World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments

Aimee Nezhukumatathil, the renowned and celebrated poet, has released her first nonfiction work, which is an assortment of essays centered around the natural world and its residents' capacity to instruct, uplift, and encourage humanity.

Nezhukumatathil grew up in a variety of locations, including the grounds of a mental institution in Kansas, where her mother was a Filipina physician; the wide-open spaces and towering mountains of Arizona, where she went on hikes with her father, an Indian; and the colder regions of western New York and Ohio. But wherever she was transplanted, no matter how strange the environment or how uncomfortable the fit, she could always look to the hilarious and fierce creatures of our planet for advice.

"What the peacock can do," she informs us, "is remind you of a home you will run away from and run back to all your life." The narwhal displays how to thrive in harsh conditions, the axolotl teaches us to grin even in the face of cruelty, and the touch-me-not plant teaches us to decline unwelcome advances. Nezhukumatathil discovers beauty and kinship even in the odd and ugly. Wonder works like this: in order to truly enjoy the riches of the world, we must be sufficiently interested to see past the distractions.

Fumi Nakamura's warm, lyrical, and exquisitely illustrated World of Wonders is a book that brings happiness and nourishment.