Ocean State Libraries

Acclaimed writer Walter Dean Myers celebrates the people of Harlem with these powerful and soulful first-person poems in the voices of the residents who make up the legendary neighborhood: basketball players, teachers, mail carriers, jazz artists, maids, veterans, nannies, students, and more. Exhilarating and electric, these poems capture the energy and resilience of a neighborhood and a people.

Thirty-two poems that reflect aspects of the African American experience.

A collection of poems which show angels guiding, comforting, and protecting African American children during milestones in their lives as well as in the course of everyday activities.

A collection of poems, accompanied by photographs, about African American children living around the turn of the century.

Thirteen prayers the author might have prayed as a child, prayers concerning the hopes, fears, longings and ordinary, everyday concerns touching a child's life.

Thirty-three poems written by a little girl in her sixth and seventh years relate the experiences of being black.

Poems for each month of the year celebrate the themes of family love, individuality, and Afro-American identity.