Best Selling Books by Arnold Adoff

Through poems and poetic prose pieces, acclaimed children''s author Arnold Adoff celebrates that uniquely American form of music called the blues. In his signature “shaped speech” style, he creates a narrative of moments and joyous music, from the drums of the ancestors, the red dirt of the plantations, the current of the mighty Mississippi, and the shackles, blood, and tears of slavery. Each chop of the ax is a beat, each lash of the whip fashions another line on the musical staff. But each sound also creates the chords and harmonies that preserve the ancestors and their stories, and sustain life, faith, and hope into our own times.

Malcolm X lived in difficult times - when some thought that black people were inferior to white people. But Malcolm believed that black people should stand up for their rights and he preached this belief everywhere he went. His message became popular because it was one of hope and pride. But it also became dangerous, because some people didn''t agree with him. In 1965, one of these people shot and killed him. Even though his life was cut short by hatred, Malcolm X''s ideas still affect people of all races. Here is his amazing story. An ALA Notable Children''s Book

Reflections on the poet''s love of food and eating.

This collection of poems, told from the perspective of a young girl, celebrates family life throughout the yearly cycle of seasons.

Brown-skinned momma, the color of chocolate milk and coffee pumpkin pie, whose face gets ginger red when she puffs and yells the children into bed. White-skinned daddy, not white like milk or snow, lighter than brown, With pinks and tiny tans, whose face gets tomato red when he puffs and yells their children into bed. Children who are all the colors of the race, growing up happy in a house full of love. This is the way it is for them; this is the way they are, but the joy they feel extends to every reader of this book. Black is brown is tan is a story poem about being, a beautiful true song about a family delighting in each other and in the good things of the earth.

Poems about the experiences and feelings of young athletes involved in various sports.

A six-year-old boy who wants to grow up fast learns a lesson about patience from his grandmother.

Poems on aspects of race or racial problems by well-known Negro poets, including Countee Cullen, Richard Wright, Leroi Jones, Langston Hughes, and James Weldon Johnson.

A big sister helps her little black brother realize his identity.

A young girl describes the joy and pride that running gives her.

A collection of twenty poems written by kids and klutzes, secret admirers and detractors, friends, enemies, and skeptics to the objects of their affection--or aversion.

A collection of poems about the sense of touch including a baby''s foot in one''s palm, peach fuzz on the lip, and the forehead against a cold window.

Unique word pictures of how it feels to be young and growing.

"Adoff addresses his poetry to modern, urban teens in a gritty, hip-hop style. He manages to create poetry from the universal concerns of love and loneliness, the specific teen concerns of acne and braces, and unpleasant realities like selling and taking drugs."--Booklist. "Telling, recognizable, and readable....Intriguing."--Bulletin of the Center for Children''s Books.