Cardholders in 9th through 12th grade are invited to ‘Learn the Power of Poetry’ with author Elizabeth Acevedo on Tuesday, July 23. The Poet X, Acevedo’s bestselling novel-in-verse, will serve as the backdrop for this virtual conversation that will also include a Q&A and short reading.
The Poet X is about Xiomara Batista, an Afro-Latina heroine who tells her story with blazing words and powerful truth. Xiomara feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood but she has plenty she wants to say and pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook until she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club. While Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself, in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, she refuses to be silent.
The Poet X was the winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Carnegie medal, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and the Walter Award. Acevedo, a National Poetry Slam Champion, is also the author of numerous other titles including Family Lore: With the Fire on High, which was named a best book of the year by the New York Public Library, NPR, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal, as well as Clap When You Land, a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor book and Kirkus finalist. |
