Authors reflected on themselves and their worlds through poetry and short stories. These students wrote on everything from love and hope to dealing with deaths in their families and the scent of tobacco. Read about teardrops falling, friend-filled cafeterias, Chicago Cubs Jerseys, and coin belts.

— Simon Traub-Epstein, International Library of Young Authors

From the publisher: “Delve into this powerful collection of poems and essays by ninth-grade students from Como Park Senior High School that explores the people, places, and things shaping their personal and cultural identities. Throughout their writing, many students described important people in their lives from secret crushes to loved ones who have passed away. The young writers crafted pieces in response to the prompt, ‘What do you hear when you think of home?’, and bonded together through cultural artifacts identifying them with a particular community. With a foreword by local award-winning author Kao Kalia Yang and book cover by Kevin Cannon.”