Description

---

Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Honor, American Library Association (ALA)
Best Books of the Year, Parenting magazine
Choices, Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Firecracker Alternative Press Award, Firecracker Alternative Book Awards

When children are encouraged to celebrate their lives -- their joys, their influences, their hopes -- the results are pure poetry.

Black is dark, dark is lovely,
lovely is the palm of my heart
and my heartbeats are filled with joy

When children are encouraged to celebrate their lives - their joys, their influences, their hopes - the results are pure poetry. Honest, wise, and inspiring, each of the twenty poems in this dazzling collection resounds with the unique rhythms of life, as seen through the eyes of African American children.

About the Author

---

Davida Adedjouma is a writer, actor and teacher. She is the author of Last Summer, a collection of short stories, and the recipient of numerous literary awards and fellowships. Born in Chicago, she now lives in New York City. This is her first picture book. R. GREGORY CHRISTIE is the recipient of numerous awards including a Caldecott Honor and six Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Honors, and his books have been recognized by The New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books list three times. He currently paints in the evenings while traveling around the country doing school visits. You can visit him online at gas-art.com.