VERDICT A stirring, accessible introduction to Gwendolyn Brooks and a must-have for all elementary collections.” - School Library Journal (Starred review) An author’s note, timeline, suggested readings and bibliography all add to the informative nature and usefulness of this text. Strength and exultation come through with each expressive scene.

Gordon’s spare but affecting illustrations flush the pages with warm rose gold tones, plums, browns, and lavender. Duncan presents the facts of Brooks’s life through concise, powerful biographical poems arranged under Roman numeral headings, distinguishing her own poetry from interspersed poetry by Brooks. ‘Gwen steps high on her walk home./Gwen smiles brightly./Gwen BELIEVES.’ Brooks went on to become the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize. Gwen crafted a poem right on demand, proving her prodigious ability to her teacher and most importantly, to herself. Brooks marched to the school to fight for her daughter’s innocence. When her teacher did not believe that eight-year-old Brooks wrote something as sophisticated as the work she submitted, Mrs. It is also the story of a gifted girl who learned to believe in herself despite the teasing of neighborhood bullies and despite the doubts of her teachers. Against the thrumming backdrop of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s, with its pulse of trains and blues, Brooks’s story is that of a child whose parents believed in her. “Poet laureate Gwendolyn Brooks’s talent with words was evident from a very early age, as this lyrical biography reveals.

Included on the Chicago Public Libraries list of Best Informational Books for Young Readers. Alice Faye Duncan has created her own song to celebrate Gwendolyn’s life and work, illuminating the tireless struggle of revision and the sweet reward of success. Brooks ultimately published 20 books of poetry, two autobiographies, and one novel.

She grew up on the South Side of Chicago, reading and writing constantly from a young age, her talent lovingly nurtured by her parents. With a voice both wise and witty, Gwendolyn Brooks crafted poems that captured the urban Black experience and the role of women in society. A solid introduction to a brilliant writer”- Kirkus.Īcclaimed writer Alice Faye Duncan tells the story of poet Gwendolyn Brooks, the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize. “The combination of biography and Brooks' own poems makes for a strong, useful, and beautiful text. “A stirring, accessible introduction to Gwendolyn Brooks and a must-have for all elementary collections.” - School Library Journal (Starred review)

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