Young George Moses loved how words danced. When Bible verses were read, he listened. When children read books aloud, he listened. When songs were being sung beneath the hot sun, he listened. But George wanted to do more than listen to the music that words made when spoken. He wanted to read those words, too.
So George, by listening, learned the alphabet. Will he be able to read now? His mother gave him a book of hymns, but he couldn't read it. Not yet.
George found an old spelling book--tattered and torn--and night after night, despite being tired after working all day on his master's farm, George studied the letters. He sounded out the words. He worked until he had taught himself how to read those words. And soon words became sentences, sentences became paragraphs, paragraphs became stories. George was reading! And how he loved being able to read!
George read books. George read the Bible. George read poems. George read hymns. George read newspapers. George read anything he could get his hands on.
With all those words dancing inside George's head, a wondrous thing happened. Those words began to line up together into their very own song, a song of George's making, a song that needed to be heard aloud. George had become a poet, and not just any poet, but a poet of the finest kind. Now it was his own words that were dancing above the tilled fields like a musical breeze.
So George, by listening, learned the alphabet. Will he be able to read now? His mother gave him a book of hymns, but he couldn't read it. Not yet.
George found an old spelling book--tattered and torn--and night after night, despite being tired after working all day on his master's farm, George studied the letters. He sounded out the words. He worked until he had taught himself how to read those words. And soon words became sentences, sentences became paragraphs, paragraphs became stories. George was reading! And how he loved being able to read!
George read books. George read the Bible. George read poems. George read hymns. George read newspapers. George read anything he could get his hands on.
With all those words dancing inside George's head, a wondrous thing happened. Those words began to line up together into their very own song, a song of George's making, a song that needed to be heard aloud. George had become a poet, and not just any poet, but a poet of the finest kind. Now it was his own words that were dancing above the tilled fields like a musical breeze.
"When first my bosom glowed with hope, I gaz'd as from a mountain top On some delightful plain; But oh! how transient was the scene--It fled as though it had not been. And all my hopes were vain."
POET: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton, written and illustrated by the talented Don Tate, is a picture-book biography that every classroom should have. Students will see that even during the dark days of United States history African-Americans could read and write. It was slavery's chains and oppressive laws, especially after Nat Turner's rebellion in 1831, that stole their opportunity to do so. But they certainly had the ability. Language is a gift all humans normally possess, even the oppressed. And I am sure that any child today who struggles to read and write, no matter their ethnicity, will find George's determination to learn to be absolutely inspiring.
There is so much to love about this book. The color tones that Tate used mirror the brightness and joy that words infused into George's life. I love the illustrations where George stands tall while he is reciting his poems for college students. I love seeing George dressed in his finest as he wrote out his poems for the wife a professor, the one who helped him become published. And I absolutely love how the book's designer at Peachtree Publishers took George's poems and placed them about the page like they are dancing on the air.
There is so much to love about this book. The color tones that Tate used mirror the brightness and joy that words infused into George's life. I love the illustrations where George stands tall while he is reciting his poems for college students. I love seeing George dressed in his finest as he wrote out his poems for the wife a professor, the one who helped him become published. And I absolutely love how the book's designer at Peachtree Publishers took George's poems and placed them about the page like they are dancing on the air.
