MSV

My Seneca Village

Marilyn Nelson

An ALA Notable Children’s Book

CCBC Choices 2016

A 2016 School Library Journal Battle of the Kids’ Books Contender

Horn Book Fanfare: Best Books of 2015

SLJ’s Best Books 2015: Nonfiction

Kirkus Best Teen Books of 2015

7This beautifully crafted and powerful collection of poems deals with a brief period (1825-57) in New York City’s storied past. …In the spirit of Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology, this work touches on historical truths (footnoted throughout) but introduces a fleeting time and place through the everyday hopes and dreams of its residents….This rich and diverse (a variety of poetic forms, including ones invented for certain speakers, are featured) piece of American literature belongs in every collection.

—School Library Journal, starred review

7Nelson’s natural and musical poetic lines (mostly in iambic pentameter) suggest reading aloud yet are accessible on the page and lend themselves to multiple reading experiences: as history; as story; as poetry, to be read sequentially or browsed and revisited. …[O]ne of Nelson’s finest works.

—The Horn Book, starred review

7Artfully crafted, an engrossing and important collection of memories and moments from a pivotal time in American history.

—Kirkus Reviews, STARRED

7[T]he proud multi-ethnic nineteenth-century society of Seneca Village is resuscitated through a divine medium: renowned American poet Nelson….An American saga so well suited to Nelson’s poetic touch is a gift meant to be gently unwrapped to be read with an intellectually curious spirit ready for an awakening.

— Booklist, STARRED review


  • Ages: 12 and up
  • Grades: 6-12
  • Pages: 96
  • Hardcover: $21.95
  • Softcover: $11.95
  • E-book: $9.95

Recent Reviews

7Artfully crafted, an engrossing and important collection of memories and moments from a pivotal time in American history.

—Kirkus Reviews, STARRED

7[T]he proud multi-ethnic nineteenth-century society of Seneca Village is resuscitated through a divine medium: renowned American poet Nelson....An American saga so well suited to Nelson’s poetic touch is a gift meant to be gently unwrapped to be read with an intellectually curious spirit ready for an awakening.

— Booklist, STARRED review