Amazing Places - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1620148056 ISBN 13: 9781620148051

Publisher: Lee & Low Books, 2018

Synopsis

In this collection of original poems, acclaimed anthologist Lee Bennett Hopkins brings together fourteen selections that celebrate through poetic imagery some of the amazingly diverse places in our nation. These include Denali National Park, the Oneida Nation Museum, San Francisco s Chinatown, the Grand Canyon, the Ringling Circus Museum, Harlem, the Liberty Bell, Fenway Park, and more. The poems as a whole take readers on an exciting multiethnic travelogue around the United States and encourage a positive appreciation of our country s historical, environmental, and cultural heritage. The inspiring and insightful poems were created by some of the best-known authors writing for children, including Alma Flor Ada, Jaime Adoff, Joseph Bruchac, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Nikki Grimes, J. Patrick Lewis, Jane Medina, and Linda Sue Park. Captivating illustrations by award-winning illustrators Chris Soentpiet and Christy Hale feature well-researched settings that infuse the poems with vibrant life and atmosphere. Readers of all ages will want to visit each amazing place again and again.

About this title

About the Author:

LEE BENNETT HOPKINS, acclaimed poet and writer, has created numerous award-winning poetry anthologies for young readers. He is the recipient of the 2009 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, which honors his body of work. Hopkins's books have won many accolades, and in early 2015, a third award was established in his name: the Lee Bennett Hopkins SCBWI Poetry Award, to "recognize and encourage the publication of an excellentbook of poetry or anthology for children and/or young adults." He lives in Cape Coral, Florida.

CHRIS SOENTPIET is the illustrator of several highly-praised picture books. He has won many awards for his work, including the NAACP Image Award, Society of Illustrators Original Art Show Gold Medal, ALA Notable Books, IRA Children's Book of the Year, Jane Addams Children's Book Award, Parents' Choice Award, and Notable Books for a Global Society. Soentpiet has also received a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators, an honor bestowed onan artist by fellow illustrators. He lives in Flushing, New York, with his wife and their children.

CHRISTY HALE has illustrated numerous award-winning books for children, including two
that she also wrote. As an art educator, Hale has introduced young readers to the lives and
works of many artists through Instructor magazine's Masterpiece of the Month feature andaccompanying workshops. Hale lives with family in Palo Alto, California.

Joseph Bruchac is an Abenaki Indian. He is among the most respected and widely published Native American authors, with over 100 titles in print, including the popular Keepers of the Earth series and Lee & Low's Crazy Horse's Vision, which received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews. His YA novel, Wolf Mark, is a Westchester Young Adult Fiction Award winner. A Rockefeller Fellow and an NEA Poetry Writing Fellow, he was the 1999 recipient of the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to writing, Bruchac is an editor at Greenfield Review Press, a literary publishing house he cofounded with his wife. He lives in Greenfield Center, New York.

Review:

This companion to Amazing Faces (2015) is a tribute to United States landmarks and adds illustrator Hale as a collaborator. Eleven states are highlighted, ranging from Alaska to Kansas to Massachusetts. San Francisco's Chinatown, the Grand Canyon, the State Fair of Texas, and the Oneida Nation Museum are among the American treasures featured alongside poetry penned by an eclectic representation of treasured Americans of many ethnicities. The selections' wide appeal invites intergenerational sharing, particularly in the classroom or at family gatherings. For example, in addition to the reader-engaging, playful visual formatting of Prince Redcloud's "Niagara," this poem also lends itself to multivoice readings: "falls / and / falls / forever-ever / flowing / falling / falling / cascading / crashing / dipping / dropping / plunging / tumbling / stop...." Soentpiet and Hale's exceptional pencil-and-digital illustrations reinforce the word pictures evoked by the poetry. Light and shadow, skillfully rendered with the look of watercolor paint, play across the scenes. A historical glossary is appended, and the map of the United States indicating each landmark's location is included on the endpapers. Amazing, indeed: American readers will come away both proud of what the country has to offer and eager to visit the sites in person.

-- (09/15/2015)

In this companion to 2010'sAmazing Faces, 14 poems celebrate landmarks and attractions across the United States, such as the Grand Canyon, Fenway Park, and San Francisco's Chinatown. In the tender opening poem from Janet S. Wong, a girl treasures a night camping with her mother in Alaska's Denali National Park: "When the fire is spitting ready, / she reaches/ in the bag, rustling, / and hands me/ one big, fat, luscious/ marshmallow." Joan Bransfield Graham's concrete poem, "Sandy Hook Lighthouse," is both written from the lighthouse's perspective and shaped like one: "Wild/ storms rage, / lightning crackles, / nothing/ deters me./ I have/ stood on/ duty in this/ place for/ more than two/ centuries." The far-ranging locations and multicultural, multigenerational cast help create a broadly appealing testament to the American landscape and people.

-- (09/15/2015)

About this edition

• Publisher: Lee & Low Books
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1620148056
• ISBN 13: 9781620148051
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Chris Soentpiet, Christy Hale