Hey Kid

by Xavier Pastrano

After spending countless hours in the classroom with his students and witnessing their personal achievements and tragedies, high school English teacher Xavier Pastrano set out to create a collection of poems inspired by his students. In hopes of building emotional connections, empathy, understanding, and encouragement, Hey Kid reminds teenagers that they're not alone in their thoughts and experiences and calls upon adults to remember what it was like to be a kid navigating through a complicated world.

Genres: Poetry

56 pages, Paperback

Published February 18, 2022

About the author

Xavier Pastrano earned his BA in Creative Writing from Southwest Minnesota State University, his Masters of English from the University of North Dakota, and his M.Ed from the University of Sioux Falls. He currently resides in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with his wife and son, where he teaches high school English and College Composition. When not writing, teaching, or reading, he enjoys exploring music and films, spending time with his wife and son, and making Zentangle art. Published works include the chapbooks XXX: Thirty (Prolific Press), Seeing Sounds (Harsan Publishing), Hey Kid (self published), and individual poems in the anthologies Thunderstorms and The Scandalous Lives of Butterflies (Scurfpea), and South Dakota in Poems (South Dakota State Poetry Society).

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Reviews

[C.C. Berke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great little book of poems with a unique premise. Xavier's students lend him the topics they're interested in and he taps into those feelings through funny, dramatic, and gritty poems. Great coffee shop read!