Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets - Hardcover

Alexander, Kwame; Colderley, Chris; Wentworth, Marjory

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 076368094X ISBN 13: 9780763680947

Publisher: Candlewick, 2017

Synopsis

A New York Times bestseller!
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.

About this title

About the Author

Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, and author of twenty-one books for children and educators, including Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band, Surf’s Up, Booked, and a middle-grade novel in verse, The Crossover, which was awarded the 2015 Newbery Medal. He is currently the poet laureate of LitWorld, a K-6 literacy organization dedicated to supporting the development of literacy in the world's most vulnerable communities. He lives in Virginia.

Ekua Holmes is a fine artist whose work explores themes of family, relationships, hope, and faith. The first children’s book she illustrated is Carole Boston Weatherford’s Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, which was a Caldecott Honor Book and a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book and for which she also won the John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award. Ekua Holmes lives in Boston.

Reviews

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

Edition details

• Publisher: Candlewick
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 076368094X
• ISBN 13: 9780763680947
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Holmes Ekua
• Number of pages: 56