I, Too, Sing America by Catherine Clinton, Illustrated by Stephen Alcorn

Genre: Poetry

Honors:ALA Notable/Best Books, Coretta Scott King Award/Honors

Review: This book is a good introduction to a diverse collection of African-American poets throughout three centuries of work.  The author has narrowed it down to one or, occasionally several poems per poet and has chosen a variety of beautiful pieces.  Included with each poem is brief biography of each poet.  This allows readers to learn more about those that have written their favorite poem.  This collection will inspire readers to find more poems by these writers and may even excite teen readers to write their own poems.  The illustrations compliment the content, but are truly pieces of art within themselves.  The illustrations tell a story and are as descriptive as the poems they compliment. 

Opinion: This is an essential book to have in the teen poetry section of the library.  It includes many well-know poets such as Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and W.E.B. Du Bois, and many other poets that have also made contributions to poetry. It is especially interesting to learn more about the poet after reading his or her work.  


Ideas: This can be part of a collection on display for Black History month.  In addition this book will be useful in a Language arts lesson on poetry or a Social Studies lesson about America's history.