I spent many a summer in Philadelphia on the brownstone steps of my Aunts and Uncles. Young Cornrows Callin Out the Moon is a celebration of those summers, when I played outside until after the streetlights came on among cousins, friends, knees, cornrows, jump rope, games, the ice cream truck, laughter, and dance. The concrete landscape was a summer song I kept in my pocket long after the August moon left for September.
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"Forman's poetry is sweet and evocative...Bayoc's illustrations swirl with energy, movement, and color...This sweet reminiscence invites readers to recall the special things about their own summers."
--School Library Journal
"...this poem exudes so much joy that
they’ll want to read it again and again. A good choice for reading aloud
together.â€
--Kirkus Reviews
"vibrant and joyous"
--Book Links
"…upbeat and celebratory…a pulsating paean to childhood…"
--Book Buds
"This children’s book is just as much for Mom and Dad to read as it is for the kids that will hear it...Young Cornrows sounds beautiful when read aloud
and is a great book for bedtime or anytime."
--The Michigan Citizen
"Children's Book Press has a magic touch, has found Rumpelstiltskin's loom, plays the flute of the Piper, is a national treasure...Young Cornrows Callin Out the Moon by Ruth Forman is another great selection by this wonderful press. I'm calling out Children's Book Press . The moon will have to get here on its own."
--Nikki Giovanni
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Ruth Forman is a highly acclaimed writer and poet, as well as a former teacher in the Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley. Her first book, We Are The Young Magicians (Beacon Press, 1993), won the Barnard New Women Poets Prize, wide acclaim for its fresh approach to poetry, and a listing by the American Library Association as a 2001 Popular Paperback for Young Adults. She was welcomed by QBR The Black Book Review as a writer who "not only upholds the traditions of the 'sistapoets' in whose steps [she] follows--Audre Lorde, Alice Walker and Sonia Sanchez--but also boldly blazes brand new trails." In its starred and boxed review, Booklist said, "Ruth Forman['s]... poems are alive and kicking; they pound and pulse with a hard-won sense of self, beauty, femininity, strength and righteous indignation. ... Forman is sexy, bittersweet, funny, feisty and real."
Renaissance (Beacon Press, 1997), Ruth Forman's second book, fulfilled the promise of her debut, written with the same irrepressible voice. Of these poems, Sonia Sanchez said, "Hers is a commitment to the possibilities of life. Joy. Beauty (though terrible at times on this earth). What an impressive rich song she sings." Renaissance won the 1999 Pen Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Poetry and received a nomination by Beacon Press for the Pulitzer Prize.
A graduate of UC Berkeley (she's a former student of June Jordan, Opal Palmer Adisa, Paula Gunn Allen and Yusef Komunyakaa) and the USC School of Cinema-Television, Ruth frequently collaborates on music, dance, theatre, and media projects. She provides readings and workshops to a wide variety of audiences, presenting her poetry nationally and internationally in forums such as the United Nations, the PBS series The United States of Poetry , the National Black Arts Festival, National Public Radio , and numerous university and community literary programs. She also starred in the celebrated 2004 California premiere of For an End to the Judgment of God/Kissing God Goodbye , directed by internationally-acclaimed theater artist, Peter Sellars.
Ruth credits much of her vision and inspiration from voices not only before her, but those singing at this very moment. "We are not individuals, but a chorus." When not writing and teaching, she spends her free time practicing another passion, tai chi sword.
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About the Illustrator
Cbabi Bayoc is a fine artist and illustrator whose artwork reflects his love of music and family. His paintings can be found in galleries and homes around the world, on album covers, in music videos, and on the pages of magazines and newspapers. He lives in St. Louis with his wife and children.
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About Children's Book Press
Children's Book Press
is a nonprofit publishing house founded in 1975 that promotes cooperation and understanding through multicultural and bilingual literature, offering children a sense of their culture, history and importance.
