long live the friends who stayed longer than lovers. / The growing insignificance of blood / when once strangers became sisters and brothers.' But delve into Somebody Give This Heart a Pen yourself, find the lines that speak to your own heart most clearly. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Teens books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews