Poetry Friday- Glory Be

Sumner, Jamie. Glory Be

March 10, 2026 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers
E ARC Provided by Edelweiss Plus

**Spoilers relevant to determining audience.**

Nine-year-old Glory Be lives in New Orleans with her mother, who would like to earn a living making jewelry but has just taken a more remunerative job at a bank, her father, who has trouble holding a job, and her rescue dog Roux. Unfortunately, Roux has run away from home, and Glory is determined to find him. When she leaves school early in order to visit a homeless encampment to ask if anyone, especially Seven, has seen him, her mother is not happy because the school has called her and she has had to take time away from work. Even though Glory's family isn't particularly well off, she and her mother have visited the encampment before to hand out food and water, but her mother is not a fan of Glory going there on her own, or of her hanging out at the tattoo parlor downstairs from their apartment. Glory continues to look for the dog around town, but as she continues this process, details come out about her father's actions. He is frequently drunk, has anger management issues, and is not very reliable. When he returns with Roux, having found the dog with a neighbor, tensions in the family escalate and the mother ends up calling the police. It might be hard being away from her father, but in his current state, he was not a good person to have around. 

Strengths: Sumner does a great job at portraying children in tenuous family circumstances in books like her Maid for It. Glory's New Orleans neighborhood is almost another character, and she feels comfortable roaming around alone, even if her mother isn't wild about the idea. I liked the fact that even though her mother would rather make jewelry, she recognizes that this isn't the most stable source of income, and does get a different job. It's also good to see her finally deal with the problematic father. I'm sure there are many nine year olds who would go to great lengths to find their own missing dogs. This is a novel in verse, and there are some illustrations, which is always good to see. 
Weaknesses: While Glory is nine, her living situation, and the fact that her father kicks Roux, which is why he leaves, might make this book best suited to a slightly older audience, depending on your library population.  Are there real people named Glory Be? There are at least two literary ones: Glory Bea in Bustard's Blue Skies, and Scattergood's titular Glory Be. I suspect that it is a Southern thing that I don't understand. At least it's not Lois Lowry's Sweet Ho(sanna) from her 1987 Rabble Starkey. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like novels in verse about children living in less than optimal situations, like Fipps' And Then Boom or LeZotte's Deer Run Home.