By Judith Ortiz Cofer
Illustrations by Oscar Ortiz
Published by: Piñata Books
This is a story about a little girl named Juliana. It is a cold day and she stays home from school because she is ill. As she looks out her window she sees a tall lady carrying a stack of books upstairs. Juliana’s mother discloses that the lady is a poet. The following day Juliana is invited upstairs to meet the poet. With this, Juliana’s current world is unlocked to include poetry and imagination.
Together the poet and Juliana begin to write a poem about a river that leads into the sea. This opens up a new world for Juliana as she begins to see how words change into pictures of the mind. Juliana quickly begins to learn that words, carefully selected, can create a beautiful story to change her current environment and take her to a totally different place.
The author has done a wonderful job in bringing poetry and imagination into a child’s world through a true-life story. This a great journey of imagination. With this story, the author has opened up possibilities to poetry without overwhelming a young reader, but yet provides some insight into this writing approach.
The writing and flow of the story was easy to follow. The illustrations had a modernistic look and complimented the story. This was a good story line that captured the essence of a child’s world and brought art and poetry together.
This particular book is in Spanish; however, the English version was originally published as The Poet Upstairs.
Source: Book was provided by publisher for review. It was reviewed by Corina Martinez Chaudhry.
