A poetry collection about the beautiful and disorienting period of new motherhood, exploring an experience both otherworldly and very, very human.

Little Astronaut by J. Hope Stein was a raw and deep poetry book that explored the many nuances of being a new mom. From love and sex to pregnancy and then all of the things that come with birth and a newborn, this poetry collection is a beautiful expression of one woman's journey.

Little Astronauts
J. Hope Stein

I guess the only way I can review this is just to say exactly what I thought. This was supposed to be a book of poems focusing on motherhood and all that comes with being a new mother.

The poems read more as rants. Yea motherhood is glamorous, but this really just seemed like the ramblings of a mother who is up at a 3am feeding.

It was shard no for me. The structure wasn’t there. There was much of anything actually. Which really saddened me because I thought I’d have some feelings, relations some kind of an emotional connection. But nothing more then just words on pages.

Book 28 of 2022
Rating: ⭐️⭐️

I thought this was really cute. I've never been pregnant or had any children of my own, but I thought this was an interesting collection of poetry about someone who has been pregnant and given birth and cared for their child. I couldn't really relate to it in any way other than possibly the love aspect of loving and caring for another person. But I think this would be a really good read for someone who has experienced having children.

This poetry collection actually starts off pretty hilarious, with the author being self-deprecating and brutally honest. Things do get bleak though, as she opens up about the fears and anxiety that come with being a mother.

I'm not a mother myself but I feel like those who are might be able to relate to this heartfelt collection. Not only is it a very raw account on the highs and lows of motherhood, it also feels partly like a love letter to her child.

Oh baby no. This was not even close to being poetry. This looked more like a burnt out mother's verbal diarrhea to her therapist

Little Astronaut by J. Hope Stein renders that first year of motherhood beautifully. Her poems touch on late nights, changing relationships, and unexpected joy and turmoil.

Although my experience with motherhood seems to be quite different, I really appreciated the author's perspective. I believe many new mothers will relate with her.

I’m grateful for being given the chance to read this book. Thank you NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing.

This is a cute poetry book about motherhood, I cannot personally relate to it but I am sure women around the world will relate to the poems contained in this book.

This book talks about what it feels like to be a new mum and the struggles of it. Although it captures this theme well, I didn't feel particularly moved by the poems, I simply couldn't relate to them. This book simply didn't speak to me. Rating: 2/5 stars.

This poetry collection discusses motherhood which was very sweet and flowed in a way that told an overall story of raising a child. Since I’m not a mother I cannot discuss how accurate the depiction was or anything like that but I found it interesting to read about this topic and enjoyed how the poems flowed together.

Honest, pure but too cheesy but motherhood is a horror story whenever it is desired by the mother however as the author wanted to give it that approach she's done it.

This book charts the course of early motherhood through the eyes of the author. As a mother of two, the youngest just five months old, I was excited to read this collection of poetry. Sadly it did not resonate with me. I felt no empathy with the author and no connection despite our shared experiences. I found the language childish and the tone almost dismissive. It felt like a failure to embrace the ups and downs of motherhood.

First off thank you to NetGalley and Andrew McMeel Publishing for granting me an early access to this revised/updated book coming out in September 2022.
“Little Astronaut” is a beautiful and emotive collection of poetry expressing the feelings of a first time mother and the journey parenthood. You felt the emotion and heart behind each poem and even if you are not a parent, you will be encouraged and uplifted by these poems. Overall a great collection of poetry!

This little book of poetry navigates what it is like to be a new mom and the steep learning curve that comes with it. It made me remember my struggles as a new mom when everything is really confusing and hard.
It captures motherhood in a very real way but I don’t think I was particularly moved by any of the poems. There were definitely opportunities to pack a punch and it never quite got there to me. I think a lot of people who had a similar experience to the author will relate more.

Little astronaut is a collection of poetry about new motherhood. There were a few poems that reminded me of my experience during the early days of motherhood. There were also a few poems that didn’t “wow” me. I was expecting a bit more, but overall, I’d say that this was a decent collection of poetry.

I feel like this book is written in a long form that I'm not sure the author intended. The poems in this collection grow in creativity and depth more and more as the book matures.

I hated the beginning of this. It was exactly the mundane crap about babies that every person who has ever had a baby has thought of writing down. And many of them have. The poems were short, unimaginative blobs of uninspiring nothing. The introductory poem ended with the line "I am a poem".

That line is a terrible idea if you're a seven year old entering your class poetry competition, it's more embarrassing than showing up to a date with shit on your face if you're an adult capable of producing life. I almost stopped reading the book right there.

It didn't immediately get better, but it also didn't get worse. There weren't any lines that stuck out as awful, but there weren't any lines or images that stuck out as original, clever, emotionally engaging, or well-constructed. It wasn't dreaded mommy-blog fodder, there wasn't any unnecessary fawning, precious words, or unrealistic descriptions of babies, which are at best twitching potato sacks that scream and poop on you, there just wan't anything that drew me into the book.

While these poems didn't get better or more engaging in hindsight, they did, from a long-form perspective, make sense. What new parent has a gift for words, imagery, or craft? Their sleep schedule is a mess, they are really working to see joy and beauty in something that's mostly terror and stress.

The fifth poem is a probably justified rant that new mothers can probably identify with more than I can, even though I also don't enjoy accepting help from people, even if it seems like it would be in my best interest. It didn't feel like it was created by someone I wanted to spend time with, but there was, at least, personality starting to come through the poems instead of vague, whimsical poems about how great parenthood is.

The fifth poem, "Lullaby" was the turning point for me. Word play. Sleep deprived language that is easily understood by the reader, even though the grammar is mangled. It's cutesy, but it's crafted with purpose, and I imagined hearing this on an open mic and thinking "I'd buy that person's book."

There are a few more poems that didn't delight me, but which had specific images and narratives more comples than "baby". Then I reached "Dear Oona, If in a conversation with your significant other about the future--", an adagio counterpart to the earlier rant, "A Toast To The Third Arm". It's a hushed acceptance of pain and coming to terms with a lack of control. While this book may not have me as a targeted audience member, I was now getting a better feel for who the writer is apart from Someone Who Had A Baby.

It's followed by the delightfully silly and brief "Prank Calls From Fish".

From there, the book turns audometric for me. There are poems that fall well outside my interest, and some whose playfullness or honesty I enjoy.

I think, if you are either a newish mother, or have fond (probably distant) memories of being a new mother you will either adore or despise this collection. It does vacillate between simple, cutesy poems that will make every googley eyed auntie loudly mmmmmmmm at the book, and honest poems about raising her daughter that will connect with a broader audience but may offend those who own clutching pearls.

While I disliked more poems in this book than I enjoyed, I appreciated the book as a whole, and will definitely take a look at her previous collection, "Occasionally, I Remove Your Brain Through Your Nose" looking for more wordplay and creative imagery than I maybe should have expected from a book focused on new motherhood.

This was a sweet, raw poetry collection all about navigating being a new mother. It was both sad and funny. I was definitely the target audience and I’m really glad I read this! It didn’t glamourise the hard parts of having a newborn and it was a very loving account.

This revised edition of little astronaut features a beautiful new cover and new poems. J. Hope Stein is an incredibly gifted writer, and I'm looking forward to purchasing this edition!!

Not necessarily my cup of tea, but I am not the target audience. I enjoyed what I read. This would be something I would gift to an expecting mother.

is the sound of troublemaker
toilet paper
looping around the furniture

~ a quiet

Thank you, NetGalley for the chance to read and review this!

This is a very sweet and funny collection of poems! I can't wait for my friends to have kids so that I can give them a copy after this is published!