#NIKKI J BREEZE CALIFORNIA FULL#

Her so-called low-achieving students responded to the work to such an extent that, over time, she developed a sub-curriculum around Danitra Brown and found the material useful in motivating both reading and writing among students the system had written off. Joyce Briscoe discovered as much, many years ago, when she shared the-then-newly published Meet Danitra Brown with students at Clara Barton Elementary in California. Poetry, all forms and facets of poetry, can be powerful. Sometimes, when a child is having a difficult day, rather than a moment of laughter, he most needs a work that reflects his angst, a poem that shows him he is not alone, a poem that acknowledges both darkness and light in the world-even the world of a child. Children benefit from seeing themselves in all guises, in all moods.

#NIKKI J BREEZE CALIFORNIA FULL#

The field of children’s poetry is incredibly rich! Let’s make sure young readers have access to the full range available because it matters. This genre is deep, and wide!Īs for cultural diversity, today’s offerings include children’s poetry by Native Americans, Palestinian Americans, Chinese Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Korean Americans, Latin Americans and, yes, African Americans. There are poems that probe the minutia of Nature, and the vastness of outer space. There are collections that take readers for adventures on the high seas. There are poetry collections that explore history and the men and women who’ve shaped it. There are limericks, yes, but also odes, sonnets, tanka, and more. There are poems that create space in a child’s heart for the release of tears, as well as laughter-and both are healing. There are children’s poems that challenge, inspire, disturb. There’s a depth and breadth to children’s poetry that rarely gets its due, poetry specifically written for children that scales the heights of heaven, plumbs the depth of death, and graces all the notes in between. No, I’m alluding to diversity as to type, topic, form. The constant slant towards humorous verse leads me to cry out for diversity.īig buzz-word, that! To be clear, I’m not talking about racial or cultural diversity in children’s poetry. One might not know that, though, judging from the narrow pool of children’s poetry books that are most often highlighted and recommended. That said, I also know there’s more to life than laughter, and there’s more to children’s poetry than light verse. He made us, didn’t he? Yes, laughter is to be appreciated, enjoyed. God himself has a phenomenal sense of humor. Laughter is cleansing, healing, and necessary. I even make a point of giving others cause to chuckle, even if it’s sometimes at my own expense. (Is anything important ever?) I’m just saying it’s going to be worth it. What’s it going to take, huh? Look, I’m not saying it’s going to be easy.

Oprah Winfrey, Will & Jada Smith, Spike Lee, are you listening? BET, what about it? Tyler Perry, what do you think? I just wish our affluent counterparts in the film industry would rise up to the dollars and sense to be made by developing our books for the big, or small, screen.

(We may be small, but we are mighty!) And mind you, I’m talking about award-winners, and bestsellers, so the book-to-film audience is there, in case anyone asks. Why aren’t they stepping up to the proverbial plate? I know they have production companies of their own, so why aren’t they making moves to acquire the rights to works by Walter Dean Myers, or Joseph Bruchac, or Angela Johnson, or Grace Lin, or Sharon Draper, or Christopher Paul Curtis, or Matt de la Pena, or Jacqueline Woodson, or-well, we’ve got a decent list of our own. There may not be as many moneyed POC in Hollywood as there are whites, but there are certainly a number of heavy hitters I could name.

My question is as much to black filmmakers and black movers and shakers (and Latino, and Asian, and-well you get my drift) as it is to anyone else. Where, oh where are the films based on children’s and YA titles written by authors of color? Why is no one optioning some of the worthy titles by these authors? I thoroughly enjoyed The Fault In Our Stars, and the growing number of other Hollywood treatments based on children’s and young adult books. I’m all a-tingle just thinking about the wide release of Lois Lowry’s, The Giver. I was excited to join Katherine Paterson at the film premier of Bridge to Terabithia, a couple of years ago, and can’t wait for The Great Gilly Hopkins to hit the big screen. I love it when children’s books do well in the world.

Nikki j breeze california