"A delicate verse cycle gives readers a series of snapshots of the lives of five children in an inner-city school. Dawn is plump, and fearful of her volatile father. Kayla can't read, and her brother is in jail. Carmen's mother smokes like a chimney. Anthony shows up early every morning to help Miss D. Jonathan lives with his mother and little brother in a homeless shelter. They all know that at the end of the year, their school will close, and what little stability they have becomes all the more precious to them. Cheng's free-verse poems give voice to the children, allowing them to speak their hopes, frustrations and fears; her powerful, blocky woodcuts accompany the poems, intensifying their emotional impact. She wisely avoids the temptation to craft the year into an obvious narrative arc: Things happen to the children—a class play, a visit to the farm, a parent's illness—alongside the commonplace squabbles and reconciliations that punctuate any school year. Thus there is no rising or falling action, simply the opportunity to get to know these third graders as complete and distinct individuals. Quietly lovely."
     —Kirkus Reviews

 "In a spare, eloquent novel in verse illustrated with her own bold block prints, Cheng (Marika) captures the moods of five inner-city third-graders as they prepare themselves for their school's impending demolition. A sense of loss prevails, but other emotions—jealousy, indignation, pride and love—percolate as the five narrators deal with personal issues at school and at home. Using very few words, the author conveys complicated back stories: Jonathan, for example, can't go home with his friend, and his friend “can't come to my house, either./ I used to have a house/ before my little brother Caleb/ set the mattress on fire/.... He wanted to dry out the sheets/ before anyone saw.” She also evokes the children's innocence and shared affection for their teacher, Miss D., who instills in them a strong sense of justice, especially after they are falsely accused of spitting from a theater balcony. Mixing sad and uplifting images occurring between the fall and spring of a school year, these poems pay tribute to hard-working educators and children learning to overcome obstacles and accept unwelcome changes."
     —Publishers Weekly

"Writing in the style of Walter Dean Myers’ Here in Harlem: Poems in Many Voices (2004) though for a much younger audience, Cheng introduces five students in Miss D.’s third grade, who speak in alternating voices. They are sad that their inner-city Cincinnati school is being demolished; they want to stay there with their beloved teacher. She is white, and they know from her history lessons that in the past they could not have sat together on the bus. Langston Hughes’ poetry makes them think of their very different dreams and lives: Dawn is proud that her mom is going to school to become a nurse; Jonathan wants to leave the homeless shelter where he lives; Carmen longs for the lead in the school play; Antony doesn’t want to be called a nerd. At the center of the book, uniting the students, is a racist incident; the whole class is made to leave a local theater. The fast, immediate free verse makes this great for readers’ theater. Black-and-white woodcuts done by the author provide futher commentary on the world in which the kids live."
     —Booklist