Imagine
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4.2 • 5 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
A buoyant, breathtaking poem from Juan Felipe Herrera — brilliantly illustrated by Caldecott Honoree Lauren Castillo — speaks to every dreaming heart. Have you ever imagined what you might be when you grow up? When he was very young, Juan Felipe Herrera picked chamomile flowers in windy fields and let tadpoles swim across his hands in a creek. He slept outside and learned to say good-bye to his amiguitos each time his family moved to a new town. He went to school and taught himself to read and write English and filled paper pads with rivers of ink as he walked down the street after school. And when he grew up, he became the United States Poet Laureate and read his poems aloud on the steps of the Library of Congress. If he could do all of that . . . what could you do? With this illustrated poem of endless possibility, Juan Felipe Herrera and Lauren Castillo breathe magic into the hopes and dreams of readers searching for their place in life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Each stanza of this verse memoir by former U.S. Poet Laureate Herrera ends with the word "imagine." Is it a sigh, or is it an imperative? "If I let tadpoles/ swim across my hands/ in the wavy creek,/ imagine," he writes about his early childhood. Entering his English-speaking school was a challenge he spoke Spanish yet language fascinated him, and he began to write stories, poems, and songs: "If I grabbed a handful/ of words/ I had never heard and/ sprinkled them over a paragraph... imagine." As an adult, he stood on the steps of the Library of Congress as poet laureate. Now he fills out the sentence that begins with the word imagine: "Imagine what you could do." Spacious, light-filled spreads by Castillo (Nana in the City) conjure up landscapes of red earth, bright sun, and long views. Herrera writes of the joy of creation and discovery, and says little about the hardships he must have undergone. The story of a brown-skinned boy who "practiced/ spelling words/ in English by/ saying them in Spanish/ like pehn-seel for/ pencil" reaching recognition as the nation's most lauded poet offers a heartening narrative of hope: "imagine." Ages 5 9. Illustrator's)
Customer Reviews
Dream high
Beautiful book about accomplishing your dreams one step at a time. 5 ⭐️.