Poems in the Attic

I’ll admit: I was skeptical about a 14-minute audiobook holding its own against sprawling children’s epics. But *Poems in the Attic* disproves the idea that depth requires length. From the opening lines—‘I found a box / in Granny’s attic, / filled with words / that once were her heart’—I was hooked. Grimes’ tanka poems (a form she explains with refreshing clarity) are deceptively simple, packing entire stories into five lines. My favorite, ‘The Jump Rope Queen,’ had me rewinding to catch the way Johnson’s voice bounces like a rope hitting pavement. That said, the pacing *almost* feels too rushed. The transition between the daughter’s present-day narration and the mother’s poems could use a half-second more breath—some lines blur together if you’re not fully focused. And while Johnson’s performance is stellar, her childlike voice for the daughter occasionally veers into *too* sweet territory, which might grate on older listeners. But these are quibbles. The real magic? How Grimes makes the personal universal. When the daughter realizes her mother was once a girl who ‘dreamed in color’ just like her, it’s a quiet gut-punch. Perfect for kids 7-12, but don’t be surprised if adults linger to press replay.