Showing results for "Life!" in Poetry

You gotta know the rules to play the game. Ball is life. Take it to the hoop. Soar. What can we imagine for ourselves? What if we were the star players, moving and grooving through the game of life? What if we had our own rules of the game to help us get what we want, what we aspire to, what will enrich our lives? The Playbook is intended to provide inspiration for kids ages 10 and up to help them succeed on and off the court.

So many of our little Black kids and kids of color are struggling as they attempt to navigate a world where they feel inferior, inadequate, and not enough because of the color of their skin. Who Am I? Words of Affirmation for Children of Color attempts to affirm our children and remind them that they ARE enough, empowering them to do anything they can conceive in their minds.

During a visit to her grandma's house, a young girl discovers a box of poems in the attic - poems written by her mother when she was growing up. Her mother's family often moved around the United States and the world because her father was in the air force. Over the years her mother used poetry to record her experiences in the many places the family lived. Reading the poems and sharing those experiences through her mother's eyes, the young girl feels closer to her mother than ever before.

"Once I dreamed I swam / the ocean / and saw everything deep, cool / and was part of the waves. / I swam on by the people / onshore / hollering, / 'A girl like you needs to / stay out of the water / and be dry / like everyone else.'" Empower young listeners to embrace their individuality, reject societal limitations, and follow their dreams. This inspiring book uses a poem by acclaimed author Angela Johnson to celebrate girls of color.

Martin Rising is a stunning, poetic presentation of the final months of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life - told in a rich embroidery of visions, color, musical cadence, deep emotion, and multiple layers of meaning. Against a backdrop of the sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis, Tennessee, the book builds to its rousing crescendo as King delivers his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech - where his life’s commitment to peaceful activism and his dream of equality ascend to their highest peak.

Dean Bob and Lou Tweet can't wait to perform in the first-ever Bonefish Street Elementary School Pet Show. They've practiced their performances over and over again, and together with their pets, they're ready to shine! But it looks like their families, the Tweets, who are neat, and the Bobs, who are slobs, aren't going to make getting to the show easy. What will happen when the Tweets and Bobs have a showdown before the show? And what if all that fighting makes Dean Bob just a little nervous for his performance?

How can Irene and Charles work together on their fifth grade poetry project? They don't know each other...and they're not sure they want to. Irene Latham, who is white, and Charles Waters, who is black, use this fictional setup to delve into different experiences of race in a relatable way, exploring such topics as hair, hobbies, and family dinners. This remarkable collaboration invites listeners of all ages to join the dialogue by putting their own words to their experiences.