ARTIST’S STATEMENT | HANNAH EJ TESSONO

The delightful picture that graces the cover of MRA Today 2023 is a watercolor drawn by Hannah EJ Tessono, the daughter of Nadege Tessono Okotie, who is the graphic designer for MRA’s publications. The focal point of Hannah’s watercolor is a rainbow, which she drew because rainbows are “nice, pretty, and sweet.” Additional images in Hannah’s watercolor are a purple heart, a sun, clouds, a butterfly, and birds. Finally, Hannah wrote a most enjoyable poem about rainbows to complete her cover drawing.

Please enjoy the photograph below of Hannah, hard at work on her watercolor for the cover of MRA Today 2023 as well as an interview with Hannah regarding her thoughts for choosing watercolors to create her cover illustration.

Hannah is a budding artist who is only seven years old but already making her mark in the world of art. Hannah attends Willett Elementary School in Attleboro, where she is in the first grade.

She enjoys painting with her mother and learning new techniques from her. Despite her young age, Hannah already has a deep appreciation for the beauty in the world around her and a desire to express it through her art. Her talent, creativity, and passion for art make her a rising star in the art world, and we can’t wait to see what she creates next.

An Interview with Nikki Grimes

Valerie Harlow Shinas And Nikki Grimes

For this issue of MRA Today, we looked for ideas and inspiration that will help teachers bring the beauty of poetry and poetic genres into their classrooms. Who better to turn to for inspiration than Nikki Grimes, the 2023 MRA Children’s Literature Award recipient? We asked Ms. Grimes to share her thoughts and wisdom with us – read on and be inspired.

1. We understand that you began writing poetry as a young child. What inspired you to begin writing poetry? What were some of your favorite topics to write about? (V. S.)

Oh! I can tell you haven’t read my memoir. I didn’t come to poetry as play, or hobby, or because of a fascination with language, although that fascination was there. I came to poetry out of a deep sense of despair and a desperate need to excise the dark thoughts and feelings I harbored as a child of trauma. Poetry helped me to expel those thoughts and feelings, put them on the page where they could do me no harm. The idea of poetry as play came much, much later in life, once I began to heal from the trauma of my childhood.

As for favorite topics, I had none as such. I just wrote out whatever I needed to get off my chest, whatever I needed to give expression to. Writing poetry has always been how I make sense of the world, how I make sense of my life. In many ways, it still is though now I’m as apt to write about Black children engaging in nature, or the everyday joyful escapades of a toddler as I am about being caught in the foster care system, or the challenges of being an immigrant, or any variety of social-justice issues written in my own voice, or the voices of women poets of the past. I choose my topics based on where I see lack of representation. A lack of books featuring boys wrestling with body image issues? Garvey’s Choice (Grimes, 2016). Few books featuring Black characters engaged with nature. Southwest Sunrise (Grimes, 2020) and the forthcoming A Walk in the Woods (Grimes, 2023). Nothing for young readers celebrating female poets of the past? Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance (Grimes, 2021), and so on. I look for the gaps in the literature, and I work to fill them. That’s what drives me. (N. G.)

2. Where do the ideas for your writing originate? What inspires you? (V.S.)

I think I’ve answered that one!

3. Do you have a favorite poet? (V. S.)

I don’t imagine any living poet has a single favorite! That said, mine include Lucille Clifton, Mary Oliver, and Naomi Shihab Nye. My personal library is filled with books by these poets. (N. G.)

4. Your books and poetry have inspired generations of teachers and children to read, write, and learn from poetry, and you are committed to teachers and students. We were struck by the abundant resources you share with teachers via your website. How do you encourage teachers to teach poetry?

Poetry speaks to both our IQ and our EQ, and so I talk to teachers about the power of poetry to soothe, to heal, to entertain, to awaken a love of both language and story. I talk about poetry—especially in the form of novels in verse—as a tool for literacy. There’s something about all that white space in a verse novel that invites the most reluctant reader to the page. Their fear or hesitancy about reading is diminished when they see those spare lines in that sea of white. That’s a sea they’re not afraid to dive into and, before they know it, they’re hooked on reading. They’ve discovered a new love, and it’s poetry! For many readers, a novel in verse is the first novel they’ve ever completed. And I talk about the diversity of verse now available for readers of every age and interest level. Name a subject, and there’s likely at least one or two collections of poetry on it. There is, quite literally, poetry for everyone, so there’s every reason for students and teachers to explore it—and no reason not to. (N. G.)

5. What advice would you give to young people who write poetry and hope to become published poets one day? (V. S.)

Read, read, read! There are a vast number of forms of poetry. How will you know which forms you like if you don’t explore them all? Don’t stop at free verse or haiku. There’s nearly an entire alphabet of poetry forms, from Acrostic to Concrete, from Found to Free Verse, from Rap to Sonnet, from Tanka to Word Play—and many forms in between. Try at least a few of them on for size.

Set rhyme aside and focus on metaphor, on the idea of painting a picture with words. Most people use the words rhyme and poetry interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. Rhyme is an element of poetry, but poetry is not an element of rhyme. Poetic elements include assonance, consonance, repetition, alliteration, metaphor, and simile among others. Poetry is much richer than just rhyme. And, by the way, good rhyme is very hard to do! It’s a very exacting element, and very few poets do it well. Everyone, though, can learn to paint a picture using words, and to my mind, that’s truly the heart of poetry.

Finally, before setting out to write a poem, figure out what you want your poem to be about, what idea you want to share, what story you want to tell. Otherwise, you’ll end up stringing words together that may sound pretty but that have no meaning, and what’s the point of that?

Like most good things, poetry is fun but it also takes a bit of work. The work is worth it, though! You’ll see. (N. G.)

References

Grimes, N. (2016). Garvey’s choice. Windsong.

Grimes, N. (2020). Southwest sunrise. Bloomsbury Children’s Books.

Grimes, N. (2021). Legacy: Women poets of the Harlem Renaissance. Bloomsbury Children’s Books.

Grimes, N. (2023, September). A walk in the woods. Porter Books – Holiday House.

Editors’ Note: The in-text citations and the reference list were added by the editors of MRA Today 2023.

About The Authors

Valerie Harlow Shinas is an associate professor at Lesley University, where she is chairperson of the Ph.D. in Educational Studies Department. Valerie is past president of the Massachusetts Reading Association (MRA) and the Massachusetts Association of College and University Reading Educators (MACURE). She currently serves on MRA’s Executive Board as Immediate Past CoPresident and Co-Editor of MRA Publications.

Nikki Grimes is a New York Times bestselling author and recipient of the 2022 Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2020 ALAN Award for outstanding contributions to young adult literature, the 2017 Children’s Literature Legacy Award, the 2016 Virginia Hamilton Literary Award, and the 2006 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. Her distinguished works include the much-honored books Garvey’s Choice, ALA Notable book Southwest Sunrise, Coretta Scott King Award winner Bronx Masquerade, five Coretta Scott King Author Honor books, Printz and Siebert Honor winner Ordinary Hazards, Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor One Last Word, its companion Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance, and NYT Bestseller Kamala Harris: Rooted in Justice. Creator of the popular Meet Danitra Brown, Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel, Bedtime for Sweet Creatures, and Off to See the Sea, Ms. Grimes lives in Corona, California.