11 Books Published by Sourcebooks on Our Site — Book Cover Mosaic

From the Newbery-Medal winning author of The Crossover and The Undefeated comes an exciting, interactive, poetry notebook—empowering kids to express themselves in verse.

Have you ever written a poem? How about rap lyrics or a letter or even a list? ’Cause those can all be poetry too. Wanna give it a try? Bestselling author and poet extraordinaire Kwame Alexander created this super-fly notebook just for YOU It’s bursting with cool activities, sizzling poetry starters, inspirational quotes, and lots of space to create. So grab your pen or pencil ’cause it’s time to give your words FLOW and RHYTHM and RHYME.

Incredible stories. Award-winning storytellers. Epic adventure, mystery, and fun? We’ve got it all in Ghostwriter, the extraordinary new series from the Emmy-award winning hit Apple TV+ show, created by your friends at Sesame Workshop.

The New York Times and USA Today bestseller! This eye-opening book challenges you to do the essential work of unpacking your biases, and helps white people take action and dismantle the privilege within themselves so that you can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.

"Layla Saad is one of the most important and valuable teachers we have right now on the subject of white supremacy and racial injustice."?New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert

Based on the viral Instagram challenge that captivated participants worldwide, Me and White Supremacy takes readers on a 28-day journey, complete with journal prompts, to do the necessary and vital work that can ultimately lead to improving race relations.

Updated and expanded from the original workbook (downloaded by nearly 100,000 people), this critical text helps you take the work deeper by adding more historical and cultural contexts, sharing moving stories and anecdotes, and including expanded definitions, examples, and further resources, giving you the language to understand racism, and to dismantle your own biases, whether you are using the book on your own, with a book club, or looking to start family activism in your own home.
This book will walk you step-by-step through the work of examining:

• Examining your own white privilege
• What allyship really means
• Anti-blackness, racial stereotypes, and cultural appropriation
• Changing the way that you view and respond to race
• How to continue the work to create social change

Awareness leads to action, and action leads to change. For readers of White Fragility, White Rage, So You Want To Talk About Race, The New Jim Crow, How to Be an Anti-Racist and more who are ready to closely examine their own beliefs and biases and do the work it will take to create social change.

"Layla Saad moves her readers from their heads into their hearts, and ultimately, into their practice. We won’t end white supremacy through an intellectual understanding alone; we must put that understanding into action." ?Robin DiAngelo, author of New York Times bestseller White Fragility

"[A] rhythmic, playful romp through a restless child’s bedtime routine… a loving, effective lullaby."—Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

A sweet bedtime story from the award-winning author Nikki Grimes about a mother, her little boy, and their imagination-fueled and animal filled journey to get to sleep.

It’s bedtime. But Mommy’s little one is not sleepy.

He growls like a bear, he questions like an owl, he tosses his mane like a lion. He hunts for water like a sly wolf, and hides like a snake.

Mommy needs to wrangle her sweet creature for sleep in this endearing and imagination-fueled journey to bedtime, from Children’s Literature Legacy Award-winning author Nikki Grimes and acclaimed illustrator Elizabeth Zunon.

"The mother’s loving understanding is demonstrated by how she works with her child’s rich imagination, never slipping into admonishment. As such, children will engage with the pajama-clad tot’s antics and be soothed by the book’s positive tone. A fabulous interpretation of an everyday battle."—Booklist, STARRED review

Told from two viewpoints, Atlanta high school seniors Lena and Campbell, one black, one white, must rely on each other to survive after a football rivalry escalates into a riot.

A new collection of poetry for kids from Coretta Scott King Book Award winner Eloise Greenfield!

Thinker isn’t just an average puppy—he’s a poet. So is his owner, Jace. Together, they turn the world around them into verse.

There’s just one problem: Thinker has to keep quiet in public, and he can’t go to school with Jace. That is, until Pets’ Day. But when Thinker is allowed into the classroom at last, he finds it hard to keep his true identity a secret.

Praise for Thinker:
"Coretta Scott King Award-winner Greenfield sensitively conveys Jace’s anxiety about being perceived as different, and his realization that being true to one’s self is the best bet—for kids and dog poets, too."—Publishers Weekly
A Kate Greenaway Medal nominee

"A lush, beautifully written story about the indelible mark of first love. Intelligent, fresh, and utterly lovely."?KRISTAN HIGGINS for Back to Your LoveFake engagements are a dangerous business.Bryan James’s job is on thin ice unless he can secure a contract with a popular design house. He knows his best friend’s sister can help?but her terms are more than he bargained for.Alexis Devers’s debut fashion line is a hit. But when Alexis’s publicist tells buyers that it landed her a wealthy, gorgeous fiancé, Alexis needs to come up with one?fast. Bryan’s offer to strike a deal is perfectly timed. She’s more than willing?on one condition… It’s the perfect plan…until feelings start getting in the way. Suddenly, the dangers of mixing business and pleasure become much more real than either of them expected.The Southern Gentlemen series:
Back to Your Love (Book 1)
Couldn’t Ask for More (Book 2)What People Are Saying About Back to Your Love:
"The romantic ride of a lifetime."?Heroes and Heartbreakers
"Worth every moment…true depth of feeling."?Harlequin Junkies
"A strong introduction to a new series."?RT Book Reviews, 4 Stars

Hear voices contemporary and classic as selected by New York Times bestselling author Nikki Giovanni

Award-winning poet and writer Nikki Giovanni takes on the impossible task of selecting the 100 best African American works from classic and contemporary poets. Out of necessity, Giovanni admits she cheats a little, selecting a larger, less round number.

The result is this startlingly vibrant collection that spans from historic to modern, from structured to freeform, and reflects the rich roots and visionary future of African American verse. These magnetic poems are an exciting mix of most-loved classics and daring new writing. From Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes to Tupac Shakur, Natasha Trethewey, and many others, the voice of a culture comes through in this collection, one that is as talented, diverse, and varied as its people.

African American poems are like all other poems: beautiful, loving, provocative, thoughtful, and all those other adjectives I can think of. Poems know no boundaries. They, like all Earth citizens, were born in some country, grew up on some culture, then in their blooming became citizens of the Universe. Poems fly from heart to heart, head to head, to whisper a dream, to share a condolence, to congratulate, and to vow forever. The poems are true. They are translated and they are celebrated. They are sung, they are recited, they are delightful. They are neglected. They are forgotten. They are put away. Even in their fallow periods they sprout images. And fight to be revived. And spring back to life with a bit of sunshine and caring.
-Nikki Giovanni

Read

• Gwendolyn Brooks
• Kwame Alexander
• Tupac Shakur
• Langston Hughes
• Mari Evans
• Kevin Young
• Asha Bandele
• Amiri Baraka

Hear

• Ruby Dee
• Novella Nelson
• Nikki Giovanni
• Elizabeth Alexander
• Marilyn Nelson
• Sonia Sanchez

And many, many, more

Nikki Giovanni is an award-winning poet, writer, and activist. She is the author of more than two dozen books for adults and children, including Bicycles, Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea, Racism 101, Blues: For All the Changes, and Love Poems. Her children's book-plus-audio compilation Hip Hop Speaks to Children was awarded the NAACP Image Award. Her children's book Rosa, a picture-book retelling of the Rosa Parks story, was a Caldecott Honor Book and winner of the Coretta Scott King Award. Both books were New York Times bestsellers. Nikki is a Grammy nominee for her spoken-word album The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection and has been nominated for the National Book Award. She has been voted Woman of the Year by Essence, Mademoiselle, and Ladies' Home Journal. She is a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, where she teaches writing and literature.

An Excerpt
From the Introduction:

Poems are like clouds on a June morning or two scoops of chocolate ice cream on a sugar cone in August...something everyone can enjoy. Or maybe poems are your cold feet in December on your lover's back...he is in agony but he lets your feet stay...something like that requires a bit of love. Or could it be that poems are exactly like Santa Claus...the promise, the hope, the excitement of a reward, no matter how small, for a good deed done...or a mean deed from which we refrained. The promise of tomorrow. I don't know. It seems that poems are essential. Like football to Fall, baseball to Spring, tennis to Summer, love Anytime. Something you don't think too much about until it is in Season. Then you deliciously anticipate the perfection. African American poems are like all other poems: beautiful, loving, provocative, thoughtful, and all those other adjectives I can think of.

Poems know no boundaries. They, like all Earth citizens, were born in some country, grew up on some culture, then in their blooming became citizens of the Universe. Poems fly from heart to heart, head to head, to whisper a dream, to share a condolence, to congratulate, and to vow forever. The poems are true. They are translated and they are celebrated. They are sung, they are recited, they are delightful. They are neglected. They are forgotten. They are put away. Even in their fallow periods they sprout images. And fight to be revived. And spring back to life with a bit of sunshine and caring.

These poems, this book, admit I cheated. The idea of this and no more would simply not work for me. I needed these plus those. My mother's favorite poem by Robert Hayden, plus James Weldon Johnson beginning a world that included the longing of the unfree for a loving God. My own fun "Ego Tripping" reaching to embrace Margaret Walker's "For My People." "Train Rides" and "Nikki-Rosa" read by old and loving friends. But also the newness: Novella Nelson lending that sultry voice to the youngsters; Ruby Dee bringing her brilliance to the Gwendolyn Brooks cycle. My Virginia Tech Family wanted to participate: our president Dr. Charles Steger reading "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," recognizing all our souls "have grown deep like the rivers." We celebrate our Hips; we See A Negro Lady at a birthday celebration. Our friends from James Madison University and West Virginia University came to celebrate poetry with us, too. I love these poems so much. The only other thing I would have loved is Caroline Kennedy reading "A Clean Slate."

At the end of a loving day of laughter in Jeff Dalton's studio, when Clinton's makeup had taken forty years off some of us and twenty-five off others, we all came together with one last great cry: the Dean of our College; the Director of Honors; young, old, professional, professor, and recited in one great voice "We Real Cool." Yeah. We are. This book says Poetry Is For Everyone. What a Treat to be Snowbound with The 100* Best African American Poems (*but I cheated).

I did cheat.
It's true.
But I did not lie.

Nikki Giovanni Poet
12 December 2009

Table of Contents

Dedication: The Aunt: xxi — Track 1
Mari Evans

1. For My People: 1 — Track 2
Margaret Walker

2. Leroy: 3
Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)

3. Ars Poetica: Nov. 7, 2008: 4
L. Lamar Wilson

4. Ka'Ba: 8
Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)

5. When You Have Forgotten Sunday: The Love Story: 9 — Track 3
Gwendolyn Brooks

6.
The Sermon on the Warpland: 11 — Track 4
Gwendolyn Brooks We Real Cool: 12 — Track 5
Gwendolyn Brooks

7.
Jazz Baby Is It In You: 13
Antoine Harris
"I Fade Into the Night": 14
Adam Daniel

8. Old Lem: 15 — Track 6
Sterling A. Brown

9. I Am Accuse of Tending to the Past: 17 — Track 7
Lucille Clifton

10. I Am A Black Woman: 18 — Track 8
Mari Evans

11. Who Can Be Born Black?: 20 — Track 9
Mari Evans

12. Nikka-Rosa:21 — Track 10
Nikki Giovanni

13. Knoxville, Tennessee: 23 — Track 11
Nikki Giovanni

14. The Dry Spell: 24 — Track 12
Kevin Young

15. Those Winter Sundays: 26 — Tracks 13 & 14
Robert Hayden

16. Frederic Douglass: 27
Robert Hayden

17. The Negro Speaks of Rivers: 28 — Track 15
Langston Hughes

18. Choosing the Blues: 29
Angela Jackson

19. My Father's Love Letters: 30
Yusef Komunyakaa

20. The Creation: 32 — Track 16
James Weldon Johnson

21. A Negro Love Song: 36
Paul Laurence Dunbar

22. Lift Every Voice and Sing: 37
James Weldon Johnson

23. Go Down Death: 39
James Weldon Johnson

24. Between Ourselves: 42
Audre Lorde

25. The Union of Two: 45
Haki R. Madhubuti

26. Ballad of Birmingham: 46
Dudley Randall

27. A Poem to Complement Other Poems: 48
Haki R. Madhubuti

28. No Images: 51
Waring Cuney

29. Between the World and Me: 52
Richard Wright

30. Theme for English B: 54
Langston Hughes

31. Harlem Suite
Easy Boogie: 56
Langston Hughes Dream Boogie: 57
Langston Hughes Dream Boogie: Variation: 58
Langston Hughes Harlem: 58
Langston Hughes Good Morning: 59
Langston Hughes Same in Blues: 60
Langston Hughes Island: 61
Langston Hughes

32. The Blue Terrance: 62
Terrance Hayes

33.
The Mother: 64 — Track 17
Gwendolyn Brooks A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon: 66
Gwendolyn Brooks — Track 18
The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till: 72
Gwendolyn Brooks A Sunset of the City: 73 — Track 19
Gwendolyn Brooks

34. Things I Carried Coming to the World: 75
Remica L. Bingham

35. Topography: 77
Remica L. Bingham

36. Beneath Me: 79
Jericho Brown

37. Autobiography: 80
Jericho Brown

38. Parable of the Sower: 82
Pamela Sneed

39. Heritage: 86
Countee Cullen

40. Yet I Do Marvel: 91 — Track 20
Countee Cullen

41. Incident: 92 — Track 21
Countee Cullen

42. We Wear the Mask: 93 — Track 22
Paul Laurence Dunbar

43. Triple: 94
Georgia Douglas Johnson

44. The Heart of a Woman: 95 — Track 23
Georgia Douglas Johnson

45. Woman With Flower: 96
Naomi Long Madgett

46. The Idea of Ancestry: 97
Etheridge Knight

47. Don't Say Goodbye to the Porkpie Hat: 99
Larry Neal

48. Cleaning: 105
Camille T. Dungy

49. Boston Year: 106 — Track 24
Elizabeth Alexander

50. She Wears Red: 107
Jackie Warren-Moore

51. Commercial Break: Road-Runner, Uneasy: 110
Tim Seibles

52. Before Making Love: 114
Toi Derricotte

53. Be-Bop: 115
Sterling Plumpp

54. Personal Letter No. 3: 116 — Track 25
Sonia Sanchez

55. Poem at Thirty: 117 — Track 26
Sonia Sanchez

56. A Poem for Sterling Brown: 118 — Track 27
Sonia Sanchez

57. Marchers Headed for Washington, Baltimore, 1963: 120
Remica L. Bingham

58. And Yeah...This is a Love Poem: 123
Nikki Giovanni

59. The Carousel: 123
Gloria C. Oden

60. Only Everything I Own: 127
Patricia Smith

61. Lot's Daughter Dreams of Her Mother: 128 — Track 28
Opal Moore

62. The Girlfriend's Train: 131
Nikky Finney

63. Back from the Arms of Big Mama: 136
Afaa Michael Weaver

64. Mama's Promise: 139 — Track 29
Marilyn Nelson

65. Bop: A Whistling Man: 142
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon

66. Homage to My Hips: 144 — Track 30
Lucille Clifton

67. Train Ride: 145
Kwame Dawes

68. Train Rides: 148 — Track 31
Nikki Giovanni

69. A Great Grandaddy Speaks: 153
Lamonte B. Steptoe

70. Eddie Priest's Barbershop & Notary: 154
Kevin Young

71. View of the Library of Congress From Paul Laurence Dunbar High School: 156
Thomas Sayers Ellis

72. Drapery Factory, Gulfport, Mississippi, 1956: 159 — Track 32
Natasha Trethewey

73. Some Kind of Crazy: 161
Major Jackson

74. From: 163
A. Van Jordan

75. Freedom Candy: 165
E. Ethelbert Miller

76. The Supremes: 167
Cornelius Eady

77. Jazz Suite
Nikki Save Me: 169
Michael Scott
"Nikki, If You Were a Song...": 170 — Track 33
Kwame Alexander Haiku: 170
DJ Renegade Untitled: 170
Nadir Lasana Bomani
"I Wish I Could've Seen It...": 171
Leodis McCray

78. That Some Mo': 174
DJ Renegade

79. Sometime in the Summer There's October: 175
Tony Medina

80. Dancing Naked on the Floor: 178
Kwame Alexander

81. Harriet Tubman's Email 2 Master: 180
Truth Thomas

82. A River That Flows Forever: 181 — Track 34
Tupac Shakur

83. The Rose that Grew from Concrete: 181 — Track 34
Tupac Shakur

84. Rochelle: 182
Reuben Jackson

85. All Their Stanzas Look Alike: 183
Thomas Sayers Ellis

86. From the Center to the Edge: 185
Asha Bandele

87. The Subtle Art of Breathing: 187
Asha Bandele

88. Southern University, 1963: 192
Kevin Young

89. Poetry Should Ride the Bus: 195
Ruth Forman

90. Blues for Spring: 197
Colleen J. McElroy

91. The Bicycle Wizard: 198
Sharon Strange

92. Bicycles: 199
Nikki Giovanni

93. A Clean Slate: 200
Fred D'Aguiar

94. Song Through the Wall: 201
Akua Lezli Hope

95. A Seat Saved: 203
Shana Yarborough

96. Sunday Greens: 205
Rita Dove

97. The Untitled Superhero Poem: 206
Tonya Maria Matthews

98. Mercy Killing: 209 — Track 35
Remica L. Bingham

99. If You Saw a Negro Lady: 210
June Jordan

100. Ego Tripping (There May Be a Reason Why): 212 — Track 36
Nikki Giovanni

From a top young adult literary agent, the only guide on how to write for young adults With an 87 percent increase in the number of titles published in the last two years, the young adult market is one of the healthiest segments in the industry. Despite this, little has been written to help authors hone their craft to truly connect with this audience. Writing Great Books for Young Adults gives writers the advice they need to tap this incredible market. Topics covered include: Listening to the voices of youth Meeting your young protagonist Developing a writing style Constructing plots Trying on points of view Agent Regina Brooks has developed award-winning authors across the YA genre, including a Coretta Scott King winner. She attends more than 20 conferences each year, meeting with authors and teaching.

NOW A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND INCLUDED IN THE BOOKLIST TOP 10 ART BOOKS FOR YOUTH! Our consensus is Hip Hop Speaks to Children is the most essential poetry purchase to make this year.
The poetry is enough.
The illustrations are enough.
The CD is enough.
Together, this book is a treasure of which you cannot get enough.
We shall accomplish much this year. Children will be encouraged to put their words to poetry and beats. Teachers will be encouraged to allow the artists to speak to children.
—Diane Chen, School Library Journal blog "Practically Paradise" ————————————————————————————————————————————— Hip Hop Speaks to Children is a celebration of poetry with a beat. Poetry can have both a rhyme and a rhythm. Sometimes it is obvious; sometimes it is hidden. But either way, make no mistake, poetry is as vibrant and exciting as it gets. And when you find yourself clapping your hands or tapping your feet, you know you’ve found poetry with a beat! Like Poetry Speaks to Children, the New York Times Bestselling classic poetry book and CD that started it all, Hip Hop Speaks to Children is meant to be the beginning of a journey of discovery. READ more than 50 remarkable poems and songs! HEAR poetry’s rhymes and rhythms from Queen Latifah to Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes to A Tribe Called Quest and more! * Also hear part of Martin Luther Kind’s original "I Have a Dream" speech, followed by the remarkable live performance of the speech by Nikki Giovanni, Oni Lasana and Val Gray Ward. * The Hip Hop Speaks to Children CD contains more than 30 performances, either by the artists who created them, or as unique interpretations by admiring poets and artists. DISCOVER Langston Hughes’s elegant gospel "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," A Tribe Called Quest’s playful "Ham ’N’ Eggs," Sterling A. Brown’s hard-luck "Long Track Blues," Gwendolyn Brooks’s wake-up call "We Real Cool," Kanye West’s lovely "Hey Mama," and Martin Luther King Jr.’s awe-inspiring "I Have a Dream." This is a collection of rhymes and rhythms unlike any other poetry book! Celebrate with remarkable poets, including:
Eloise Greenfield
Mos Def
Lucille Clifton
Oscar Brown Jr.
Tupac Shakur
Maya Angelou
Queen Latifah
Nikki Grimes
Walter Dean Myers
Common
and, of course, Nikki Giovanni Poems Include:
Ego Tripping
Rapper’s Delight
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Hey Mama
Ham ’N’ Eggs
Everything Is Everything
Ladies First MORE PRAISE FOR HIP HOP SPEAKS TO CHILDREN "With its archival recordings of poems read by the poets themselves, [Hip Hop] reminds everyone that poetry springs from an oral tradition."
—Publishers Weekly "This is the way to get children interested in reading and loving poetry. … A great book for both teachers and parents."
— Valerie Lewis, owner of Hicklebee’s children’s bookstore "The poems, the artwork, the CD…all complement each other to create a wonderful experience."
—Becky Laney, Becky Laney’s Books blog "Love this book. I think it is a K-8 must-have for classrooms and libraries. Like I said it is packed and it may be (at first) intimidating to young readers. But, once they hear some of the audio, spend time with the illustrations, and experience some of the poetry, I think it will become a favorite."
—Franki Sibberson, A Year of Reading blog "Hip Hop Speaks to Children is a wonderfully composed collection of poems from writers like Eloise Greenfield to late rapper and poet, Tupac Shakur. … Whether you read poetry or you hear it in a rap song, Giovanni’s genius endeavor will inspire children of all ages to have fun while listening to poetry. Rap is poetry, right?"
—Amy Bowllan, Amy Bowllan’s Blog (a School Library Journal Blog) "I highly recommend this one for all collections. If the title didn’t include the word "children" it’d be an excellent book all the way to high school. My coworkers and I are already talking about doing a Hip Hop poetry story time for our elementary school kids."
—Jennifer Rothschild, Biblio File blog "This is an incredibly powerful, beautiful and important book. Both the book and CD are stellar in quality and diversity. The artwork is amazing and I find myself pulling it out of the shelf over and over for just one more re-read. The grandchildren (ages 3 and 5) love it as well and ask to hear the CD while they pore over the pages and take breaks prancing around the room

Yes, no matter what the weather or the quarterly forecast, it’s always the best of all worlds to be the boss…

?The boss said what??!!

?A laugh a minute at the crazy world of the workplace, whether the boss is making you wash his car, locking you in your cubicle or booby trapping the office supplies cabinet.

Charlos Gary is a nationally syndicated cartoonist with Creators Syndicate whose current series, Working It Out, appears weekly in over 35 newspapers nationwide. Charlos Gary, syndicated cartoonist with Creators Syndicate, provides a laugh a minute and the perfect gift for coworkers, whether the boss is asking you to wash his car, locking you in your cubicle, booby trapping the office supplies cabinet or firing someone on the same day they’re closing on their new house.