Swimming Upstream: Middle School Poems

I bought this book because my daughters 6th grade class required they read a book of poems. It was hard to find anything that would keep her attention. She loved this book. Read it all in one day and really enjoyed it. It was easy for her to compare her school days to what the author was saying.

Swimming Upstream is a terrific book for middle school students. I love how Kristine O'Connell George writes poetry that kids can really relate to, poetry inspires them to write from the heart about their own experiences. I highly recommend this book!

My grandchild really likes this book!

This book is great! The poems work well for my students and they truly enjoy reading them. It has really become the number 1 poetry book checkout in my class.

This book is exactly what the description said it was. The topics are student related, from funny and silly to serious and honest. I use it in my middle school classroom to show kids that they can write poetry about anything. Many of them can relate to the subjects, and I enjoy sharing the poetry with them even when we are not studying poetry in class.

George is a beautiful poet; the book was perfect. I suggest that one read it from beginning to end for full effect rather than jumping around, even though it's nice that way, too.

I've purchased this book twice. I purchased it last year because my daughter needed a book of poetry for a reading class assignment. Both she and I found it a perfect read, not only for her assignment, but also because it spoke to her feelings as a new middle schooler. My second purchase was as a gift for a friend of my daughter's who is an avid reader, though I don't know how she feels about poetry. (I guess we'll know soon.) The book is so current that I'm confident that she'll enjoy it.