Mary Oliver, Holding on to Wonder

Elementary Level Winner, Dr. Rev. Pauli Murray Book Award
ABA 2025 Best Book for Young Readers
CCBC Choices 2026

This lyrical picture book biography of beloved American poet Mary Oliver shows young readers ages 7 - 10 how her love of nature and sense of wonder inspired her art.

Young Mary Oliver was enthralled by nature. In the forest, she wondered about the birds and the lilies and the water in the stream--about all the things that cannot speak yet somehow spoke to Mary. She wondered, too, about poetry, about how words pieced together filled her with light and how some poems felt like they were written just for her. How could this be?

Author Erin Frankel shows how Mary Oliver held on to that sense of wonder from her childhood, channeling it into some of the most beloved poems of the past hundred years. Illustrator Jasu Hu's lush nature scenes beautifully complement Frankel's soulful writing about the creative process. Together text and art honor Mary Oliver and her astonishing poetry.