A powerful and thought-provoking Civil Rights era memoir from one of America’s most celebrated poets. Looking back on her childhood in the 1950s, Newbery Honor winner and National Book Award finalist Marilyn Nelson tells the story of her development as an artist and young woman through fifty eye-opening poems. Readers are given an intimate portrait of her growing self-awareness and artistic inspiration along with a larger view of the world around her: racial tensions, the Cold War era, and the first stirrings of the feminist movement. A first-person account of African-American history, this is a book to study, discuss, and treasure.

How I Discovered Poetry

Nelson, Marilyn

Children's Books

Rocky Pond Books

Perfect for fans of Jacqueline Woodson and Toni Morrison, this novel in verse explores American history and race through the eyes of a teen boy embracing his newfound identity. Connor's grandmother leaves his dad a letter when she dies, and the letter's confession shakes their tight-knit Italian-American family: The man who raised Dad is not his birth father. But the only clues to this birth father's identity are a class ring and a pair of pilot's wings. And so Connor takes it upon himself to investigate--a pursuit that becomes even more pressing when Dad is hospitalized after a stroke. His hunt brings him to the history of the Tuskegee Airmen, and leads him and his father to a new, richer understanding of race, identity, and each other.

American Ace

Speak

This riveting novel in verse, perfect for fans of Jacqueline Woodson and Toni Morrison, explores American history and race through the eyes of a teenage boy embracing his newfound identity   Connor’s grandmother leaves his dad a letter when she dies, and the letter’s confession shakes their tight-knit Italian-American family: The man who raised Dad is not his birth father.   But the only clues to this birth father’s identity are a class ring and a pair of pilot’s wings. And so Connor takes it upon himself to investigate—a pursuit that becomes even more pressing when Dad is hospitalized after a stroke. What Connor discovers will lead him and his father to a new, richer understanding of race, identity, and each other.From the Hardcover edition.

Literature & Fiction

Listening Library (Audio)

A powerful biography in poems about a trailblazing artist and a pillar of the Harlem Renaissance—with an afterword by the curator of the Art & Artifacts Division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.\nAugusta Savage was arguably the most influential American artist of the 1930s. A gifted sculptor, Savage was commissioned to create a portrait bust of W.E.B. Du Bois for the New York Public Library. She flourished during the Harlem Renaissance, and became a teacher to an entire generation of African American artists, including Jacob Lawrence, and would go on to be nationally recognized as one of the featured artists at the 1939 World’s Fair. She was the first-ever recorded Black gallerist. After being denied an artists’ fellowship abroad on the basis of race, Augusta Savage worked to advance equal rights in the arts. And yet popular history has forgotten her name. Deftly written and brimming with photographs of Savage’s stunning sculpture, this is an important portrait of an exceptional artist who, despite the limitations she faced, was compelled to forge a life through art and creativity.\nFrom School Library Journal\nGr 6 Up—Influential Harlem Renaissance artist Augusta Savage (1892–1962) rarely had the money to cast her art in bronze. Instead, what survives of her work, collected in major museums all over the country, is made of humble materials like plaster and clay. Her sculptures are realistic, insightful, and compassionate, much like the sure-footed poetry in this book by celebrated author Nelson. The artist's life—what is known of it—is related largely in the first person. A variety of poetic forms are precisely chosen to fit opportunities, setbacks, triumphs, and encounters with famous people, children, and a truly unhinged admirer. Poems are paired with archival photos and reproductions of artwork and often describe the act of creation and the puzzles that each subject poses—how to capture Marcus Garvey's "black light" or the clear-eyed determination of the young model for "Portrait Head of John Henry." One of the last poems describes Savage at the kitchen table in her home in rural Saugerties, NY, creating a bas-relief of a young dancer using plaster poured into a cookie sheet. This psychological portrait gathers the artist's natural talent, technical expertise, and love of teaching and creating, balanced against the restrictions she faced due to poverty, racism and misogyny, to leave readers with a woman as real and dimensional as the portraits she left the world. VERDICT A master poet breathes life and color into this portrait of a historically significant sculptor and her remarkable story.—Paula Willey

Augusta Savage: The Shape of a Sculptor's Life

History

Christy Ottaviano Books

This collection of poems assembled by award-winning writer Marilyn Nelson provides young readers with a compelling, lyrical account of the life of revered African-American botanist and inventor George Washington Carver. Born in 1864 and raised by white slave owners, Carver left home in search of an education and eventually earned a master’s degree in agriculture. In 1896, he was invited by Booker T. Washington to head the agricultural department at the all-black-staffed Tuskegee Institute. There he conducted innovative research to find uses for crops such as cowpeas, sweet potatoes, and peanuts, while seeking solutions to the plight of landless black farmers. Through 44 poems, told from the point of view of Carver and the people who knew him, Nelson celebrates his character and accomplishments. She includes prose summaries of events and archival photographs.

Carver: A Life in Poems

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

Scholastic. Inc.

A portrait of George Washington Carver written with a collection of poems by the American poet, Marilyn Nelson.

This deeply imaginative and entertaining poetry collection details the pleasures of the orchestra, from strong-willed A to satisfied Z.\nTwo widely acclaimed poets--one a composer and classical pianist as well--have come together to create this extraordinary portrait of the orchestra in all of its richness and fascination, using the structure of the alphabet in a way that's entirely new and delightful. A is for the first note you hear as you take your seat in the concert hall, played by the headstrong oboe. B is for the bassoon, "the orchestra's jester, complaining impatiently through his nose." And C is for the conductor, "like the captain on the bridge of a great ship, navigating the composer's musical charts."\nOnward the text goes, soaring in reverie and making thought-provoking observations while not taking itself too seriously--illuminating all the various details that flow together to create the nourishing experience of playing or listening to music.\nFrom School Library Journal\nGr 2–5—Combining the talents of composer Auerbach and poet Nelson with the illustrations of Hoppe, this collection of poems is a lyrical and colorful introduction to the orchestra. Starting as most concerts and rehearsals do, the oboe plays an opening A note, and what follows are brief, but musical, poems about the instruments, people, and vocabulary often associated with an orchestra. Readers get not only a cursory introduction to each section but also a sense of the role each instrument and person might play. In a tribute to the French horn, the instrument is noted for its "hoity-toity haughtiness, his highfalutin brassiness." At first, the assignment of gender might feel a bit clumsy, but the authors explain that for most musicians, musical instruments aren't things but rather beings they refer to as "he" or "she" and that some instruments could be considered "gender-bending." Hoppe's vibrant illustrations not only add to the meaning of each poem but also help share the message that the orchestra is for everyone. Careful representation showcases musicians of a variety of genders, ethnicities, and religions. Also represented is a variety of skill levels, reminding them that the orchestra isn't just for a small elite group of people. Although at times the vocabulary used might be a bit elevated for the target audience, a skillful librarian or teacher will be able to help readers navigate through these passages. VERDICT This fine overview of the orchestra is a great fit for all collections, especially school libraries, where music teachers could use this resource for instruction.—Louie Lauer

A is for Oboe: The Orchestra's Alphabet

Auerbach, Lera

Arts, Music & Photography

A quiet girl makes a powerful impression through her artwork in this lyrical story of introversion and peaceful protest--a stirring picture book from Newbery Honor winner Marilyn Nelson and fine artist Philemona Williamson. Lubaya is a quiet girl who doesn't raise her hand in class and who prefers daydreaming to soccer games. She spends most of her time drawing, often behind the sofa while her family watches TV. That's where she is, creating happy pictures on the backs of her parents' old protest posters, when upsetting news shouts into the living room. The next day her family takes part in a march, and there, on one side of the posters being held high, are Lubaya's drawings of kids holding hands and of the sun shining over the globe--rousing visual statements of how the world could be. "Lubaya's roar may not be loud, but a quiet roar can make history."

Lubaya's Quiet Roar

Growing Up & Facts of Life

A Newbery Honor winner collaborates with a new writer in this hip-hop-inspired historical thriller.A Newbery Honor winner collaborates with a new writer in this hip-hop-inspired historical thriller. ;Pemba knows she's not crazy. But who is that looking out at her through her mirror's eye? And why is the apparition calling her "friend"? Her real friends are back home in Brooklyn, not in the old colonial house in Colchester, Connecticut, where none of this would have happened if Daddy were still alive. But now all Pemba has is Mom and that strange old man, Abraham. Maybe he's the crazy one. 
Thank goodness for Pemba's Playlist and the journal she keeps. There are so many answers deep inside that music. So much is revealed in Pemba's poetry -- the bops she writes and those coming through her iPod. Phyllis, an 18th-century slave girl, has answers too. But Phyllis's reality billows out from her visits to Pemba, visits that transform both girls in ways neither expected. 
In this supernatural tale, the voices of these two characters entwine to put a new spin on a paranormal story. As a mystery unfolds, many truths are revealed -- about honesty, freedom, redemption, and friendship. 
Excerpt: 
Miles of highway and nothin 
but trees. Mom's movin me to Nowhere, 
CT when I used to live in the center of the universe: 
Brooklyn, NY. This must be some kind of evil curse. . . . 
I'm journalin like my hand's on fire, ear buds blarin: 
 ~Pemba 
The truth everywhere evident: 
my days are numbered in our happy home. 
The only home I know. 
Both in here and out there, I am invisible. . . 
~Phyllis ;Noted poet Marilyn Nelson is the author of several highly acclaimed and award-winning books for young readers. CARVER: A LIFE IN POEMS received a Newbery Honor medal, a Boston Globe/Horn Book Award, and a Coretta Scott King Honor citation. A WREATH FOR EMMETT TILL, also a book told in poetry, won a Printz Honor Award, a Coretta Scott King Honor, and a Boston Globe/Horn Book citation. Ms. Nelson is a multiple National Book Award finalist. Her forthcoming novel, PEMBA'S SONG, will be published in 2008, and her picture book, BEAUTIFUL BALLERINA, will publish in 2009 (both with Scholastic). Tonya C. Hegamin is the author of MOST LOVED IN ALL THE WORLD and M+O 4EVR, both forthcoming from Houghton Mifflin Company. She received a B.A. in Poetry from the University of Pittsburgh and an MFA from The New School University. Tonya has worked as a social worker and teacher for teens in crises and has also taught poetry workshops to at-risk and incarcerated women. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Pemba's Song: A Ghost Story

Hegamin, Tonya C.

Biographies

Scholastic Press

A talented team of children's book creators craft a beautiful, stirring tribute to the grace and power of prima ballerinas everywhere. Every little girl has the dream to become a prima ballerina! On today's ever-changing cultural stage, ballerinas come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and abilities. To celebrate the beauty of black ballerinas, here is a lush photographic picture book with a brilliant poetic narrative, brought to young readers by two amazing talents. The minimal text balances the harmony of the photos and demonstrates the joy of movement.

Beautiful Ballerina

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Nelson, Marilyn. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Nelson, Marilyn

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Nelson, Marilyn. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

How I Discovered Poetry

American Ace

American Ace

Augusta Savage: The Shape of a Sculptor's Life

Carver: A Life in Poems

Carver: A Life in Poems

A is for Oboe: The Orchestra's Alphabet

Lubaya's Quiet Roar

Pemba's Song: A Ghost Story

Beautiful Ballerina