Nikki Grimes’s One
Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance is a very special collection
of poetry that acknowledges the artistic energy of the 1920s in Harlem and adds
to it in a wondrous way. By pairing poetry of that era with her own poems,
Grimes lends a fresh voice to the earlier powerful expression of African
American life and culture. Countee Cullen, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Clara Ann Thompson, and
Langston Hughes are among the poets Grimes includes. In her poems she uses a
poetic form called the golden shovel, whereby she takes one line or stanza from
a poem she admires and uses each word as an ending word in the lines of her new
poem. Each poem is illustrated by full-color artwork
by contemporary African American creators: Cozbi Cabrera, R. Gregory Christie,
Pat Cummings, Jan Spivey Gilchrist, Ebony Glenn, E. B. Lewis,
Frank Morrison, Christopher Myers, Brian Pinkney, Sean Qualls, James Ransome,
Javaka Steptoe, Shadra Strickland, Elizabeth Zunon, and the author herself. The results are resonant and thought-provoking, as good poetry always is.
Ages 10-14.
Nikki Grimes was recently awarded the Laura Ingalls
Wilder Medal, which “honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in
the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting
contribution to literature for children."
