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Summary
Summary
"A stirring, accessible introduction to Gwendolyn Brooks and a must-have for all elementary collections." -- School Library Journal (Starred review)
"The combination of biography and Brooks' own poems makes for a strong, useful, and beautiful text . . . A solid introduction to a brilliant writer"-- Kirkus .
Acclaimed writer Alice Faye Duncan tells the story of poet Gwendolyn Brooks, the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize.
SING a song for Gwendolyn Brooks.
Sing it loud--a Chicago blues .
With a voice both wise and witty, Gwendolyn Brooks crafted poems that captured the urban Black experience and the role of women in society. She grew up on the South Side of Chicago, reading and writing constantly from a young age, her talent lovingly nurtured by her parents. Brooks ultimately published 20 books of poetry, two autobiographies, and one novel. Alice Faye Duncan has created her own song to celebrate Gwendolyn's life and work, illuminating the tireless struggle of revision and the sweet reward of success.
Included on the Chicago Public Libraries list of Best Informational Books for Young Readers.
Author Notes
Alice Faye Duncan'sbooks include Honey Baby Sugar Child , Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop , and The Twelve Days of Christmas in Tennessee. She serves as a school librarian in her hometown of Memphis. Visit her at alicefayeduncan.com.
Xia Gordon graduated from the School of Visual Arts with a BFA in Cartooning & Illustration. Her comic Kindling was published by 2dcloud in early 2017 and she has worked with clients such as The New York Times, BuzzFeed, Lenny Letter, and Narratively . She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Visit her at xiagordon.com.
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-Poet laureate Gwendolyn Brooks's talent with words was evident from a very early age, as this lyrical biography reveals. Against the thrumming backdrop of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s, with its pulse of trains and blues, Brooks's story is that of a child whose parents believed in her. It is also the story of a gifted girl who learned to believe in herself despite the teasing of neighborhood bullies and despite the doubts of her teachers. When her teacher did not believe that eight-year-old Brooks wrote something as sophisticated as the work she submitted, Mrs. Brooks marched to the school to fight for her daughter's innocence. Gwen crafted a poem right on demand, proving her prodigious ability to her teacher and most importantly, to herself. "Gwen steps high on her walk home./Gwen smiles brightly./Gwen BELIEVES." Brooks went on to become the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize. Duncan presents the facts of Brooks's life through concise, powerful biographical poems arranged under Roman numeral headings, distinguishing her own poetry from interspersed poetry by Brooks. Gordon's spare but affecting illustrations flush the pages with warm rose gold tones, plums, browns, and lavender. Strength and exultation come through with each expressive scene. An author's note, timeline, suggested readings and bibliography all add to the informative nature and usefulness of this text. VERDICT A stirring, accessible introduction to -Gwendolyn Brooks and a must-have for all elementary collections.-Melissa -Williams, Berwick Academy, ME © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In sturdy free verse, Duncan (Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop) celebrates the life of Gwendolyn Brooks, an African-American poet whose gifts emerged while she was very young. Brooks's parents allow her to skip chores to work on her writing, but, early on, a schoolteacher accuses the child of plagiarism. The young poet exonerates herself by writing a verse on the spot titled "Forgive and Forget," whose lines speak of unjust treatment: "If their taunts cut and hurt you,/ They are sure to regret." Throughout her life, Brooks stays loyal to her South Side Chicago roots-"63rd Street is a brown face muse./ Gwen types her poems in a crowded corner"-and, in 1950, becomes the first poet of color to win the Pulitzer Prize. Debut illustrator Gordon offers softly outlined images in warm, earth-toned pinks and browns, evoking sunset on the brick buildings of Chicago and suggesting emotions with shadowy swells of color. Duncan underlines the growth not only of Brooks's talent, but of her belief in herself and her craft, and her willingness to keep working: "Gwen's confidence is a bud in spring./ Revised... revisions make poetry RING!" An author's note and other references are included. Ages 5-up. Author's agent: Tricia Lawrence, Erin Murphy Literary. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Encouraged to write from a young age, Gwendolyn Brooks (1917â€"2000) became one of America's most prolific and beloved poets. Part biography, part poetic ode to a literary legend, Duncan's â€~songâ€TM helps introduce Brooks's work to new generations by incorporating several of her poems throughout. Gordon's expressive illustrations, in a warm color palette, are full of movement and emotion. Reading list, timeline. Bib. (c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
This brief biography of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet features a handful of Brooks' own poems interspersed with original verse about the woman and her writing.The warm pink undertones of Brooks' glowing brown face on the book's cover fade to a muted brown and beige palette inside the book's pages. Simple scenes and images use thick blurred lines and blocks of color as a background to the text as it recounts her life chronologically, from age 8 in 1925 to her winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1950. The poems about Brooks are headed by Roman numerals, I through IX. At first, she is "unsure," watching and listening to the sounds and behaviors of the people in her neighborhood, writing poems in her journal and burying those that disappoint her. When her teacher accuses her of plagiarism, her mother has her write a poem in front of the teacher to prove her brilliance (the poem is included). Her parents believe in her and leave her "free to sit and think." Her process is lovingly described: "She learns to labor for the love of words" through draft after draft. She befriends other poets and studies older poets. "She found her light. // And / A furious flower / GREW!" The combination of biography and Brooks' own poems makes for a strong, useful, and beautiful text; readers might wish, however, that Duncan's words and Brooks' were set in markedly different typefaces to better distinguish them. A solid introduction to a brilliant writer. (author's note, timeline, suggested reading, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 7-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In her smoke-filled neighborhood in Chicago's South Side, eight-year-old Gwendolyn Brooks wonders if the pink flowers outside her home can grow without sunlight. The flower metaphor continues in this picture-book biography of the award-winning poet. Duncan's own blues-style free verse recounts young Gwendolyn beginning to write snappy rhymes in dime-store journals. Even as a teacher accuses her of plagiarism and she doubts herself, her parents believe in her gift for poetry. When Gwendolyn gains confidence, she studies influential poets, paints poems with paintbrush words, and eventually becomes the first black American to win the Pulitzer Prize. Cared for by her family, Gwendolyn found her light, and like a furious flower, she grew. Loosely drawn, digitally enhanced artwork, rendered in pinks, mauves, and oranges, reinforces the flower imagery. Samples of Brooks' poems throughout give children a true sense of the poet's rhythm and appeal, while an author's note provides more details about her life. This book makes a terrific companion to Brooks' body of work, especially her much-loved Bronzeville Boys and Girls (2007).--Angela Leeper Copyright 2018 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
The life of a legendary cowboy, a tribute to the poet Gwendolyn Brooks, a shout-out to hip-hop and more. African-American picture books have always been successful at capturing the breadth, depth and beauty of the black experience, allowing children to gain muchneeded access to the strong legacy and vibrant history of African-American art and storytelling. But how we present this story is always undergoing revision and refinement, as four new books - from a closer view of plantation life to a visually rich depiction of the history of hip-hop - show. In these books, word and art combine to give us fresh insight into the lives, creativity and achievements of a truly resilient and profound people. James E. Ransome's the bell rang (Atheneum, 40 pp., $17.99; ages 4 to 8) beautifully captures several days in the life of an enslaved girl living with her family on a plantation. Plantation life is seen through the innocent yet fiercely observant eyes of the young, nameless narrator. Each day begins with the ringing of a bell, a warm hug, a loving kiss on the forehead or a gentle touch on the shoulder, followed by a simple goodbye from her big brother, Ben. Ransome doesn't shy away from the trauma of slavery, but he balances the terror that sits at the core of the story with moments of joy, skillfully painting a subtle smile across the young girl's face when she's given a doll, or the shadows of children running, skipping rope and playing hopscotch. We don't witness the daily, backbreaking work in the field, and a whipping happens offstage, but we do see the pervasive, watchful overseers, with their guns and their hound dog. At one point Ransome paints tears streaming down Mama's face, Daddy's bowed head against a wall with our narrator leaning against him, and an overseer with clenched fists standing in a doorway. "No sun in the sky. Mama crying. No Ben. Daddy crying. Ben ran," he writes. The book's color palette, strong on grays and pale blues, conveys its honest yet hopeful depiction of its young narrator's situation. We are left with the question, Will she run, too, some day? In "The Bell Rang" Ransome has given us a bittersweet slice of plantation life, one in which innocence, familial love and safety are juxtaposed with pain, loss and the resilience of the enslaved. LET 'ER BUCK! George Fletcher, the People's Champion (Carolrhoda, 40 pp., $18.99; ages 4 to 8), written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson ("Bad News for Outlaws") and illustrated by the Newbery Honor winner Gordon C. James ("Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut"), tells the story of the black cowboy George Fletcher, whose journey began when his family set out on the Oregon Trail from their Kansas town. After they met with racism, young George found solace among the children on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in eastern Oregon. There, he nurtured his love of riding with a make-believe bronco, but over time, the tribal horsemen taught George how to "buck." He became a star at local rodeos, even while being shut out of more popular ones, which opposed black cowboys competing against white cowboys. But in 1911 the 21year-old George competed against the fiercest cowboys in the Northwest: the Néz Percé Indian Jackson Sundown and the white rancher John Spain. What follows is a detailed account, rendered adroitly through Nelson's clear prose and James's elegant paintings, of one of the most important rodeo shows in American history, which established Fletcher as the "people's champion" - even though the judge declared Spain the winner. With its energetic pairing of words and art, "Let 'er Buck!" comes alive to unearth an unsung American hero. Gwendolyn Brooks, who died in 2000, was one of the most important, prolific and distinguished poets of her time, and as with most brilliant artists, her creative force was evident when she was a child. In A SONG FOR GWENDOLYN BROOKS (Sterling, 32 pp., $17.99; ages 4 to 8), Alice Faye Duncan and Xia Gordon unfurl Brooks's evolution from a precocious girl growing up in Chicago through her boundary-breaking accomplishments, including the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1950. "Sing a song for Gwendolyn Brooks. Sing it loud - a Chicago blues," Duncan's text begins. Gordon's soft, velvety, earth-toned illustrations convey the sweetness and innocence of Gwendolyn's imagination, set against the vibrant urban landscape of her childhood. Duncan mimics the short, poignant stanzas and lyrical observations in many of Brooks's poems - a few of which are placed throughout, beginning with "The Busy Clock," written in 1928 when she was 11. Yet it is the way Duncan conveys the unwavering family support of Brooks's creativity that most stands out. "Her parents are wise and see the light.... Gwendolyn is free to sit and think," she writes. Brooks writes and rewrites a poem titled "Ambition" between 1930 and 1933, as she went from 13 to 16 years old, and Duncan uses it to illustrate the persistence, isolation and deep self-reflection that poetry required of Brooks. As she goes on to achieve fame, we are reminded that the joyous freedom of her work traces back to the remarkable achievements of a child poet. THE ROOTS OF RAP: 16 Bars on the Pillars of Hip-Hop (Little Bee, 32 pp., $18.99; ages 4 to 8) captures a specific African-American experience - one that is rooted in jazz, hiphop and the liveliness of urban culture. Carole Boston Weatherford's 16 bars of homage to the history of hip-hop accompany the celebrated illustrator Frank Morrison's pulsing and vibrant images, which not only convey the development of hiphop, they dance on the page. The opening pages are a tip of the baseball cap to the poets Langston Hughes and Paul Lawrence Dunbar, as well as to James Brown - innovators of spoken word and funk music, and thus contributors to the roots of hip-hop. Graffiti figures prominently throughout the book, too, as it is a foundational aesthetic in hip-hop, and provides a colorful backdrop to the groovin' and movin' black children who populate the illustrations. The well-placed centerfold illustration is of a cool and smooth DJ Kool Here, known as the founding father of hip-hop, with his turntable and mic. "DJ Kool Here in the Bronx, block party under his command, rocks and rocks nonstop; mic clutched in his hand," Weatherford writes. While "The Roots of Rap" certainly does document the history of hip-hop, Weatherford forgoes the ingenious wordplay, jazzy meter and funky rhyme scheme found in early rap songs like the Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" and Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks." ft is Morrison's illustrations that give "The Roots of Rap" its beat, its bass, rhythm and soul. ibi zoboi is the author of the novels "American Street" and "Pride" and the editor of the anthology "Black Enough: Stories of Being Young and Black in America."
