American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay-began writing and publishing poetry as a child. She grew up in coastal Maine with her two sisters and plenty of books, music, and nature, but often without parents-her father left home when they were young, and her mother, a nurse, traveled for months at a time to support them. Vincent and her two sisters often had to fiercely fend for themselves, from the daily to-do lists of keeping house, through bitterly cold winters and blight, which proved to be good fodder for indoor and outdoor adventures alike-and for poetry. Gorgeously illustrated, Starflower is a poetic picture book biography as fiery and unconventional as Vincent herself.