A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks

"In sturdy free verse, Duncan (Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop) celebrates the life of Gwendolyn Brooks, an African-American poet whose gifts emerged while she was very young. Brooks's parents allow her to skip chores to work on her writing, but, early on, a schoolteacher accuses the child of plagiarism. The young poet exonerates herself by writing a verse on the spot titled 'Forgive and Forget, ' whose lines speak of unjust treatment: 'If their taunts cut and hurt you, / They are sure to regret.' Throughout her life, Brooks stays loyal to her South Side Chicago roots--'63rd Street is a brown face muse./ Gwen types her poems in a crowded corner'--and, in 1950, becomes the first poet of color to win the Pulitzer Prize. Debut illustrator Gordon offers softly outlined images in warm, earth-toned pinks and browns, evoking sunset on the brick buildings of Chicago and suggesting emotions with shadowy swells of color. Duncan underlines the growth not only of Brooks's talent, but of her belief in herself and her craft, and her willingness to keep working: 'Gwen's confidence is a bud in spring./ Revised... revisions make poetry RING!' An author's note and other references are included." --Publishers Weekly "This brief biography of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet features a handful of Brooks' own poems interspersed with original verse about the woman and her writing. The warm pink undertones of Brooks' glowing brown face on the book's cover fade to a muted brown and beige palette inside the book's pages. Simple scenes and images use thick blurred lines and blocks of color as a background to the text as it recounts her life chronologically, from age 8 in 1925 to her winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1950. The poems about Brooks are headed by Roman numerals, I through IX. At first, she is 'unsure, ' watching and listening to the sounds and behaviors of the people in her neighborhood, writing poems in her journal and burying those that disappoint her. When her teacher accuses her of plagiarism, her mother has her write a poem in front of the teacher to prove her brilliance (the poem is included). Her parents believe in her and leave her 'free to sit and think. Her process is lovingly described: 'She learns to labor for the love of words' through draft after draft. She befriends other poets and studies older poets. 'She found her light.