ACCESS DIGITIZED EDITION
Guide/Reviews Database
LITERATURE
Elliott, Zetta

A Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart

32 pp. | Farrar | July, 2020 | Trade ISBN 978-0-374-30741-7 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-374-38863-8 $9.99
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Noa Denmon. In this powerfully lyrical poem, Elliott articulates what resides "deep down inside" of the African American, skateboard-loving, first-person protagonist: joy, sorrow, fear, anger, hunger, pride, peace, and more. While the protagonist speaks, Denmon's illustrations, primarily in blue, pale yellow, and mauve, depict the tween boy doing skateboard tricks (showing the bottom of his board that's covered in peace and justice stickers) and spending time with friends, while muted backgrounds depict life in his urban neighborhood. This book delivers positivity, despite the inclusion of police brutality, a Black Lives Matter protest, and a vigil for the dead--all of which affirm the child's realities. At school, when he presents his work to his classmates, great figures such as Mae Jemison, Jackie Robinson, Louis Armstrong, Maya Angelou, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. appear on the opposite mural-like page, inspiring him as he takes pride in the past. On a page with no white space, a group of multigenerational Black individuals with different skin tones, facial features, hairstyles, and expressions faces the reader. The boy declares them "triumphant & beautiful," as faintly visible images of African women peer from the background, carrying baskets of food on their heads--referencing the ancestry of those in the foreground. A well-crafted, twenty-first-century love poem by two truth-telling Black women artists and activists.
Reviewer: Michelle H. Martin | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2020

RELATED 

LITERATURE

Delicious!
by Larios, Julie
LITERATURE

Book of Questions / Libros de las preguntas
by Neruda, Pablo
LITERATURE

Out of This World
by Walker, Sally M.
LITERATURE

Zoobilations!
by Florian, Douglas
LITERATURE

At the Pond
by Elliott, David
More

Get connected. Join our global community of more than 200,000 librarians and educators.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing.

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?