Review of "Pulse: Young Authors Project" by School Express Press, Sheila Rowe, and Others

Score: 94+/100 (9.4+ out of 10)

Pulse is a FANTASTIC collection of poems from a variety of creative and thoughtful young minds!
We might even call it... outstanding!

Who would've thought that poems written by middle schoolers would be so deep, dynamic, powerful, beautiful, emotional, expressive, high-quality, and thought-provoking? Some of these poems—dare we say—are more pleasant and enjoyable to read that poems written by much older and more experienced poets!

This poetry collection really restored and renewed our hope in this future/up-and-coming generation. Times may be uncertain, but the future appears to be in good hands if these intelligent, brave, talented, creative, and thoughtful kiddos are any indication.

So, we're in a bit of a conundrum. See, we read, enjoyed, and appreciated every single one of the poems in this collection in one way or another. We think that every single one of these young writers and their poems have something special to offer. However, we didn't take notes about every single one, which might limit our ability to discuss and highlight every single one. With that said, we wanted to highlight all of them at least once, so here it goes... this collection features the poems of:

Alfredo Alegria (writer of "Life is a Wheel")

Arlette Amaro-Arias (writer of "Abuelita’s Tamales")

Anaisa Baldenegro-Navarro (writer of "Academics" and others)

Gage Bluestein (writer of "Snake")

Raina Coleman (writer of "Exotic Canopy")

Sofia Gonzalez (writer of "A Lost Love" and others)

Thomas Husted Billingsley (writer of "The Past. The Present. The Future.")

Jasmine Jamison (writer of "A Forever Friend")

Marianna Jimenez Godoy (writer of "Is Anyone There?")

Aria Lacchei (writer of "The Night Discovery" and others)

Milanni Macias (writer of "My Story")

Isabella Mendez-Higareda (writer of "Where I’m From")

Naomi Rodriguez Herrera (writer of "Saying Goodbye")

Lesley Serrano (writer of "Alien?" and others)

Anna Truong (writer of "Love is a Sunset")

Meraly Uribe Franco (writer of "Dark Shadows")

Amaiyah Valdez (writer of "Dream in Progress" and others)

Alexa Webb (writer of "In the Forest")

Julia Young (writer of "Pain")

And what's incredible is that, despite there being so many poems and contributors in this book, it FLIES! It flows so well!

Amaiyah Valdez contributed multiple poems to this collection, and each of them hit hard in their own unique ways. In "From the Heart" we really loved all of the metaphors and similes she used to describe different struggles and emotions she and other people experience. For example:

"Happiness is like lightning and thunder
The light never travels alone
Anxiety is like a tornado
It starts small but picks up debris and grows"

Also, notice how the "O" sound is used in rhyme here.

Lesley Serrano also gave us a number of impactful, heartfelt poems. One of them "Alien?" is one that played tug-o-war with our hearts as patriotic Americans but also as former immigrants in our ways.

The poem immediately confronts the label of "Alien" used by USCIS (the American immigration system) to describe immigrants. Serrano retorts:

"We are not aliens.
Why are we given that name?
We are not martians.
We are all one and the same."

Now, there were certain things that bugged us about statements and far-left talking points in the poem like "Eat the Rich" and "Let's see how he feels once his country falls"--almost celebrating and applauding these ideas we don't particularly agree with. At the same time, we understand the overall animosity and sentiment. The writer sees their people being persecuted and wronged, so they are essentially saying, "Wait 'til it happens to your people and your country, then you'll understand how we feel."

We get it. We may not like or agree with it, but we get it.

Serrano, an 8th grader, seems to be the activist in the bunch. There's always one.

Hey, Steven was a loud mouthed, obnoxious activist in 8th grade. Spoke out against the Iraq War before it was the Iraq War we know today. Wonder what happened with that?

Anyway, Serrano contributed another noteworthy poem called "Never" with colors as the theme. The color symbolism reflect on missed connections, misunderstood people, and personal regret. Each color—red, blue, green, yellow, pink—represents a person the speaker failed to truly see or connect with, whether due to judgment, insecurity, or indifference. The repeated phrase “I never…” emphasizes the weight of those lost opportunities, creating a confessional and emotionally vulnerable tone. Through vivid metaphors and introspective voice, the poem explores themes of loneliness, growth, and the quiet pain of realizing too late that someone mattered. It’s one of the most emotionally mature and symbolically rich works in Pulse, leaving a lasting impression. At the same time, it could be argued that colors have connotations and insinuations, especially when it comes to associating specific people with them, which can always be a sensitivity issue.

Anna Truong, an 6th grader, gives us "Love is a Sunset"--one of our favorite poems in the collection! It's a breathtaking metaphorical poem that uses celestial imagery to trace the arc of a fading love—one that begins in admiration, slips into confusion, and ends in reluctant acceptance. Framed around the daily dance between the sun and moon, the poem draws a vivid parallel between the natural world and human emotion.

The sun falls in love with the moon during their brief meetings at twilight, but over time, the distance between them grows—until all that’s left is silence and yearning. Truong’s language is both tender and devastating, capturing the innocence of a first crush and the grief of emotional abandonment. The metaphor deepens in the second half, where the speaker confesses the pain of being "abandoned, stale, and collecting dust," offering a heartbreakingly specific image of being left behind. And yet, the poem doesn’t end in bitterness—it ends in bittersweet truth. Like the sun and moon, some people were never meant to stay together, no matter how much love once existed. It’s a remarkably mature meditation on unrequited love, longing, and letting go—especially coming from a sixth grader. Quietly stunning.

Some things to note: this is one of the rare times when the sun is personified as female while the moon is personified as male. It's usually the other way around (with the moon being feminine and the sun being masculine). Perhaps some female empowerment can be inferred from this?

We loved certain passages in this book. For example:

"..we are always chasing each other’s shadows
I spent many birthdays
closing my eyes
wishing upon candles for you to disappear"

We really loved the pairing of the words "shadows" and "candles" here. It's unconventional but it works!

Anaisa Baldanegro Navarro, an 8th grader, brings us the poem "Academics."

This poem really spoke to us as former scholastic overachievers and perfectionists ourselves. The education system and everyone (and everything) around it puts an enormous amount of pressure on students to succeed. Schools are set up like prisons. If you're caught off campus grounds during school hours, it's considered truancy. You're expected to follow a rigid schedule with set times of rest and work. The expectations are high and constant—relentless.

So much weight is put on the shoulders of these kids. You know, there are pros and cons to that. It teaches discipline and hard work. The problem is—as this poem points out—it sometimes seems endless and pointless. How many more 100% scores in a row can you get? How many more times can you make the Dean's List? Get an A+? Succeeded at everything and anything they put in front of you? Does it make you rich? Does it actually get you a great job?

Not to make this overly personal, but look at us... reviewing books for pennies an hour after getting A's in high school and college, working 9 to 5 jobs for years—being told that if we just did good in school and worked hard, everything was gonna be ok. We were gonna be set. We weren't gonna be reviewing books for pennies an hour every day, presumably for the rest of our lives. And we bought into the same idealistic beliefs about academia that Navarro alludes to.

There's a real sense of overwhelm and dread in this poem which resonated with us:

"Failed
Rejected
Wrong"

"Hallways full of dread
Where echoes of ambition tread
Books piled high, a mountain steep
A constant climb, no time for sleep...

I realize
What if I hadn’t earned the ribbon?
Can I ever be forgiven?
Will pity or dishonor ensue?
And above all else, will love still be given by you?"

When is enough enough?
"Will this pressure ever stop?
Lonely, sad, and all the above?
Forgetting to practice a little self-love?"

"All the above" almost sounds like "All of the Above" which is a possible answer on most tests.

Another special thing about this poem is the repetition of the phrase "What if?" It really makes you feel the uncertainty and fear the poet feels. This is an example of anaphora.

Speaking of which...

Amaiyah Valdez, an 8th grader, wrote the poem titled "Dream in Progress"--a truly hard-hitting poem that also employs anaphora, the repetition of sounds or phrase throughout a poem.

“Dream in Progress” is a deeply personal and motivational poem that captures the internal drive of a young person (particularly a female person) fighting for a better future—not just for herself, but for the “little girl” she used to be. The poem begins with bold, almost defiant affirmations (“I have to be successful / No, I will be successful”), showing both the pressure and determination that shapes the speaker’s life. While the surface answer to “Why?” is lighthearted—“who doesn’t wanna be rich?”—the poem quickly shifts, revealing that her ambitions are rooted in something far more profound.

At the heart of the poem is the image of a younger self, “buried under smiles and tears,” whose dreams were “bigger than Hollywood.” This inner child is both a symbol of innocence and a source of strength, reminding the speaker of where she came from and what she’s still striving toward. The poem’s repeated lines—“I have to be successful for her / I will be successful for her”—are a powerful use of anaphora, emphasizing that the speaker’s present struggles are deeply connected to her past hopes and future goals.

The poem also explores themes of generational hope: the desire to fulfill the promises made by her parents, to provide for her own future children, and to turn even her oldest, purest dreams into reality. The final lines, “She deserves to see the dreams she dreamed—/ Before she knew what a dream was—/ Come true,” are especially poignant, expressing a longing for both fulfillment and healing.

You know... maybe its social media and all the fakeness we're surrounded with, but the sentiments of this poem resonated with us—the feeling of being held down and held back. The crippling fear of failure. If you've followed us on social media, you'll see that we've been pretty hard on ourselves in that regard. It always feels like someone or something is holding us down no matter how hard we work and how hard we try. No matter how much time we put into things. Maybe it's the social media algorithms. Maybe it's the "big guys" or the "guys in the shadows" on top.

"A Woman's Dream" (also written by Valdez) continues these sentiments with the poet lamenting and highlighting how many dreams just don't/won't come true no matter how much you work and how hard you try. She critiques everything from 4.0 GPAs, going to Ivy League schools, marrying a Price Charming, or becoming a self-made millionaire.

In contrast, "Secret Love" is arguably more positive and uplifting poem with a deeper, darker subtext.

Again, the poet employs a lot of anaphora with the repetitions of "I love" and "That's why."

The poet talks about how much she loves school, but there is something more to that. This especially apparent in the line "...because school is an escape from reality."

The underlying implications are that reality outside of school must be rather bleak.

The poems of Naomi Rodriguez Herrera, a 6th grader, really touched us. In fact, a part of us wants to declare one of her poems--"Big Brother"--might very well be our favorite poem in this whole book. It's the only one that made us feel like crying a bit.

That's somewhat ironic because the poet's other poem before that--"Saying Goodbye"--is also very sad, deliberately so. In the poem, Herrera mourns the death of someone very important to her named Alice, attending Alice's funeral. The poem really highlights how tragedy and death often come so suddenly and unexpectedly.

There's one part of the poem that we really liked. It's the passage:

"One minute we were at the mall talking and shopping
The next you were laying on the floor
Caught in the crossfire
We never saw coming
I watched you die in my arms
I did nothing
There wasn’t anything I could do
But still I ask myself:
What did I do for my soul to deserve a funeral?"

Not only is this passage objectively heartbreaking and powerful, but it also pairs the words "Caught" and "crossfire" alliteratively. "Anything" and "nothing" are rhymed, but that's not all. They're also juxtapositions. In other words, they mean opposite things and yet they assist each other in conveying the feeling of total despair.

Also, by the way, it's amazing that "funeral" and "soul" actually rhyme.

But back to "Big Brother"... The concept is simple: showing how a relationship between siblings has evolved, developed, changed, and matured over the years. While it's simple in concept, it's powerful and beautiful in its execution, contrasting the times that the brother and sister fought with the times they were there for each other.

The repetition in this poem is also great:

"By talking with you when you’re feeling sad
By helping you to sort through problems
By being with you when you need it the most"

There's also the line "I can always count on you to be my North Star" which speaks volumes. It essentially says that the siblings know that they can always turn to each other when they need help or someone to confide in.

Sofia Gonzalez is the poet of "A Lost Love" which is one of the most well-structured, traditional poems in this book.

But the Gonzalez poem we want to talk about is "Whispers of Life."

It follows many of the same rhyme schemes that "A Lost Love" did, but it shows an added layer of sophistication.

"Trees" is rhymed with "ease."

"Whole" is rhymed with "soul."

"Stone" is rhymed with "unknown."

These are dink-and-dunk rhymes. There's effort here.

Thomas Husted Billingsley is 7th grade poet of "The Past. The Present. The Future."

While this poem isn't as beautiful and eloquent as some of the others, it's impactful and effective in its own unique way. It DARES TO BE POSITIVE. It DARES TO HOPE. Remember how bleak, depressing, and miserable some of those other poems we mentioned were?

Well, Billingsley's poem looks forward to the future—to "tomorrow." He hopes that, despite the trials and tribulations of being 13, he can still hope that "tomorrow" will be better—that, in the future, he can own a house, ask out his crush, grow up, and live a good life. There's something very raw, human, and relatable about this.

Aria Lacchei provides one of the few examples of prose in this book with an excerpt of "The Night Discovery" which explores Heterochromia (having eyes that are different colors). That was pretty interesting.

"Where I'm From" is an interesting little poem by Isabella Mendez-Higareda that that celebrates both the small details and the big moments that shape a person’s identity. Using vivid imagery—like “drawing tall trees in the field,” “origami butterflies,” and “the snowy white swan”—the poet invites readers into her imaginative world, full of movement, family, and change. The poem beautifully balances joy and loss, remembering loved ones while embracing new beginnings and growing confidence. Ultimately, “Where I’m From” feels like a warm and uplifting journey through memory, belonging, and the ever-expanding definition of home.

Hey, we wrote "Where I'm From" poems before. This was kind of nostalgic to see.

Again, every contributor was impressive in their own way. How can you not get behind these incredible kids who will be leading the next generation?

Check it out on Amazon!