When I was kid I used to make movies in my head. Many of them were vaguely Arthurian in tone, with a dash of Tolkien reconfigured with strong female characters who liked to read. I tried putting myself in the lead role – warrior princess or pirate queen, say, but not that often. I am, at heart, a profoundly shy person, and even an imaginary spotlight was uncomfortable.
Nikki Grimes’ book Talkin’ About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman (Orchard, 2002)is the biography, written in 20 voices, of the first African American licensed female pilot.
Listen to Nikki Grimes share more about Elizabeth Coleman and read…
Nic Bishop is an award-winning, well-known photographer of the natural world. Having traveled all over the world to document scientists on expeditions, Bishop has his share of stories. He also goes to great pains to capture action-packed photographic images of mammals, insects, and reptiles in his own studio.
Poetry pays homage to the dead, sheds light on crimes and injustice, and helps us to explore intense emotions.
In Fortune’s Bones: The Manumission Requiem (Front Street, 2004), Marilyn Nelson created a requiem to honor “Fortune,” an 18th-century slave who…
This post was originally published in the February 2010 issue of LibrarySparks.
I met Sharon Draper in a utility closet. Maya Angelou, Angela Johnson, and Jacqueline Woodson were there, too. I talked to Kadir Nelson, Ashley Bryan, and Walter…
I love discovering cross-curricular implementations of poetry. For example, using poetry to explore history. In celebration of Black History Month, consider exploring the life of historical figure George Washington Carver through poetry.
In the Newbery honor-winning biography, Carver: A Life …