The Mistakes That Made Us: Confessions from Twenty Poets 

By Irene Latham and Charles Waters 

Illustrated by Mercè López 

Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Publishing Group, 2024 

Hardcover: $14.24 

Genre: Poetry, Picture Books  

Reviewed by Barbara Barcellona Smith 

Cover of the Mistakes That Made Us. In this consequential compilation of mishaps and mistakes, children learn ownership of one’s errors, the value of an apology, and to make amends with others and with themselves. Irene Latham and Charles Waters’ well-rounded selection of award-winning authors works beautifully to create this heartfelt and meaningful children’s anthology of poems, The Mistakes That Made Us: Confessions from Twenty Poets. 

Latham and Waters’ mutual love for curating poetry anthologies culminates in this most courageous literary effort, inviting children “to experience through poetry the real-life mistakes from some people who are brave and open and growing – just like you” (the young reader). Latham is an award-winning poet and novelist who writes for all ages. Her poetry titles include This Poem Is a Nest, a book of found poetry, and The Museum on the Moon, a Lee Bennett Hopkins Honor Award winner. Waters is a children’s poet, actor, educator, and coauthor of various books, including the award-winning Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship.    

In their introduction, Latham and Waters poignantly encourage young readers to consider being open and willing to talk about blunders and misjudgments instead of perhaps hiding and feeling frustrated. The Mistakes That Made Us creatively explains to children the difference between accidental mistakes, deliberate mistakes, and mistakes in error and judgment.   

Author Douglas Florian cleverly writes about an accident in his poem, “My Favorite Mistake,” where, as a child painter, he unwittingly uses blue paint, thereby thinking he’s ruined his work before even starting. Instead of giving in to his fears, he boldly adds green, then pink, then bright orange and rusty red; he turns his mistake into a “whirling and twirling dizzying feel,” resulting in his “secrets of secrets,” a magical piece of art that ultimately nudges him along his colorful way to other new, bold paintings. 

In “Between Us: A Poem for Two Voices,” author April Halprin Wayland painfully recalls deliberately betraying her middle school best friend with hurtful gossip. Succumbing to temptation, young April can’t privately hang on to the juicy news that her friend has just kissed Charlie. Feeling remorseful, April bravely musters the courage to tell her friend that she’s shared her secret with another friend who (only to battle-hardened adults) predictably tells yet another friend. Sadly, the friend cannot get over the betrayal (“You TOLD I kissed Charlie? And you say that you’re SORRY?”), and their seven-year-long childhood friendship ends. What a perfectly heart-wrenching and effective poem teaching children about the value of friendship, loyalty, and the honor of a promise.   

Sometimes, we all make silly mistakes; sometimes, these silly errors result in embarrassment. In Allan Wolf’s cringeworthy poem, “Most Valuable Player,” young readers will acutely feel the heat creeping up their necks and onto their crimson-colored ears in this “every-young-reader’s-nightmare-telling” about scoring for the wrong team. As the ever-ambitious fourth-grade Allan weaves “around fullbacks and strikers” and bolts “between stoppers and wingers, by dribbling, feinting, and then kicking past the goalie frozen in awe,” the young reader simultaneously hones in on the spectator’s “screams and gasps” and “stares of disbelief” as he proudly, sadly, painfully realizes he was “MVP for the opposing team!” Children learn to accept their mistakes, overcome embarrassment, and, most importantly, forgive themselves. 

“The Glue that Binds Us” by Darren Sardelli teaches discernment. Sardelli masterfully communicates this tough subject matter by sharing a childhood prank gone wrong. As an admittedly impulsive child, Sardelli thinks gluing his Uncle Pete to the toilet seat will be hilarious. He ignores his mother’s sound advice to “Think before you do” and carefully busies about spreading the glue, then patiently waits for his uncle to fall for the trap. And fall he did indeed. At first, Sardelli laughs at his uncle’s whooping and hollering, then “bang” he hears the fall. He writes, “I felt a sense of terror. My heart began to race. A mix of sweat and teardrops descended down my face!” Thankfully, his aunt, with her buttery solution, comes to the rescue.   Sardelli teaches kids that their actions could affect other people, and he goes on to say, “it changed me for the better!” By apologizing for his mistake in judgment, his uncle forgave him, and they were eventually able to laugh about it. 

With its critical messaging, The Mistakes That Made Us goes on through its remaining sixteen authors to teach children about the benefits of learning from one’s mistakes, whether intentional or otherwise, learning to forgive each other and to forgive oneself, and learning that sometimes mistakes can be blessings in disguise because we constantly learn and grow. The Mistakes That Made Us offers twenty different portals for discovery and twenty different reasons why parents will love reading this anthology of poems with their children this fall.  

 

Barbara Barcellona Smith’s award-winning first book, Let’s Eat Snails!, shares cultural culinary traditions and teaches the importance of being open-minded. She has a degree in journalism/public relations from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and currently lives in Enterprise, Alabama. Visit her website at BarbaraBarcellonaSmith.com.