Editorials
School Library Journal
Gr 7-12-Ten African Americans are highlighted in these essays. Each 7-to-10 page sketch contains basic biographical information about the poet, showing how the African-American experience affected their work, along with a portrait (usually a photograph) and one of their poems. The writers range from former slave Phillis Wheatley to contemporary authors such as Maya Angelou, Eloise Greenfield, and Rita Dove. Also included are Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Nikki Giovanni. The clear, focused writing makes this a solid choice for reports, especially in multicultural units.-Melissa Hudak, North Suburban District Library, Roscoe, ILKirkus Reviews
This solid and sensible collective biography of ten African-American poets, from Phillis Wheatley to Rita Dove, is nicely done indeed.Librarians, teachers, and students will welcome this collection, with essays that are just the right length for citing in reports. Each essay outlines the life and covers the work of the poet, and each ends, appropriately, with a complete poem. Besides Wheatley and Dove, Strickland (Poems that Sing to You, 1993, etc.) includes Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Amiri Baraka (whose adopted name is translated, erroneously, as "blessed" for Ameer and "prince" for Baraka—a simple reversal of the meanings), Haki R. Madhubuti, Nikki Giovanni, Maya Angelou, and Eloise Greenfield. The abbreviated format and concentration on the poets' words rather than on their lives occasionally leads to an oversimplification of their influences or of the difficulties they suffered, but this is still a great collection-builder.