Crowning Glory

Thomas, Joyce Carol

ISBN 10: 0060234741 ISBN 13: 9780060234744

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2002

Synopsis

hair
a
gift
wrapped
ribboned
curled
tied

With these joyous poems, National Book Award-winning author Joyce Carol Thomas lovingly celebrates the beauty and distinction of African-American hair. Accompanied by artist Brenda Joysmith's soft, lush portraits of women and girls of all ages, Thomas's lyrical language shares what is special about hair that-is dreadlocked, braided, adorned, or worn free. The poems and images rejoice in the spirit of individuality that comes from having your unique crowning glory.

About this title

About the Author:

Joyce Carol Thomas is an internationally renowned author who received the National Book Award for her first novel, Marked By Fire, and a Coretta Scott King Honor for The Blacker the Berry and for her first picture book, Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea. Her picture book I Have Heard of a Land received a Coretta Scott King Honor and an IRA/CBC Teachers' Choice Award and was an ALA Notable Book. Her other titles include The Gospel Cinderella, Crowning Glory, Gingerbread Days, and A Gathering of Flowers. Ms. Thomas lives in Berkeley, California.

From Publishers Weekly:

Thomas (Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea) celebrates the beauty of African-American hair in this collection of 14 poems. Based on Thomas's daughter and granddaughters, Joysmith's (This Is My Song) full-bleed pastel portraits, opposite, provide loving accompaniment and demonstrate a spectrum of hairstyles. The illustration paired with Great Grandma's Way shows a woman instructing her granddaughter by example: To make the hair strong You can't go wrong Using black twine, nothing's better To wrap and keep loose ends together. In Adorned (Bands and bows Shells and nets Flowers and hairpins Rainbow barrettes), four elementary-school girls sit on a bed as one works on another's hair. Mama's Glory explains the connection between hair and history: I wear my hair natural In memory of a faraway place. Here, Joysmith depicts the mother, a baby in her arms and her son by her side, with a halo of hair. Good Hair celebrates everyone's titular crowning glory 'What is good hair?' I ask my daddy And Mama answers, 'Why, it's understood, Sister, if it's on your head it's good!' Readers will want this handsomely designed volume not only for its hair-apparent emphasis but also for the ways in which Thomas effortlessly uses her theme to integrate its ties to family, friendships and tradition. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0060234741
• ISBN 13: 9780060234744
• Binding: Library Binding
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Joysmith Brenda