Betsy Groban

This spring, for the 27th year, the city of Cambridge, Mass., awarded poetry prizes to a worthy group of aspiring poets in grades K–8. Of the more than 500 applicants, nominated mostly by teachers, 55 winners were chosen by a panel of youth services librarians. The Youth Poetry Awards program is noteworthy for two reasons. First, it demonstrates a commitment to rewarding the creativity and poetic prowess of the city’s youth.

I’ve got grandkids now, born decades after Jim Marshall’s untimely death, who adore reading his books. Lucky me, I’ve had a loose connection to Jim (James) Marshall (1942–1992) for decades. When I worked at Little, Brown, in Boston in the 1980s, he also lived in Boston. We published Cinderella, one of his fairy-tale retellings, and he was a warm and genial part of the local children’s book scene.

In 2025, Charity Herndon was a published author with one highly acclaimed YA novel, Other Side of the Tracks (S&S/Millner), under her belt and another in the works. She was also working on a master’s degree in clinical mental health therapy. But after a sudden health scare (happily, she’s fine), she made the decision to “live like I was dying.” For her, that meant pursuing her dream of opening a Jane Austen–themed bookshop.