The Poet Upstairs
Nov 2012 · Arte Publico Press
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About this ebook
Juliana is too sick to go to school one cold, winter day. So she stays at home in bed and looks out her bedroom window. She watches as a tall lady in a red coat and hat carries her boxes of books and papers upstairs. Her mother has heard that the mysterious woman is a poet writing a book. Juliana loves books and canÍt wait to meet the poet upstairs. Juliana listens to the poetÍs typewriter clicking and clacking all day long, while outside the snow falls and people rush by bundled up in their coats. She dreams of a tiny tropical island ñsitting on the ocean like a green button on a blue dress,î the island home that her mother and the poet share. She dreams of red hibiscus flowers and beaches of white sand. The next day, she receives an invitation from the poet to come upstairs. Together, they write a poem about a big river that leads to the sea. As they make pictures with words, the walls of the cold apartment become a beautiful vista of mountains, palm trees, birds and flowers. That special day, poetry takes Juliana from her cold and ordinary apartment to a sparkling island habitat. Invoking Puerto Rican poet Julia de BurgosÍ famous poem about the Loiza River, Ortiz CoferÍs lyrical text is combined with Oscar OrtizÍs breathtaking illustrations of the natural world and the animals that inhabit it. This inspiring picture book for children ages 5 to 9 demonstrates the power of the written word as Juliana learns that poetry can change the world.
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About the author
æJUDITH ORTIZ COFER, a poet, novelist and essayist, is the author of numerous award-winning books, including An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio (Orchid Books 1995, Penguin, 1997), recipient of the 1995 Pura Belpr? Award, ALAÍs Best Books for Young Adults and The Horn Book/Fanfare Best Book of the Year List. Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood (Arte PÏblico Press 1991) received a PEN citation, the Martha Albrand Award for non-fiction, and a Pushart Prize for the essay ñMore Room.î She is the recipient of the 1999 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People for the book The Year of Our Revolution. Most recently, she has published a bilingual book for children, çA bailar! / LetÍs Dance! (PiÐata Books, 2011); Animal Jamboree: Latino Folktales / La fiesta de los animals: leyendas latinas (PiÐata Books, 2012), a bilingual collection of Puerto Rican folktales for middle readers, and The Poet Upstairs (PiÐata Books, 2012), an inspiring picture book that demonstrates how poetry can change the world. The Spanish version, La poeta del piso de arriba, was published by PiÐata Books in 2014. The Emeritus RegentsÍ and Franklin Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Georgia, she has recently retired to focus on her writing. OSCAR ORTIZ was born in Manhattan, New York, USA in 1964. He started painting and selling his pieces back in 2002. Eventually he moved into selling prints and licensing his art all over the world, represented in part by Bridgeman Art Library and similar venues. OscarÍs paintings have graced calendars, CDs, magazines, posters and others. Organizations, like UNESCO, have used his images for several purposes. Among his most recent projects are: illustrating an award winning children book, The Poet Upstairs, by Judith Ortiz Cofer, published by Arte PÏblico and released on November 30th, 2012. He also illustrated a text book for National Geographic Learning. Each day, he drinks fresh brewed black coffee at 3 PM so as to stay rooted to his Puerto Rican upbringing. He is still dating his high school sweetheart after 28 years of marriage.
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