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Display: Celebrate Black Poets

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Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks
Written by Suzanne Slade
Illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera
New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2020. Biography. 

A picture book biography of Gwendolyn Brooks, African American poet who became the first Black person to win the Pulitzer Prize. --Editor
Written by Amanda Gorman
Illustrated by Christian Robinson
New York: Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2023. Picture Book. 

Reveals how even the smallest gesture can have a lasting impact on the world's biggest problems. --Editor

Rise: From Caged Bird to Poet of the People, Maya Angelou
Written by Bethany Hegedus
Illustrated by Colin A. Johnson
New York: Lee & Low Books Inc., 2019. Biography.

A biography of African American writer, performer, and activist Maya Angelou, who turned a childhood of trauma and emotional pain to become one of the most inspiring voices of our lifetime. --Publisher

Brown Girl Dreaming
By Jacqueline Woodson
New York: Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Group, 2014. Informational. 336 pages.

Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child's soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson's poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become. --Editor

The Undefeated
Written by Kwame Alexander
Illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Boston: Versify, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019. Picture Book.

The Newbery Award-winning author of The Crossover pens an ode to black American triumph and tribulation, with art from a two-time Caldecott Honoree. --Publisher

How to Read a Book
Written by Kwame Alexander
Illustrated by Melissa Sweet
New York: Harper, and imprint of HarperCollinsPublisher, 2019. Picture Book. 32 pages.

Suggests a method of reading that begins with planting oneself beneath a tree and leads to a book party one hopes will never end. --Editor
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