Summary
The 2018 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Winner
A Newbery Medalist and a Caldecott Honoree's New York Times best-selling ode to poets who have sparked a sense of wonder.
Out of gratitude for the poet's art form, Newbery Award-winning author and poet Kwame Alexander, along with Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth, present original poems that pay homage to twenty famed poets who have made the authors' hearts sing and their minds wonder. Stunning mixed-media images by Ekua Holmes, winner of a Caldecott Honor and a John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award, complete the celebration and invite the reader to listen, wonder, and perhaps even pick up a pen.
Author Notes
Kwame Alexander is a poet, children's book author, playwright, producer, speaker, and performer. His books include And Then You Know: New and Selected Poems, Crush: Love Poems, Family Pictures: Poems and Photographs Celebrating Our Loved Ones, and Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band. He won the 2015 John Newbery Medal for his bestselling novel The Crossover. Since 2006, his Book-in-a-Day writing and publishing program has created more than 2500 student authors in 50 schools across the U.S., and in Canada and the Caribbean.
(Bowker Author Biography)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-Newbery Award winner Alexander has collaborated with Colderley, a poet and elementary school teacher, and Wentworth, the poet laureate of South Carolina, to produce a collection of verse that pays tribute to notable poets. The 20 pieces presented are each crafted specifically in homage to a famous wordsmith, often incorporating key tenets of their style. The spotlighted poets include ancient writers (e.g., Basho and Rumi), 20th-century lyricists such as Robert Frost and Langston Hughes, and contemporary figures such as Naomi Shihab Nye, Billy Collins, Maya Angelou, and more. In his preface, Alexander writes, "A poem is a small but powerful thing." The carefully chosen and arranged selections take readers on a wondrous journey through a number of lyrical forms, from haiku to free verse, accompanied by illustrations by Caldecott honoree Holmes. The bold mixed-media and layered collage-style paintings creatively capture each poem's essence. To continue the celebration, back matter offers biographical sketches of those featured. However, it perhaps would have been optimal to incorporate samples of original works by the honored poets for immediate comparison. VERDICT This unusual and successful volume is a valuable addition to school and classroom libraries for writing workshops and reading pleasure.-Carole Phillips, Greenacres Elementary School, Scarsdale, NY © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Wisdom from Lucille Clifton ("Poems come out of wonder, not out of knowing") inspires the title for this collection from Newbery Medalist Alexander (The Crossover) and collaborators Colderley and Wentworth. Together, they supply poems honoring-and in the style of-20 poets, including Rumi, Langston Hughes, and Gwendolyn Brooks. The results range from simple description ("a trendsetter, and a rule breaker," writes Colderley about William Carlos Williams) to Alexander's fresh and startling love song à la E.E. Cummings ("It is such a happy thing to yes the next with you/ to walk on magic love rugs beneath the what"). Caldecott Honor-winner Holmes's (Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer) textured-paper collages use bold, angular forms and sunlit colors to spotlight poets and their subject matter, such as the dancers in a poem inspired by Ugandan poet Okot p'Bitek, their outstretched fingers echoed in the rays of the sun above. The exercise of celebrating poets in their own voices leads naturally to the idea of the classroom writing prompt-which Colderley, writing haiku in the style of Basho, seems to anticipate: "Pens scratching paper/ Syllables counted with care/ Poets blossoming." Ages 8-12. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Twenty poems, each "celebrating" a notable poet, variously mimic poets' styles, incorporate their feelings and themes, or acknowledge and thank them. The celebrated poets represent a wide range of cultures and time periods. Vibrant, arresting mixed-media collages complement and extend the themes and rich imagery presented in the poems. Educators teaching poetry or introducing influential poets will welcome this stellar title. Biographical information appended. (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Powerhouse poet Alexander, along with friends Colderley and Wentworth, offers a culturally rich collection of poetic tributes that extends the legacies of poets from around the globe. With mixed-media illustrations by Caldecott honoree Holmes that are just as vibrant as the words and stories that accompany them, the anthology brings readers through a time- and world-traveling adventure of the poetic imagination. Eras, places, and cultures represented include ancient times, 20th-century, contemporary, Japan, Uganda, African-American, Native American, Latino, and white, too. This cross-cultural exploration embraces the timeless power of poetry, as Alexander's preface makes clear, "to reach inside of you, to ignite something in you, and to change you in ways you never imagined." The tributes to such legendary poets as Rumi, Emily Dickinson, and Maya Angelou both serve as homage, transparent in their honest gratitude for their inspiration and wisdom, and emulate their distinctive styles. "Snapshots," Colderley's poem celebrating Nikki Giovanni, reads in part, "poetry isbarbecuecotton candypurple skin beets from Daddy's garden / bluesthe Birdland jazz clubSunday morning gospelchasing justicefreedom," capturing Giovanni's subject matter and stylized punctuation use. This book is sure to be an educator's lucky charm for a survey-of-poetry unit and is also a perfect entryway for families to wonder and explore together. Brief notes introduce the three sections, and thumbnail biographies of the poets celebrated are appended. A magnificent exploration of the poetic imagination. (Picture book/poetry. 8-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Newbery medalist Kwame Alexander has come up with a fresh and joyful way to interest children in poetry. A poem is a small but powerful thing, he says in his thought-provoking preface while noting that, throughout his life, he's been inspired by poetry. So here, in this beautiful book, along with his coauthors, poets Chris Colderly and Marjory Wentworth, Alexander offers a collection of 20 poems. The hook? All are written in tribute to well-known poets, such as Maya Angelou, e. e. cummings, Sandra Cisneros, Robert Frost, Gwendolyn Brooks, and William Carlos Williams, among others. Sometimes that means recreating a style, as in Contemporary Haiku, which celebrates the Japanese poet, Basho. Sometimes it means adhering to a certain spirit, as in A Field of Roses, which reminds readers of Emily Dickinson. But even without such links, most of the poetry breezy, thoughtful, amusing stands on its own. As good as the words are, they might still be topped by the book's visuals. Holmes takes collage work to a new level, with gloriously colored art that, the closer you look, tells further stories within stories. Each illustration captures not just the feeling of the poem but wakes readers up to life's excitements and small joys. Exemplary words and pictures make this a multicultural masterwork.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2017 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
In their brevity and directness, poems and photographs have much in common, Alexander points out in a note in this striking collaborative book. Sartore's up-close photographs of animals in need of protection, each elegantly set against a pure white or black background, are a plea for respect - and help. So is the spare poetry that wends through them, written in a loose haiku style and emphasizing all we humans share with animals. The words cut deep: "Remember, we are part of forever." A SONG ABOUT MYSELF Poem by John Keats. Illustrated by Chris Raschka. 40 pp. Candlewick. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 6 to 9) "There was a naughty Boy, /A naughty Boy was he." So begins a charming trifle the Romantic poet Keats included in a letter to his younger sister. With the Caldecott medalist Raschka's always enjoyable watercolor art, the puckish little poem makes an effervescent picture book. The boy has run "away to Scotland / The people for to see." Recounting the adventurous trip, he also catalogs his own wicked ways: "For nothing would he do / But scribble poetry." Be still my beating heart! BRAVO! Poems About Amazing Hispanics By Margarita Engle. Illustrated by Rafael López. 48 pp. Godwin/ Holt. $18.99. (Picture book; ages 8 to 12) López's bright portraits of notable Hispanics have the large scale and graphic discipline of poster art, while Engle manages to compress the sweep of a biography into a sharp, compact free-verse poem about each life, from childhood on. Some are famous, like César Chávez and Roberto Clemente. All faced challenges - many gut-wrenching, like Julia de Burgos's near starvation in childhood - and made lasting contributions. ONE LAST WORD Wisdom From the Harlem Renaissance Written and illustrated by Nikki Grimes and others. 119 pp. Bloomsbury. $18.99. (Ages 8 and up) Using the playful "golden shovel" form - a chunk of an older poem anchors a new poem, with one word from the old ending each line of the new - Grimes pays tribute to Harlem Renaissance poets like Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Bennett. Her haunting poems echo and update the earlier poets' themes of struggle, resistance and pride in the face of prejudice. Gorgeous works by 15 black artists, including Javaka Steptoe, the 2017 Caldecott medalist, add to the book's dazzle. OUT OF WONDER By Kwame Alexander, with Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth. Illustrated by Ekua Holmes. 32 pp. Candlewick. $16.99. (Middle grade; 8 and up) Any young poet will be heartened by Alexander's reminder that "sometimes our poems sound like they were written by our favorite poets, and that is O.K." The three authors take turns emulating their idols, who include Emily Dickinson, Billy Collins and Terrance Hayes ("Make a paint box out of letters," that poem begins). Complementing the infectious mood of tribute is the spirited mixed-media artwork by Holmes ("Voice of Freedom"), a harmonious riot of color, texture and pattern. ONLINE An expanded visual presentation of this week's column at nytimes.com/books.
