5 stars
A fascinating exploration of the life of Octavia Butler. Told through poetry, quotes, photographs, and short biographical prose, Zoboi shares events from Butler’s life and connects her writing with historic influences like the Red Scare, the Space Race, the Civil Rights Movement, and the larger development of the science fiction genre.
This book includes a wonderful variety of poetry including shape poems, contrapuntal form, and haiku. Works nicely for discussing different types of poems and elements of writing poetry.
Fantastically written. Such an interesting concept and well constructed. A great place for young readers to start learning about Octavia Butler and her impact on science fiction.
I also love that Zoboi shares her own connection to Butler.
I really enjoyed this format and would love to see more biographies in verse. Works wonderfully for learning about Butler’s life, science fiction writing, writing in general, and poetry.